Note to Anon Pét 20^VII

[5-8]: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends þýddi (l. 5) to þýddu and takes þrír postular skírir (l. 6) as the subject of the verb: tre herlige apostle fortolkede guds stemme som velbehag ‘three glorious Apostles interpreted God’s voice as satisfaction’. Kock (NN §1722) points out that this emendation is unnecessary, and instead emends sg. þjónar (l. 8) to þjóna (see Skald), and takes postular ... Elíás, Ebrón, and Móisi (ll. 6-8) as the cpd subject of that verb: ‘three Apostles, Elijah, Hebron, and Moses serve [sc. him]’. No mention is made of Ebrón in the parallel passage in Pétr quoted above (see Note [All]), but Móisi (dat. sg.) must be the object rather than the subject of the verb. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) translates: Ebron tjæner (står under) Moses (som gravens, underverdnens repræsentant) ‘Hebron serves (is subject to) Moses (as the representative of the grave/underworld)’. Neither Finnur nor Kock explain who or what they imagine this Hebron to be. Kahle (1898, 110) states that Hebron is the burial place of Moses. According to Deut. XXXIV.5-6, however, Moses was buried ‘in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth-peor’ and the site of his tomb is unknown (cf. Marchand 1976b, 113; Cross and Hill 1982, 110-11). Hebron is usually named as the place where Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are buried (cf., e.g., Adomnán, De locis sanctis II.viii-x, in Bieler 1958), and perhaps the poet of Pét (or Kahle, at least) assumed that if Moses shared a place in the limbus patrum with the patriarchs of the Old Covenant who awaited Christ’s Harrowing of Hell, then he may well have shared their earthly resting-place as well. However, if this is what Hebron refers to here, then the sense of þjónar Móisi ‘serves Moses’ is obscure (perhaps ‘is of use to, serves Moses [as his burial place?]’; cf. Fritzner: þjóna 2)

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Bieler, L., ed. 1958. ‘Adamnani de locis sanctis libri tres’. In Meehan 1958, 36-120. Rpt. 1965. In Itineraria et alia geographica, ed. P. Geyer, 175-234. CCSL 175.
6. Cross, James E. and Thomas D. Hill, eds. 1982. The Prose Solomon and Saturn and Adrian and Ritheus. McMaster Old English Studies and Texts 1. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
7. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
8. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.
9. Marchand, James W. 1976b. ‘The Old Icelandic Joca Monachorum’. MS 9, 99-126.
10. Internal references
11. 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Harðar saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 919-944. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=38> (accessed 24 April 2024)
12. David McDougall 2007, ‘ Anonymous, Pétrsdrápa’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 796-844. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1038> (accessed 24 April 2024)