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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon (FoGT) 42III

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 42’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 619.

Anonymous LausavísurStanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise
414243

text and translation

Ádám sá, þann alt í heimi
orði skóp í gaungu forðum;
þenna kiendi Stephánus standa
stórum vitr og spámenn sitja.
Reiði tala hans bækr sem blíðu
brögnum jafnt sem hryggð og fögnuð
ástargnótt með öðrum háttum
ýta kyns, þeim er guðdóm lýta.

Ádám sá forðum í gaungu, þann skóp alt í heimi orði; stórum vitr Stephánus kiendi þenna standa og spámenn sitja. Bækr tala brögnum reiði hans sem blíðu, ástargnótt jafnt sem hryggð og fögnuð með öðrum háttum kyns ýta, þeim er lýta guðdóm.
 
‘Adam once saw walking along that one who created everything in the world by means of a word; greatly wise Stephen recognised him standing and prophets [saw him] sit. Books speak to men of his anger as well as his kindness, an abundance of love equally with sorrow and joy along with other characteristics of the race of men that demean the Godhead.

notes and context

Stanza 42 is given as an example of the figure called antropuspatos in FoGT, explained as sv figvra, er þat er kent guðdominum, sem manndomsins er, sem þat, at hann standi, siti, gangi, reiðiz, gleðiz, elski, syti, sem her er qveðit ‘that figure in which what belongs to mankind is attributed to the Godhead, such that he stands, sits, walks, gets angry, rejoices, loves, feels sorrow, as is composed here’. After the citation of st. 42, the prose text embarks on a long exegesis of how anthropomorphic attributes of the deity ought to be understood figuratively rather than literally.

This FoGT exemplary stanza is close in sentiment to the Doctrinale’s si, quae sunt hominis, assignentur deitati, | anthropospatos est: sic saepe Dei legis iram ‘if those [qualities] of man are assigned to the deity, that is anthropospatos: thus often you read about God’s anger’ (Reichling 1893, 178, ll. 2634-5), the reference to God’s anger being clarified by the commentary to the Doctrinale printed in FoGT 1884, 148 n. — Stanza 42 is in the metre hrynhent.

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], [C]. D. Religiøse og moraliserende vers af den 4. grammatiske afhandling 19: AII, 166, BII, 184, Skald II, 96; SnE 1848-87, II, 242-5, III, 162, FoGT 1884, 149, 292-3, FoGT 2004, 55, 79, 157-8, FoGT 2014, 44-5, 137-8.

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