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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon (FoGT) 46III

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 46’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 624.

Anonymous LausavísurStanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise
454647

introduction

These two stanzas, the last in FoGT, are cited to illustrate the figure called therethema (Lat. teretema), which the prose text defines as when a series of questions about the same thing is asked and replied to in the same fashion. Both stanzas are in a form of dróttkvætt called in SnSt Ht 9 sextánmælt ‘sixteen-times spoken’ (SnE 2007, 9). In the two FoGT stanzas eight questions are matched by eight replies, each pair given in a single line of verse. Sextánmælt is very similar to the verse-form called greppaminni ‘poets’ reminder’, which is exemplified both by RvHbreiðm Hl 45-6 and by SnSt Ht 40 and mentioned in FoGT in connection with the figure of epimone (see Introduction to sts 38-41). The Doctrinale does not mention teretema, but it is present in the Graecismus (Wrobel 1887, 8, ll. 86-7). Stanza 46 is probably based on a commentary on the Graecismus quoted by Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 151 n.) and demonstrates that the composer of the stanza is likely to have been familiar with it (see st. 46 Note to [All] below). Whereas the subject of st. 46 is the death of Christ and its significance for mankind, st. 47, in strikingly similar wording, refers to the death of the Norwegian king Óláfr Haraldsson at the battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030 and the implications of the saint’s death for mankind. The parallel emphasises the sanctity of the king.

text and translation

Hverr deyr? Hjarðar stýrir.
Hví? Fyr sauða lífi.
Hvessu? Hiekk á krossi.
Hvar? Þar er Lassarus jarðaz.
Hvienær? Helzt að nóni.
Hverir knúðu að? Júðar.
Hverr nýtr? Heiðni bötnuð.
Hvað gieldr? Djöfuls veldi.

Hverr deyr? Stýrir hjarðar. Hví? Fyr lífi sauða. Hvessu? Hiekk á krossi. Hvar? Þar er Lassarus jarðaz. Hvienær? Helzt að nóni. Hverir knúðu að? Júðar. Hverr nýtr? Bötnuð heiðni. Hvað gieldr? Veldi djöfuls.
 
‘Who dies? The leader of the flock. Why? For the life of the sheep. How? He hung on a cross. Where? Where Lazarus is buried. When? About the ninth hour. Who instigated it? The Jews. Who gets the benefit? Heathendom is reformed. What suffers? The devil’s power.

notes and context

The first two lines of this stanza are close to the first two questions of the example of teretema given in a commentary to the Graecismus cited by Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 151 n.): Quis moritur? praesul. Cur? pro grege ‘Who dies? The bishop. Why? For the flock’. These lines come from a poem on the murder of Thomas Becket.

readings

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 23: AII, 167, BII, 185, Skald II, 96, NN §2494; SnE 1848-87, II, 248-9, FoGT 1884, 151, 295-6, FoGT 2004, 57, 81, 162-4, FoGT 2014, 48-9, 142-3.

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