Anon Brúðv 23VII
Valgerður Erna Þorvaldsdóttir (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Brúðkaupsvísur 23’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 545-6.
hæfir ‘suits’
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2. hœfa (verb): hit, suit, befit
þier ‘you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
trautt ‘hardly’
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trauðr (adj.): reluctant
þú ‘you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
gjöriz ‘have gone’
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1. gera (verb): do, make
viltr ‘astray’
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villtr (adj./verb p.p.): [astray]
nú ‘now’
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nú (adv.): now
gjóða ‘of ospreys’
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gjóðr (noun m.; °-s; -ar): osprey
kennings
grennir gjóða’,‘feeder of ospreys’, ’
= WARRIOR
feeder of ospreys’, → WARRIOR
notes
[3] gjóða (m. nom. gjóñr) ‘of ospreys’: Lat. pandion haliaetus.
mun ‘it will’
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munu (verb): will, must
notes
[3] svá ‘so’: Emendation suggested by Jón Helgason.
giefaz ‘turn out’
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gefa (verb): give
yðr ‘for you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
grennir ‘feeder’
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1. grennir (noun m.): feeder
kennings
grennir gjóða’,‘feeder of ospreys’, ’
= WARRIOR
feeder of ospreys’, → WARRIOR
notes
[4] grennir ‘feeder’: The base-word of a typical warrior-kenning, with the determinant filled by a word for a bird of prey or carrion bird (LP: grennir 2), which is usually qualified by a term for battle or blood in order to form a raven- or eagle-kenning. It is possible, however, to understand the base-word grennir in the kenning grennir gjóða ‘feeder of ospreys’ in a different sense, ‘the one who makes the ospreys thinner’ (cf. LP: grenna 1, grennir 1), that is, an ineffectual warrior who does not serve the carrion up to the birds of prey. That interpretation is more in line with what we know about the young man, who appears to be peaceful and devout, rather than a great warrior. The men following him to the wedding-feast might not have regarded his peaceful nature as a good quality. The poet’s word-play could be unintentionally ironic, but it offers an interesting and humorous interpretation.
kváðu ‘said’
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2. kveðja (verb; kvaddi): (dd) request, address, greet
notes
[4] kváðu ‘said’: 721, 1032ˣ and 399a-bˣ have ‘kvóðu’. The verb kveða belongs to the 5th class of verbs with the ablaut pattern e-a-á-e . The change vá > vó began in C14th (Stefán Karlsson 2000, 26; Björn K. Þórólfsson 1925, xi-xii). Since the other verbs of the 5th class do not have -v-, the vá > vó change in kvóðu was reversed back to kváðu to fit with the ablaut pattern of the 5th class. This change had not been reversed when 721 was written shortly after 1500. The scribes of 1032ˣ and 399a-bˣ follow the spelling of 721, but the scribe of 2166ˣ chose the reversed form, kváðu.
Virðaz ‘seem’
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2. virða (verb): value, appraise
mun ‘will’
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munu (verb): will, must
fira ‘of men’
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firar (noun m.): men
ferð ‘journey’
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ferð (noun f.; °-ar; -ir/-arMork 196¹²)): host, journey
fráleit ‘very bad’
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fráleitr (adj.): [very bad]
notes
[6] fráleit ‘very bad’: The word is marked as ‘younger Icel.’ in the ONP database. The oldest examples in the database of the Institute of Lexicography (see Orðabók Háskólans: fráleitur) are from the middle of C16th: þat einginn laustr sie suo og fraleitur, ... at hræsnin kunne eigi medur faugru alite yfer at slietta ‘that no vice is so very bad […] that hypocrisy could not with fair appearance smooth it over’; Gud hann yfergefur þuilijka menn j fraleitt sinne ‘God, he leaves such men in very bad company’.
ef ‘if’
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3. ef (conj.): if
þú ‘you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
gjörir ‘do’
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1. gera (verb): do, make
svá ‘so’
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svá (adv.): so, thus
kennings
mætr Gautr gullstaups,‘excellent Gautr of the golden cup, ’
= MAN
excellent Gautr of the golden cup, → MAN
notes
[7] Gautr: All the mss have the spelling go᷎tur. That has been normalized to Gautr here, because the scribe of 721, from which the other mss derive, seems to use the ‘o᷎’ sign for [au]. In l. 8 of this st. he writes ‘brudlo᷎p’ and the scribe of 1032ˣ uses the exact same spelling, while Jón Sigurðsson writes ‘brúðlaup’ in 399a-bˣ as does the scribe of 2166ˣ. The normalized form götur (pl. of gata ‘road’ f.) does not make any sense in this context, whereas Gautr <= Óðinn> is a common base-word in man- or warrior-kennings. The choice of the name Gautr as a base-word could be interpreted as a criticism (Guðrún Nordal 1999, 78-81). The young man has shown himself to be brigðlyndr og lausgieðr ‘fickle-minded and slack-willed’, as Mary described him in st. 15, by first breaking his promise to her by agreeing to marry a young woman, and then breaking his promise to his kinsmen, as well as the girl’s family by calling off the engagement on the eve of the wedding. Jón Sigurðsson suggested gætir ‘keeper’ in the margin in 399a-bˣ. That gives a full rhyme with mætr ‘excellent’ (but in an odd l.) and makes good sense in the context, ‘keeper of the golden cup’. Gautr offers a more interesting interpretation of the st. and does not involve emendation, so that reading has been adopted here.
ef ‘if’
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3. ef (conj.): if
þú ‘you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
glepr ‘confound’
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glœpa (verb): [sins, confound]
mætr ‘excellent’
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mætr (adj.; °compar. -ri/-ari, superl. -astr): honoured, respected
kennings
mætr Gautr gullstaups,‘excellent Gautr of the golden cup, ’
= MAN
excellent Gautr of the golden cup, → MAN
gull ‘of the golden’
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gull (noun n.): gold < gullstaup (noun n.)
kennings
mætr Gautr gullstaups,‘excellent Gautr of the golden cup, ’
= MAN
excellent Gautr of the golden cup, → MAN
staups ‘cup’
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staup (noun n.): [cup] < gullstaup (noun n.)
kennings
mætr Gautr gullstaups,‘excellent Gautr of the golden cup, ’
= MAN
excellent Gautr of the golden cup, → MAN
brullaup ‘the wedding feast’
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brúðhlaup (noun n.; °-s; -): wedding feast
[8] brullaup: ‘brudlo᷎p’ 721, 1032ˣ
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