Anon (FoGT) 2^III

Fingr vann eigi eingan
eins með vatni hreinu
guðs á virðum víða
vinning að því sinni.

Fingr eins guðs vann víða að því sinni eigi eingan vinning á virðum með hreinu vatni.

The finger of the one God gained widely at that time not no [= great] advantage for men with pure water.

Mss: W(111) (FoGT)

Editions: Skj AII, 163, Skj BII, 180, Skald II, 94; SnE 1848-87, II, 192-3, III, 153-4, FoGT 1884, 121, 241, FoGT 2004, 32, 60, 87-8, FoGT 2014, 4-5, 55.

Context: This helmingr exemplifies another case of litotes and is introduced with the words: Svmstaðar merker æigi eingi nǫkkvrn ęðr mikinn, sem her ‘In some places “not no” denotes “some” or “great,” as here’. After the citation, the author of FoGT comments: her er æigi eingi settr fyrer nokkvrvm ęðr micklvm vinninge ‘Here “not no” is placed instead of “some” or “great” advantage’.

Notes: [All]: The helmingr refers to the power of the Holy Spirit over men (see following Note). Its likely reference is to the feast of Pentecost or Whitsunday (OIcel. hvítasunnudagr), when the Holy Spirit descended from heaven upon the Apostles (Acts II), after which they were able to begin their mission of baptising people into the Christian faith. This seems to be the point of the helmingr’s statement that ‘at that time’ (i.e. Pentecost) the Holy Spirit gained a great advantage for men (the possibility of salvation) with pure water, i.e. the water of baptism. It was customary in the medieval Church for many catechumens to be baptised at Pentecost in imitation of the events described in Acts, and that is why in a number of Western European languages (West Scandinavian and English in particular; cf. AEW: hvítadagr, hvítasunnudagr) the feast of Pentecost is called ‘White Sunday’, because those about to be baptised wore white garments. SnE 1848-87, III, 154, FoGT 1884, 241 and FoGT 2004, 88 all quote a passage from Isidore of Seville (Isidore, Etym. 7.9.16) which refers to the Holy Spirit as digitus dei ‘the finger of God’, but is otherwise not close to the text of this helmingr. — [1, 2, 3] fingr eins guðs ‘the finger of the one God’: A kenning-like phrase for the Holy Spirit, which has a parallel in Anon Heildr 13/1, 3, 4^VII hreinn fingr hægri handar sólar salkonungs ‘pure finger of the right hand of the king of the hall of the sun [(lit. ‘of the hall-king of the sun’) SKY/HEAVEN > = God]’. The periphrasis in Heildr is a direct imitation of st. 3/2 (dextrae Dei tu digitus ‘you, finger of the right hand of God’) of the Latin Pentecost hymn Veni Creator Spiritus (see Heildr 11^VII Note to [All] for details of the source), which was normally sung during the office of Pentecost at Terce, because the Holy Spirit was thought to have descended upon the Apostles at the third hour (cf. Acts II.15).

References

1. Bibliography
2. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
5. FoGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
6. FoGT 2004 = Longo, Michele, ed. [2004]. ‘Il Quarto Trattato Grammaticale Islandese: Testo, Traduzione e Commento’. Dottorato di Ricerca in ‘Linguistica Sincronica e Diacronica’ (XV Ciclo). Palermo: Università degli Studi di Palermo, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia.
7. FoGT 2014 = Clunies Ross, Margaret and Jonas Wellendorf, eds. 2014. The Fourth Grammatical Treatise. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. Internal references
9. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=34> (accessed 27 April 2024)
10. Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilags anda drápa 11’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 460-1.
11. Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilags anda drápa 13’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 463-4.
12. Katrina Attwood 2007, ‘ Anonymous, Heilags anda drápa’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 450-67. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1017> (accessed 27 April 2024)