Anon (FoGT) 42^III

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.

Mss: W(119) (FoGT)

Editions: Skj AII, 166, Skj 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.

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.

Notes: [All]: 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. — [All]: Stanza 42 is in the metre hrynhent. — [1] þann ‘that one who’: Demonstrates loss of the rel. particle er in the combination dem. + rel. particle (NS §261). Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 293 n. 1) suggested adding the rel. particle er to W’s þann on the ground that the scribe of FoGT does not elsewhere demonstrate loss of the rel. particle after a dem. He has been followed by Skj B, Skald and FoGT 2004. However, in a C14th text, this loss would not be unexpected. The referent of þann (l. 1) is God and the allusion is to Gen. III.8, in which Adam and Eve are said to hear the voice of God as he walked in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day. The allusion is also to the first humans’ sinful condition, having eaten the forbidden fruit and having hidden themselves because they were afraid to come face to face with God. — [3-4] stórum vitr Stephánus kiendi þenna standa ‘greatly wise Stephen recognised him standing’: The reference is to Acts VI, in which a certain deacon named Stephen, a man of wisdom and faith (VI.6), rails against persecutors of the infant Church and has a vision of heaven in which he sees Jesus standing on God’s right hand (Acts VII.55-6). Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) gives the name in the form Stéfánús, Kock (Skald) as Stefánús, but there is no reason to depart from W’s spelling with <ph>. Length has been judged here to be on the penultimate syllable (cf. ModIcel. Stefán) in a Type A-line, positions 5-6, treated as disyllabic with resolution in position 1. — [4] og spámenn sitja ‘and prophets [saw him] sit’: The verb must be understood from the previous clause. The allusion is to the common image, in written texts and the visual arts, of God seated on a throne with his heavenly retinue around him; cf., among others, 1Ki. XXII.19, 2Ch XVIII.18, Isa XXXVII.16.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. 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.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Reichling, Dietrich, ed. 1893. Das Doctrinale des Alexander de Villa-Dei. Monumenta Germaniae paedagogica 12. Berlin: A. Hofmann & Comp. Rpt. 1974. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series, Studies in the History of Education 11. New York: Burt Franklin.
9. FoGT 2014 = Clunies Ross, Margaret and Jonas Wellendorf, eds. 2014. The Fourth Grammatical Treatise. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. Internal references
11. (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 2 May 2024)