Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Vitnisvísur af Máríu 22’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 754-5.
Varð af vitnisburði
virkur lýðr í kirkju
kveiktr til mestrar mektar
móður guðs að bjóða.
Flokkr gjörði þá þakkir
þannveg allr með svanna:
lofsaung unnu þau ljúfan
list Máríu og Kristi.
Virkur lýðr í kirkju varð kveiktr af vitnisburði að bjóða {móður guðs} til mestrar mektar. Allr flokkr gjörði þá þakkir með svanna þannveg: þau unnu ljúfan lofsaung list Máríu og Kristi.
The caring people in the church were fired up by the testimony to offer {the mother of God} [= Mary] the mightiest worship [lit. splendour]. The entire crowd then gave thanks with the woman thus: they made a lovely song of praise artfully [lit. with skill] to Mary and Christ.
Mss: 713(85), 721(12r-v)
Readings: [3] kveiktr: ‘kvektur’ 721 [5] þá: so 721, om. 713
Editions: Skj AII, 486, Skj BII, 524-5, Skald II, 288; NN §§1674, 1677B; Kahle 1898, 54, Sperber 1911, 28, 72, Wrightson 2001, 37.
Notes: [3] til mestrar mektar ‘the mightiest worship [lit. splendour]’: In the present edn this phrase is construed with the verb bjóða ‘offer’ (l. 4) (bjóða e-m til e-s ‘offer somebody something’; see LP: bjóða 2). Wrightson translates the sentence as ‘fired up to the utmost of their power to worship the mother of God’. However, bjóða (l. 4) cannot mean ‘worship’. Sperber takes bjóða til e-s in the meaning ‘turn to’ (see Fritzner: bjóða til 1) and translates sich an die Macht der Mutter Gottes wenden ‘turn to power of the mother of God’. — [5] þá ‘then’: The adv. is necessary to restore alliteration and the correct number of syllables. — [7] þau ‘they’: The pron. is extrametrical and has been omitted by most earlier eds. — [8] list ‘artfully [lit. with skill]’: The noun is taken here as a dat. instr. (so also Skj B). Skald treats it as an acc., as a parallel object to lofsaung ‘song of praise’ (‘they made a song of praise, an art-performance’; see NN §1674). However, list ‘skill, cleverness, art’ is not attested in that meaning (see Fritzner: list), and therefore the two nouns are not in apposition.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.