Anon Heildr 1^VII

… lífgaðra anda.
Blíðr, lífgar þrif þjóðar
þinn blástr, frömuðr ástar,
lemið synd … eykr yndi,
endrbornar hér, forna*.

… lífgaðra anda. {Blíðr frömuðr ástar}, þinn blástr lífgar þrif endrbornar þjóðar hér; lemið synd forna* … eykr yndi.

… of revived souls. {Blessed promoter of love} [= God], your breath stimulates the prosperity of reborn people here; you suppress ancient sin … it [Holy Spirit] augments joy.

Mss: B(10r), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [1] lífgaðra: so 399a‑bˣ, BFJ, ‘lifg[...]dra’ B, BRydberg    [4] lemið synd: ‘lemid syn[...]’ B, ‘lennd syne’ 399a‑bˣ, ‘læmid syn(d)’(?) BRydberg, ‘lemid synd’ BFJ    [5] forna*: fornar all

Editions: Skj AII, 160, Skj BII, 175, Skald II, 92, NN §1402; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 52, Rydberg 1907, 1, 45, Attwood 1996a, 55, 151.

Notes: [All]: Several pp. are missing from B before 10r. Despite the fact that, in B, the initial letters of sts are enlarged uncials, and that the first of these is Fæsk (fol. 10r, l. 2, 2/1), Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1844) assumes sts 1 and 2 to be matching helmingar and prints them as one st., omitting 2/5. His st. numbering thus remains one in arrears throughout the poem. — [4] lemið ‘you suppress’: This edn follows Rydberg and Skj B in retaining B’s ‘lemid’, 2nd pers. pl. of lemja ‘to beat, thrash, suppress’, addressed to God, the frömuðr ástar ‘promoter of love’ of l. 3. Kock (NN §1402) proposes an emendation to lemr, 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of lemja, taking the three verbal forms lífgar (l. 2), lemr (l. 4) and eykr (l. 4) to be parallel references to the Holy Spirit. — [5] endrbornar hér ‘of reborn (people) here’: Skj B, followed by Skald, emends to endrbornum, taking endrbornum her ‘the reborn army’, i.e. Christians, as the dat. indirect object with eykr yndi ‘he augments joy’. B’s endrbornar can be retained if it is assumed to be a syncopated form of the f. gen. sg. form of the adj. endrborinnar, agreeing with þjóðar (l. 2), and if B’s ‘her’ is construed as the adv. hér ‘here’. Theologically, a soul is reborn at Baptism and thus exists on earth (‘here’) in a reborn spiritual state until earthly death brings it to its heavenly apotheosis. — [5] forna* ‘ancient’: This edn agrees with Skj B in emending B’s fornar to forna, f. acc. sg. of adj. forn ‘old’, agreeing with synd (l. 4). Kock (NN §1402) takes forna as qualifying yndi endrbornar, translating ökar forna fröjden för pånyttet folk ‘he [the Holy Spirit] augments ancient pleasure for reborn people’.

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. Attwood, Katrina. 1996a. ‘The Poems of MS AM 757a 4to: An Edition and Contextual Study’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Leeds.
6. Rydberg, Hugo, ed. 1907. ‘Die geistlichen Drápur und Dróttkvættfragmente des Cod. AM 757 4to.’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Lund. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1844. Fjøgur gømul kvæði. Boðsrit til að hlusta á þá opinberu yfirheyrslu í Bessastaða Skóla þann 22-29 mai 1844. Viðeyar Klaustri: prentuð af Helga Helgasyni, á kostnað Bessastaða Skóla. Bessastaðir: Helgi Helgason.