Anon Sól 61^VII

Menn sá ek þá,        er mjök ala
        öfund um annars hagi;
blóðgar rúnir        váru á brjósti þeim
        merkðar meinliga.

Ek sá menn þá, er mjök ala öfund um hagi annars; blóðgar rúnir váru merkðar meinliga á brjósti þeim.

I saw men then who greatly nourish envy of another’s affairs; bloody runes were painfully marked on their breasts [lit. breast].

Mss: 166bˣ(47v), papp15ˣ(6r), 738ˣ(82v), 167b 6ˣ(3r), 214ˣ(151v), 1441ˣ(586), 10575ˣ(8v), 2797ˣ(236)

Readings: [1] sá ek: so papp15ˣ, 738ˣ, 167b 6ˣ, 214ˣ, 1441ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ, ek sá 166bˣ    [2] ala: so papp15ˣ, 738ˣ, 167b 6ˣ, 214ˣ, 1441ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ, ala corrected from ‘hafa ala’ 166bˣ    [6] meinliga: meinlegu papp15ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 637, Skj BI, 645, Skald I, 314; Bugge 1867, 366-7, Falk 1914, 38, Björn M. Ólsen 1915, 19, Fidjestøl 1979, 68, Njörður Njarðvík 1991, 91-2, Njörður Njarðvík 1993, 66, 138.

Notes: [All]: Each st. of sts 61-7 begins with the same formula Menn sá ek þá ‘I saw men then’, describing various torments of the damned; cf. the same stylistic technique used in the sól ek sá sts 39-45. — [1] sá ek ‘I saw’: 166bˣ here and in the following st. transposes sá and ek. Assuming that the poet intended the same formula throughout this sequence, the majority ms. reading has been adopted. — [3] um hagi annars ‘of, concerning another’s affairs’: If hagi is regarded as dat. sg., the phrase is grammatically aberrant, for um in the sense ‘of, concerning’ takes the acc., not the dat. Some eds (e.g. Skj B, Skald) emend to af, presumably assuming an earlier scribal confusion between original af and the prep. of, which is replaced by um in later mss. Here, however, hagi is judged to be acc. pl., so um has been retained. — [4-6]: Falk compares Rev. XIII.16 for the mark of the beast and VII.2-3 for the sealing of the blessed.

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. Fidjestøl, Bjarne, ed. 1979a. Sólarljóð: Tydning og Tolkningsgrunnlag. Nordisk Instituts skrifteserie 4. Bergen, Oslo and Tromsø: Universitetsforlaget.
5. Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1915a. Sólarljóð: gefin út með skíringum og athugasemdum. Safn til sögu Íslands og íslenzkra bókmenta 5.1. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja Gutenberg.
6. Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1867. Norrœn fornkvæði. Islandsk samling af folkelige oldtidsdigte om nordens guder og heroer. Almindelig kaldet Sæmundar Edda hins frøda. Christiania (Oslo): Malling. Rpt. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 1965.
7. Falk, Hjalmar, ed. 1914a. Sólarljóð. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter II. Hist.-filos. kl. 7. 2 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
8. Njörður P. Njarðvik, ed. 1991. Sólarljóð. Útgáfa og umfjöllun. Íslensk Rit 10. Reykjavík: Bókmenntafræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands og Menningarsjóður.
9. Njörður P. Njarðvik. 1993. Solsången. Akademisk avhandling för filosofiedoktorsexamen i nordiska språk. Göteborgs universitet: Institutionen för svensk språket.