Valgerður Erna Þorvaldsdóttir (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Brúðkaupsvísur 31’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 551-2.
Máría, styrktu mig, dýr,
— mundu það göfugt sprund —
— mildi lýstu margföld
merki — til góðs verks,
svá að hreinsun hugar míns
hljóti eg með yfirbót
lasta; eru laun mest
ljóða fyrir kveðinn óð.
Dýr Máría, styrktu mig til góðs verks — mundu það, göfugt sprund; lýstu margföld merki mildi —, svá að eg hljóti hreinsun hugar míns með yfirbót lasta; laun ljóða eru mest fyrir kveðinn óð.
Precious Mary, assist me to [do] a good deed — remember that, noble woman; reveal the manifold signs of mercy —, so that I may get purification of my mind through atonement for sins; rewards for poems are greatest for a poem [that has been] recited.
Mss: 721(15r), 1032ˣ(111v), 399a-bˣ(13), 2166ˣ(13)
Editions: ÍM II, 135.
Notes: [6] hljóti ‘get’: This is very unclear and almost illegible in 721. — [7-8]: It is hard to make good sense of these ll. They seem to mean that a poet gets greater rewards for a composition that has actually been recited, rather than one that has been composed but not performed. In 32/3 the poet indicates that ‘the comfort of poems’ is a medium through which Mary helps him. There are two possible ways to construe the last couplet, and both have much the same meaning; either as presented in the Translation and Prose order above or: mest laun eru fyrir kveðinn ljóða óð ‘the greatest rewards are for a recited poetic song’.
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