Carolyne Larrington and Peter Robinson (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Sólarljóð 46’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 327-8.
Vánarstjarna fló — þá var ek fæddr —
burt frá brjósti mér;
hátt at hon fló; hvergi hon settiz,
svát hon mætti hvílð hafa.
Vánarstjarna fló burt frá brjósti mér; þá var ek fæddr; hon fló hátt at; hon settiz hvergi, svát hon mætti hafa hvílð.
A star of hope flew away from my breast; then I was born; it flew on high; nowhere did it come down so that it might have rest.
Mss: 166bˣ(47r), papp15ˣ(5r), 738ˣ(82r), 214ˣ(151r), 1441ˣ(584-585), 10575ˣ(7r), 2797ˣ(234)
Readings: [2] þá var ek: var ek þá 10575ˣ [3] brjósti: brjóstum 214ˣ [5] hon: om. papp15ˣ, 738ˣ, 214ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ [6] hon: at hon 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 635, Skj BI, 642-3, Skald I, 313, NN §2815; Bugge 1867, 364, Falk 1914, 19, Björn M. Ólsen 1915, 16, Fidjestøl 1979, 66, Njörður Njarðvík 1991, 77, Njörður Njarðvík 1993, 52, 128.
Notes: [1] vánarstjarna ‘a star of hope’: Falk (1914a, 27-8) compares Mar 1871, 936: dagstjarna sannrar vánar ‘the day-star of true hope’. For Paasche (1914a, 146) and Björn M. Ólsen 1915, the star represents the soul leaving the body. — [2] þá var ek fæddr ‘then I was born’: The sense seems to be that the narrator is now being born in spirit into the next life; he hopes, but cannot yet be certain, that he will find rest among the blessed. Skj B normalises to þás fœddr of vask to regularise the metre, while Skald emends fæddr to hræddr ‘afraid’. — [4] at: Present in all mss, but its significance is uncertain. Some eds (e.g. Skj B, Falk) delete, but, if retained (so Bugge, Björn M. Ólsen, Skald, Fidjestøl and Njörður Njarðvík), it must be part of a verb-adv. collocation, hon fló hátt at ‘it flew on high’. — [5] hon ‘it’: That is, the star-soul. The pron. is f.
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