Note to Anon Lil 35VII
[8] minnilig tár lagaz af kinnum ‘memorable tears run down his cheeks’: Minniligr can mean both ‘memorable, i.e. worthy of memory’, or ‘loving’ (see Fritzner: minniligr). The context here suggests that the emphasis is on remembering and meditating on the event. Cf. the Meditaciones Vite Christi of Iohannis de Caulibus: Plorauit ergo puer Iesus hodie propter dolorem quem sensit in carne sua; nam ueram carnem et passibilem habuit sicut ceteri homines ... Et sic faciebat quocies plorabat; quod forte sepe puerorum more faciebat ad ostendendam miseriam nature humane quam uere assumpserat, et ad occultandum se, ne a demonio cognosceretur. Cantat namque de ipso Ecclesia: Vagit infans inter arcta, etc. ‘The boy Jesus cried out today because of the pain which he felt in his flesh; for he had real flesh subject to pain just as other people … That was something he would perhaps often do, to show the misery of the human nature he had truly taken on and to conceal his true identity, lest he be recognized by the devil. For the Church sings of him, “within the confines of his crib the little infant cries plaintively”, etc.’ (Stallings-Taney 1997, 38; Taney 2000, 30-1).