Note to Anon Mdr 17^VII

[2] fullrunnin ‘overflowing’: The 399a-bˣ copyist read fullrunnum with certainty. This participial adj. may be construed with megni miskunnar to give the prose arrangement fagnaðu mær af fullrunnum megni miskunnar ‘rejoice maiden from the overflowing power of mercy’. However, Rydberg read fullrunnin and this may be taken as f. nom. sg., agreeing with mær ‘maiden’. Fullrunnin af megni miskunnar ‘overflowing with the power of mercy’ is likely to be a calque on the familiar Marian epithet gratia plena ‘full of grace’, which originates in the Ave Maria, Gabriel’s words at the Annunciation (Luke I.28). Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) reconstructs miskunnar full brunni, translating glæd dig kraftig, mø, fuld af nådens kilde ‘rejoice strongly, maiden, full from the spring of mercy’. Kock (NN §1642) accepts Finnur’s reconstruction, but dismisses his translation, on the grounds that det är fagna, icke fullr, sem brukar konstrueras med dativ ‘it is fagna, not fullr, which should be construed with the dat.’. Fullr, he asserts (correctly), invariably governs the gen. Kock translates: gläd dig, jungfru, innerligen / över nådens fulla brunn ‘rejoice fervently, maiden, over mercy’s full spring’. Brunnr miskunnar ‘spring of mercy’ seems to be understood as an implicit Christ-kenning in Kock’s interpretation.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.