Anon Vitn 17^VII

Griet in göfga sæta
gangandi nú þangað,
gjör er var skriftin skæra
skýrst Máríu dýrstrar.
Laut að ljúfum fótum
líkneski þar fesku;
miskunn bað hun manna
minnaz eymdar sinnar.

In göfga sæta griet, nú gangandi þangað, er skýrst skriftin skæra dýrstrar Máríu var gjör. Laut að ljúfum fótum fesku líkneski þar; hun bað {miskunn manna} minnaz eymdar sinnar.

The glorious woman wept, now walking to where the clearest, shining image of most precious Mary was fashioned. She knelt at the beloved feet of the beautiful effigy there; she asked {the mercy of men} [= Mary] to be mindful of her misery.

Mss: 713(84), 721(12r)

Readings: [1] Griet: giekk 713, 721    [3] gjör er var skriftin: er skorin var skriftin 713, gjör var skrípinn 721    [4] skýrst: so 721, ‘skyrstz’ 713

Editions: Skj AII, 485, Skj BII, 523, Skald II, 287, NN §§1678, 2860; Kahle 1898, 53, 103, Sperber 1911, 27, 71-2, Wrightson 2001, 35.

Notes: [1] griet ‘wept’: Giekk ‘went’ (so both mss) leaves the l. without internal rhyme, and the emendation follows earlier eds. — [3] gjör er var ‘where was fashioned’: The present edn follows NN §1678 (so also Sperber 1911, 72). The 713 variant, er skorin var ‘where was carved’ is unmetrical, because it contains three alliterative staves and seven rather than six metrical positions (the 713 reading could have been caused by the similar wording in Mv II 7/3). The reading in 721, gjör var ‘fashioned was’, is metrical, but leaves a dangling adv. þangað lit. ‘thither’ (l. 2).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Sperber, Hans, ed. 1911. Sechs isländische Gedichte legendarischen Inhalts. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, filosofi, språkvetenskap och historiska vetenskaper 2. Uppsala: Akademische Buchdruckerei Edv. Berling.
5. Wrightson, Kellinde, ed. 2001. Fourteenth-Century Icelandic Verse on the Virgin Mary: Drápa af Maríugrát, Vitnisvísur af Maríu, Maríuvísur I-III. Viking Society for Northern Research Text Series 14. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
6. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. Internal references
8. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Máríuvísur II 7’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 706-7.