Anon Sól 50VII
Carolyne Larrington and Peter Robinson (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Sólarljóð 50’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 330-1.
Hörundar ‘of the flesh’
tælir ‘entraps’
hölða ‘men’
opt ‘often’
hann ‘’
hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
[3] hann: þann 1441ˣ
hefr ‘possesses’
margr ‘many’
til ‘in’
lauga ‘washing’
laug (noun f.; °-ar; dat. -u/-; -ar): bath, hot spring < Laugavatn (noun n.)
[4] lauga‑: langa 738ˣ, 1441ˣ
notes
[4] laugavatn ‘A bath, washing water’: The significance of this reference is unclear. Some eds assume that the water symbolises repentance and absolution, cf. the heavenly maidens of st. 74 who wash souls clean. Falk (1914a, 29), following CVC: laug, makes the connection with the Saturday (laugardagr) bath, as physical and spiritual preparation for Sunday. Björn M. Ólsen (1915, 46; also Paasche 1948, 183) suggests the bath represents the hot tears of remorse and penitence; cf. Njörður Njarðvík (1991, 79). Njörður Njarðvík (1991, 197-8) contributes a parallel from the Dialogues of Gregory, referring to washing as a way of removing sin produced by intercourse with women (Unger 1877, I, 246). If water symbolises spiritual cleansing here, then the narrator presumably alludes to his former life of debauchery when he was not yet ready to undergo penance. Earlier commentators, as Fidjestøl (1979, 47-8) notes, regarded the bath as the kind of luxury which the body now no longer requires.
notes
[4] laugavatn ‘A bath, washing water’: The significance of this reference is unclear. Some eds assume that the water symbolises repentance and absolution, cf. the heavenly maidens of st. 74 who wash souls clean. Falk (1914a, 29), following CVC: laug, makes the connection with the Saturday (laugardagr) bath, as physical and spiritual preparation for Sunday. Björn M. Ólsen (1915, 46; also Paasche 1948, 183) suggests the bath represents the hot tears of remorse and penitence; cf. Njörður Njarðvík (1991, 79). Njörður Njarðvík (1991, 197-8) contributes a parallel from the Dialogues of Gregory, referring to washing as a way of removing sin produced by intercourse with women (Unger 1877, I, 246). If water symbolises spiritual cleansing here, then the narrator presumably alludes to his former life of debauchery when he was not yet ready to undergo penance. Earlier commentators, as Fidjestøl (1979, 47-8) notes, regarded the bath as the kind of luxury which the body now no longer requires.
mér ‘to me’
ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
[5] mér: so papp15ˣ, eitt er mér 166bˣ, er mér 738ˣ, 214ˣ, 1441ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ
notes
[5] mér ‘to me’: Er ‘which’ appears in the majority of mss before mér but makes the last half of the st. ungrammatical, unless laugavatn is construed as in apposition to hörundar hungr (l. 1). Skj B omits it, though Falk, Skald, Björn M. Ólsen and Njörður Njarðvík 1991 do not.
leiðast ‘most hateful’
2. leiðr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): hateful, loathsome
[5] leiðast: leiðist 214ˣ
allra ‘of all’
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