Dísir bið þú þér dróttins mála
vera hollar í hugum;
viku eptir mun þér vilja þíns
alt at óskum gá.
Bið þú mála-dísir dróttins vera þér hollar í hugum; viku eptir mun alt gá þér at óskum vilja þíns.
Ask the confidential-dísir of the Lord to be gracious to you in their thoughts; one week later everything will go according to the desires of your will.
[1] Dísir: so papp15ˣ, 738ˣ, 1441ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ, ‘dysi’ 166bˣ, 167b 6ˣ, 214ˣ
[1] dísir ‘dísir, female spirits’: Not in 166bˣ, but in many other mss. The distribution of ‘dysi’ however is wide enough to suggest an archetype error. In pre-Christian belief, dísir were female tutelary spirits of the family or of an individual (Turville-Petre 1964, 221-6). Here they seem to have been transferred syncretically to a Christian context. — [1-2] mála-dísir dróttins ‘the confidential-dísir of the Lord’: It is not clear whether mála should be regarded as part of a cpd noun, or as a simplex. If the latter (see below), emendation is required. Falk (1914a, 15), Björn M. Ólsen (1915, 36), and Fidejstøl (1979, 42-3) understand mála-dísir as de diser sem taler med Gud ‘the dísir who talk with God’, that is, God’s confidantes; Falk compares málvinr ‘a friend one habitually talks to, a close friend, confidant’ (LP: málvina, málvinr). Skj B, followed by Skald, emends mála to málur acc. pl. (LP: mála ‘confidential female friend’), and construes bið þér dísir, dróttins málur ‘pray to the dísir, the Lord’s confidantes’. The mála-dísir or dróttins málur may be, Falk and Björn M. Ólsen suggest, virgin saints who have an intercessory role. Falk notes that they appear in Visio Tnugdali (Cahill 1983, 104-5), Visio Alberici (Mirra 1932, 99) and Visio Thurkilli (Schmidt 1978, 36), near the throne of God. For Fidjestøl’s and Amory’s views of the syncretic tendencies of Sól, particularly in this st., see Introduction.