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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Máríuflokkr — Anon MflIII

Anonymous Poems

Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Máríuflokkr’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 507. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1027> (accessed 24 April 2024)

 

The two anonymous stanzas edited here, Máríuflokkr ‘Flokkr about Mary’ (Anon Mfl 1-2), are transmitted only in ms. W of Skm (SnE), in Orms-Eddu-brot. According to the surrounding prose, they belong to a flokkr about Mary (SnE 1848-87, II, 500: sva segir i mariv flokki), but nothing else is preserved of that poem. The Mary commemorated in the poem is more likely to be the Virgin Mary than Mary Magdalene, since the poet describes her as kœnst kvenna ‘the wisest of women’ (st. 2/5), which is more consonant with the Virgin Mary than with Mary Magdalene (see Paasche 1914, 122 n. 4 and Clunies Ross 2009b, 63 n. 1). Finnur Jónsson (Skj) tentatively dates the poem to the twelfth century. Although it is not possible to establish a date on the basis of metrical or linguistic criteria, the fact that the stanzas are completely devoid of ecclesiastically flavoured kennings for Mary, which characterise later Marian poetry, indicates that Mfl could have been an early composition. For discussions of the diction in Old Norse Marian poems, see Schottmann (1973) and Meissner 423-6, as well as Notes to st. 1/2, 1/3 and st. 2 [All] below. For Mfl as an early Icelandic pietà, see Clunies Ross (2009b).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
  3. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
  4. Schottmann, Hans. 1973. Die isländische Mariendichtung. Untersuchungen zur volkssprachigen Mariendichtung des Mittelalters. Münchner germanistische Beiträge 9. Munich: Fink.
  5. Paasche, Fredrik. 1914. Kristendom og kvad: En studie i norrøn middelalder. Christiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. in Paasche 1948, 29-212.
  6. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 2009a. ‘Poets and Ethnicity’. In Ney et al. 2009, I, 185-92.
  7. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 2009b. ‘Máríuflokkr — an Icelandic pietà?’. In Margrét Eggertsdóttir et al. 2009, 63-70.
  8. Internal references
  9. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
  10. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 24 April 2024)
  11. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Máríuflokkr 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 507.
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Information about a text: poem, sequence of stanzas, or prose work

This page is used for different resources. For groups of stanzas such as poems, you will see the verse text and, where published, the translation of each stanza. These are also links to information about the individual stanzas.

For prose works you will see a list of the stanzas and fragments in that prose work, where relevant, providing links to the individual stanzas.

Where you have access to introduction(s) to the poem or prose work in the database, these will appear in the ‘introduction’ section.

The final section, ‘sources’ is a list of the manuscripts that contain the prose work, as well as manuscripts and prose works linked to stanzas and sections of a text.