[1] engr fær töld með tungu tákn þín ‘none can enumerate with tongue your signs’: Cf. Arngr Gd 51/1, 3IV, a C14th poem which borrows from Líkn several details, táknin öll ... eingi fær þau talt með tungu ‘all the signs ... none can ennumerate them with tongue’. Ineffability is a topos of mystical poetry in particular, as in the Bernardine Jubilus (AH 19, 190) nec lingua potest dicere ‘nor can tongue express’. In order to achieve a six-syllable l. Rydberg, Skj B, and Skald normalise, as here, ms. ‘Eingí’ to the early variant engr.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- AH = Dreves, G. M., C. Blume and H. M. Bannister, eds. 1886-1922. Analecta hymnica medii aeui. 55 vols. Leipzig: Reisland. Rpt. 1961. New York: Johnson.
- Internal references
- George S. Tate 2007, ‘ Anonymous, Líknarbraut’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 228-86. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1024> (accessed 25 April 2024)
- Not published: do not cite (Arngr Gd 51IV)