Anon Heil 2^VII

H… fyr höggum þeira
hátt, og síðast skilja mátti,
á hendi fal hann sig helgum anda
hreinn og góðr og drottins móður.
Dæmi þau kvað hinn dýri Tómas
dauða vild og allar nauðir;
svá skýfðu þeir honum af höfði
hallandi sier krúnu alla.

H… hátt fyr höggum þeira, og síðast mátti skilja hann, hreinn og góðr, fal sig á hendi helgum anda og {móður drottins}. Hinn dýri Tómas kvað þau dæmi dauða og allar nauðir vild; svá skýfðu þeir alla krúnu af höfði honum hallandi sier.

H... loudly under their blows, and at last it was understood [that] he, pure and good, commended himself to the Holy Spirit and {the mother of the Lord} [= Mary]. The glorious Thomas declared those models of death and all torments [to be] desirable; so they cut his entire tonsure off his head as he bowed himself.

Mss: 720a VI(1r), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [1] H…: ‘[...]’ 399a‑bˣ    [5] Dæmi: uncertain and hardly visible 720a VI, Deyr 399a‑bˣ    [6] vild: uncertain and hardly visible 720a VI, hold(?) 399a‑bˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 512, Skj BII, 563, Skald II, 308, NN §§1757, 1764, 1765, 2889; Kahle 1898, 90-1, 112.

Notes: [1]: Because of the fragmentary nature of the st., it cannot be determined where H[...] should be placed in the Prose order. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) suggests the emendation Herma vann which he translates as ‘spoke’; Kahle suggests Herma nam ‘spoke’; Kock (Skald, NN §1764) suggests Herra hann ‘Lord he’. — [3] á hendi: Lit. ‘in the hand’. Kock (Skald) emends to hendi á; see, however, NN §1767. — [5-6] hinn dýri Tómas kvað þau dæmi dauða og allar nauðir vild ‘the glorious Thomas declared those models of death [i.e. the models of the early martyrs] and all torments to be desirable’: Kock (NN §1765) takes dæmi to mean ‘events’ or ‘experiences’, interpreting the two ll. as follows: Hinn dýri Thómás kvað þau dæmi og allar nauðir vild dauða ‘The glorious Thomas declared that those experiences and all torments were a desirable death’. Here, however, as in Skj B, vild, from vildr (adj.) ‘desirable’ is understood to modify the phrase þau dæmi dauða og allir nauðir. — [7-8]: The description in these ll. of the head wound that killed Thomas corresponds closely to that of the prose lives: the first blow was largely deflected by the arm of the clerk Edward Grim; the second sliced off the top of Becket’s head and he fell face downwards. According to the saga, he awaited the second blow with bowed head, með hneigðu höfði (Unger 1869, 261 and 441; Eiríkur Magnússon 1875-83, I, 544).

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Unger, C. R., ed. 1869. Thomas Saga Erkibyskups. Fortælling om Thomas Becket Erkebiskop af Canterbury. To bearbeidelser samt fragmenter af en tredie. Christiania (Oslo): Bentzen.
6. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.