Note to Anon Lil 86^VII

[7] verndarskauti ‘protecting mantle’: Lit. ‘cloak-hem of protection’. A skaut is a corner at the edge of a garment or a piece of cloth. The image recalls the popular Lat. prayer to Mary: Sub tuum presidium confugimus, sancta Dei genitrix: nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus: sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper virgo benedicta ‘Under your protection we flee, holy mother of God: do not despise our prayers in our need, but free us always from all perils, blessed virgin’ (Brev. Nidr. h.iiii^r). The image occurs in visual art in the familiar Madonna misericordiae ‘Our Lady of Mercy’ motif, where Mary is depicted sheltering people under her cloak or veil (see Perdrizet 1908; Cinthio et al. 1966; Belting-Ihm 1976). Devotion to the ‘virgin of the mantle’ arose among the Cistercians in C13th. It was taken up by the Dominicans and other friars, and by C14th it had spread throughout Europe. Visual representations of the sheltering Virgin appeared on the seals of the Cistercian order, the monastery of Cteaux, and other Cistercian foundations (see Perdrizet 1902, pl. II) and the image spread through northen Europe in mss of the popular Speculum Humanae Salvationis. The word verndarskaut also occurs in Stjórn’s description of the saved (Unger 1862, 3): Jesus Kristus ... samnandi sonum Hierusalem. þat er rettruaðum monnum kristnum ok val friðsomum undir sealfs sins valld ok verndar skaut upp á þann hátt sem hænan samnar sinum ungum undir sina vængi ‘Jesus Christ ... gathering the sons of Jerusalem, that is, faithful and truly peaceful Christian men, under his own authority and his protecting mantle up in that height, like a hen gathers her young under her wings’. It occurs as a variant of skauti in Mar 1871, 716: Ef hinn forni manzins ovin will þier skada gera, fel þig vndir hennar uerndarskauti ‘If the ancient enemy of mankind wishes to do you harm, hide yourself under her protecting mantle’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Unger, C. R., ed. 1862. Stjorn. Gammelnorsk bibelhistorie fra verdens skabelse til det babyloniske fangenskab. Christiania (Oslo): Feilberg og Landmarks forlag.
3. Belting-Ihm, Christa. 1976. ‘Sub matris tutela’: Untersuchungen zur Vorgeschichte der Schutzmantelmadonna. Abhandlung der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Phil.-Hist. Kl. 1976. Abhandlung 3. Heidelburg: Winter.
4. Brev. Nidr. = [Anonymous] Breviarium Nidrosiense. 1519. Paris: Jean Kerbriant and Jean Bienayse. Rpt. facsimile edn 1964. Oslo: Børsum.