Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Vitnisvísur af Máríu 5’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 743.
Síðan nam sætar ástir
seggr við sprund að leggja;
Hlín má hrings af sveini
hvítust sjaldan líta.
Eina stund með yndi
enn var staddr hjá henni
— talaði svinnr við svanna
sveinn — í kirkju einni.
Síðan nam seggr að leggja sætar ástir við sprund; {hvítust Hlín hrings} má sjaldan líta af sveini. Eina stund var enn staddr hjá henni með yndi í einni kirkju; svinnr sveinn talaði við svanna.
Then the man began to develop sweet love [lit. loves] for the woman; {the fairest Hlín <goddess> of the ring} [WOMAN] can seldom look away from the boy. One time [he] was again standing next to her with delight inside a church; the clever boy spoke to the girl.
Mss: 713(83), 721(10v)
Readings: [4] hvítust sjaldan: hvít varliga 721 [5] stund: ‘stun’ 721 [6] enn: hann 713, 721
Editions: Skj AII, 483, Skj BII, 520-1, Skald II, 285; Kahle 1898, 50, 102, Sperber 1911, 24, 70, Wrightson 2001, 29.
Notes: [1]: The l. lacks internal rhyme. — [4] hvítust sjaldan ‘the fairest ... seldom’: The 721 variant, hvít varliga ‘the fair hardly’, is metrically and syntactically possible and has been adopted by Skj B, Skald and Sperber. — [6] enn ‘again’: The ms. reading hann ‘he’ is a lectio facilior and leaves the l. without alliteration and aðalhending. — [8] í einni kirkju ‘inside a church’: This prepositional phrase could also go with the following cl. (so Sperber), but see Mar (1871, 298): einn dag ero þꜹ stødd bęði saman i Mario kirkiu … talandiz þar við ‘one day they were both standing together in the Church of Mary … while speaking to each other’.
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