Note to Anon Lil 30^VII

[6-7] er sveinn er smíðaðr, haglig myndan heilags anda ‘when a boy is formed, the proper image of the Holy Spirit [= God (= Christ)]’: This is the reading of Bb, which alone has þá er sveinn er smíðaðr. Most other mss have þó (að) sveininn smíði, and this reading is adopted by Finnur Jónsson in Skj B, who understands þó at sveininn smíði | haglig myndun heilags anda to mean fordi den helligånds kunstfærdige skabekraft skaber drengen ‘because the Holy Spirit’s ingenious creative power creates the boy’. Aside from the difficulty of understanding þó (að) as ‘because’, there is also the problem of the noun myndan or myndun. In LP Finnur understands myndan, the reading of Bb, as a f. noun meaning ‘formation, creation’, which is nowhere else exemplified in ON poetry, and takes haglig myndan heilags anda as a circumlocution for Christ. However, it is possible that Bb’s myndan is a variant form of myndun, f. nom. sg. (cf. ANG §137 Anm. 3) in the sense ‘prototype, image, type’ (cf. Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4: myndun; ONP: myndan; Orðabók Háskólans: myndan, though their earliest citation is from C17th; Schottmann 1973, 230 n. 8). This is the sense adopted here, and myndan is regarded as in apposition to sveinn (l. 6). The variant readings of other mss appear to understand mynd f. ‘form, image’ with suffixed def. art., giving a sense þótt haglig myndin heilags anda smíði sveininn ‘although the deft image of the Holy Spirit fashions the boy’. Kock (Skald) emends to myndum here, but this unexplained reading may in fact be a typographical error for myndun (he has no NN on this subject).

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. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. Schottmann, Hans. 1973. Die isländische Mariendichtung. Untersuchungen zur volkssprachigen Mariendichtung des Mittelalters. Münchner germanistische Beiträge 9. Munich: Fink.
7. Sigfús Blöndal. 1920-4. Islandsk-dansk ordbog / Íslensk-dönsk orðabók. Reykjavík, Copenhagen and Kristiania (Oslo): Verslun Þórarins B. Þorlákssonar / Aschehoug.
8. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.