Nikulásdrápa — Anon Nikdr^III

Three anonymous helmingar (Anon Nikdr) in dróttkvætt metre in honour of S. Nicholas, bishop of Myra (ON Mirrea) near Patara in Lycia, present-day Turkey, are cited by the author of FoGT. Two are said by the author to be from a Nikulásdrápa ‘Drápa of Nicholas’ (FoGT 1884, 129), while the third, which is cited earlier in the treatise (FoGT 1884, 122), is probably from the same poem, to judge by its subject-matter. No other parts of this poem survive, though there is plentiful evidence of the popularity of this saint and his cult in medieval Norway and Iceland from at least the twelfth century, possibly earlier, and a good deal of both prose and poetry in his honour (Sigfús Blöndal 1949; Widding 1961; Widding, Bekker-Nielsen and Shook 1963, 326-7; Cormack 1994, 136-8; Sverrir Tómasson 1982; Sverrir Tómasson, Bragi Halldórsson and Einar Sigurbjörnsson 2007, 3-32). Bari, in South Italy, to where Nicholas’s relics were removed in 1087, Myra and Patara are mentioned in the Leiðarvísir ‘Itinerary’ of Abbot Nikulás (AÍ I, 20), generally identified with Nikulás Bergsson (d. 1159), and S. Nicholas is associated with these places there.

Aside from the present fragments of Nikdr, there are several fifteenth-century or later Icelandic poems about Nicholas, including a Nikulásdiktur and the hrynhent Nikulásdrápa of the priest Hallur (Jón Þorkelsson 1888, 80-2, 315-19; ÍM II, 413-33), the latter of which offers points of comparison with the present fragments, and suggests either a common source or that Hallur composed his poem under the influence of Nikdr. It has been conventional among editors (so Skj B, Skald) to change the order in which the three helmingar appear in FoGT and place the first cited last. The order in which the stanzas appear in W, the sole ms., has been retained in this edition, though it is admittedly not possible to be certain of the original order. Stanza 2 is identified by the author of FoGT as a refrain, but we do not know exactly where in the drápa this refrain may have come (see Context to st. 2). To judge from the subject-matter, all stanzas are likely to have been taken from an early section of the drápa.

Skj dates the poem in the later thirteenth century, and places it alongside Anon Heildr^VII. It is possible that it may be slightly younger, to judge by the use of the compound adjective mannvitsfrægrar ‘famous of understanding’ in st. 3/3, as such compounds of noun in the genitive plus adjective are more common in fourteenth-century poetry. It is judged here to date from the early fourteenth century.

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. AÍ = Kålund, Kristian and Natanael Beckman. 1908-18. Alfræði íslenzk: Islandsk encyklopædisk litteratur. 3 vols. SUGNL 37, 41 and 45. Copenhagen: Møller.
5. Cormack, Margaret. 1994a. The Saints in Iceland: Their Veneration from the Conversion to 1400. Studia Hagiographica 78. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes.
6. ÍM = Jón Helgason, ed. 1936-8. Íslenzk miðaldarkvæði: Islandske digte fra senmiddelalderen. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
7. Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1888. Om digtningen på Island i det 15. og 16. århundrede. Copenhagen: Høst & søns forlag.
8. Sigfús Blöndal. 1949. ‘St. Nikulás og dýrkun hans, sérstaklega á Íslandi’. Skírnir 123, 69-97.
9. FoGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
10. Sverrir Tómasson. 1982. ‘Icelandic Lives of St Nicholas’. In Selma Jónsdóttir et al. 1982, 147-76.
11. Widding, Ole. 1961. ‘Kilderne til den norrøne Nicolaus saga’. Opuscula 2, 17-26. BA 25/1. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
12. Internal references
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ 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=34> (accessed 19 April 2024)
14. Katrina Attwood 2007, ‘ Anonymous, Heilags anda drápa’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 450-67. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1017> (accessed 19 April 2024)
15. Not published: do not cite ()