Tarrin Wills (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Third Grammatical Treatise 17’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 549.
Krossfestum sé Kristi
kunnr vegr ok lof unnit
megn ok máttr sem tígnar
mest vald, þats fersk aldri.
Kunnr vegr ok lof, megn ok máttr, sem mest tígnarvald, þats aldri fersk, sé unnit krossfestum Kristi.
May famous honour and praise, power and might, as well as the greatest strength of honour that will never perish, be granted to the crucified Christ.
Mss: A(6r), W(106) (TGT)
Readings: [3] tígnar: tígnir W [4] fersk (‘fers’): fremst W
Editions: Skj AI, 627, Skj BI, 634, Skald I, 308, NN §2547; SnE 1818, 322-3, SnE 1848, 191, SnE 1848-87, II, 142-3, 417, III, 146, TGT 1884, 23, 93, 204, TGT 1927, 66, 102.
Context: The stanza appears under the section of schemata lexeos (‘scemalexeos’, ‘figures of words’; TGT 1927, 66): er scema lexeos nefnd sem skrúð máls eða ræðu ‘schemata lexeos means the ornamentation of language or speech’. This is an example of zeugma (‘zeuma’), i.e. where a word or phrase belongs to more than one part of the sentence.
Notes: [All]: The zeugma here occurs because one verb governs several nouns (TGT 1927, 67): Þetta orð, sé, styrir ǫllum þessum nǫfnum, vegr lof megn máttr vald ‘This word “may ... be” governs all these nouns: “honour,” “praise,” “power,” “might,” “strength”’. — [All]: This stanza is referred to as Anon (TGT) 21 in Note to Anon Lil 96/1VII in SkP VII. — [All]: The helmingr is strongly reminiscent of the doxology to Matt VI.13 (King James text): ‘For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever’. The doxology is not in the Vulgate, nor is it found, for example, in the text and commentary to the Pater noster in Holm perg 15 4° (HómÍsl 1993, 16r). It is, however, found in later mss of the gospel of Matthew, and there were several versions in oral tradition. A similar formula is recorded in the C2nd Didache (Lohse 2009, 89). — [3-4] sem mest tígnarvald ‘as well as the greatest strength of honour’: This interpretation is from Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884) and is adopted in Skj B. Kock (NN §2547) argues that sem is used in parallel with the two instances of ok and should not be taken with mest. He prefers W’s tígnir and reads sem tígnir, | mest vald ‘and honours, the greatest strength …’. It is rare, however, for tígn to be used in the pl., and the citations in ONP only have the pl. form from the C14th onwards. The cpd tígnarvald (and the related tígnarveldi) are uncommon in prose and poetry. Both have only two citations in ONP. Tígnarveldi occurs in Anon Líkn 24/7VII and tígnarvald is used only here in poetry.
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