Anon (FoGT) 32III
Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 32’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 609.
saung ‘sang’
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syngja (verb): sing
og ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
notes
[1] og geinginn í gröf ‘and gone into the grave’: Og is here construed with geinginn í gröf (so Skj B) rather than more awkwardly with other phrases (ok með sannri iðran, so SnE 1848-87, III, 161; ok enn með sannri iðran FoGT 1884, 282; ok huldr grundu FoGT 2004, 142).
í ‘into’
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í (prep.): in, into
notes
[1] og geinginn í gröf ‘and gone into the grave’: Og is here construed with geinginn í gröf (so Skj B) rather than more awkwardly with other phrases (ok með sannri iðran, so SnE 1848-87, III, 161; ok enn með sannri iðran FoGT 1884, 282; ok huldr grundu FoGT 2004, 142).
gröf ‘the grave’
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grǫf (noun f.): grave
notes
[1] og geinginn í gröf ‘and gone into the grave’: Og is here construed with geinginn í gröf (so Skj B) rather than more awkwardly with other phrases (ok með sannri iðran, so SnE 1848-87, III, 161; ok enn með sannri iðran FoGT 1884, 282; ok huldr grundu FoGT 2004, 142).
geinginn ‘gone’
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2. ganga (verb; geng, gekk, gengu, genginn): walk, go
notes
[1] og geinginn í gröf ‘and gone into the grave’: Og is here construed with geinginn í gröf (so Skj B) rather than more awkwardly with other phrases (ok með sannri iðran, so SnE 1848-87, III, 161; ok enn með sannri iðran FoGT 1884, 282; ok huldr grundu FoGT 2004, 142).
grundu ‘with earth’
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grund (noun f.): earth, land
huldr ‘covered’
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2. hylja (verb): to bury, cover, inhume
til ‘for’
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til (prep.): to
notes
[2] til stundar ‘for a time’: Here understood to mean ‘for a time, temporarily’ (so also SnE 1848-87, FoGT 1884 and FoGT 2004) in the sense that David spent time in the grave until the day of Judgement when, as a penitent, he was released from his punishment. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) takes til stundar with the verb saung ‘sang’ and construes þat sǫng ǫðlingr til stundar, which he translates as Dette sang kongen ivrigt (?) ‘The king sang that eagerly (?)’, but this sense is hard to match (LP: stund glosses this usage as straks ‘straight away’).
stundar ‘a time’
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stund (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -u/-; -ir): time, hour
notes
[2] til stundar ‘for a time’: Here understood to mean ‘for a time, temporarily’ (so also SnE 1848-87, FoGT 1884 and FoGT 2004) in the sense that David spent time in the grave until the day of Judgement when, as a penitent, he was released from his punishment. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) takes til stundar with the verb saung ‘sang’ and construes þat sǫng ǫðlingr til stundar, which he translates as Dette sang kongen ivrigt (?) ‘The king sang that eagerly (?)’, but this sense is hard to match (LP: stund glosses this usage as straks ‘straight away’).
enn ‘yet’
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2. enn (adv.): still, yet, again
með ‘with’
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með (prep.): with
iðran ‘repentance’
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iðrun (noun f.; °iðranar/iðrunar): repentance
sannri ‘true’
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2. sannr (adj.; °-an; compar. -ari, superl. -astr): true
öðlingr ‘The king’
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ǫðlingr (noun m.; °; -ar): prince, ruler
til ‘as’
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til (prep.): to
refsingar ‘punishment’
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refsing (noun f.; °-ar; -ar): [punishment]
hugþekka ‘beloved’
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hugþekkr (adj.): beloved
mun ‘will’
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munu (verb): will, must
hlakka ‘exult’
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hlakka (verb): [screams, exult]
hróðrslungin ‘eulogy-encircled’
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hróðrslunginn (adj.): [eulogy-encircled]
[6] hróðrslungin: ‘hroðr slvng’ W
notes
[6] hróðrslungin ‘eulogy-encircled’: This emendation of W’s ‘hroðr slvng’ as a f. adj. (p. p.) to agree with loftunga ‘tongue of praise’, was first proposed by Konráð Gíslason (Nj 1875-8, II, 205-9) and has been followed by all subsequent eds.
loftunga ‘tongue of praise’
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loftunga (noun f.): [tongue of praise, Loftunga
mána ‘of the moon’
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máni (noun m.; °-a): moon
kennings
hinn mildi valdr mána.’‘merciful ruler of the moon.’’
= God
merciful ruler of the moon.’ → God
notes
[7] hinn mildi valdr mána ‘merciful ruler of the moon [= God]’: Lit. ‘the merciful ruler of the moon’.
kennings
hinn mildi valdr mána.’‘merciful ruler of the moon.’’
= God
merciful ruler of the moon.’ → God
notes
[7] valdr ‘ruler’: An emendation of W’s ‘valld’ also proposed by Konráð Gíslason (loc. cit.) to provide a m. nom. sg. noun, which functions as the base-word of a kenning for God. — [7] hinn mildi valdr mána ‘merciful ruler of the moon [= God]’: Lit. ‘the merciful ruler of the moon’.
kennings
hinn mildi valdr mána.’‘merciful ruler of the moon.’’
= God
merciful ruler of the moon.’ → God
notes
[7] valdr ‘ruler’: An emendation of W’s ‘valld’ also proposed by Konráð Gíslason (loc. cit.) to provide a m. nom. sg. noun, which functions as the base-word of a kenning for God. — [7] hinn mildi valdr mána ‘merciful ruler of the moon [= God]’: Lit. ‘the merciful ruler of the moon’.
hinn ‘’
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2. inn (art.): the
kennings
hinn mildi valdr mána.’‘merciful ruler of the moon.’’
= God
merciful ruler of the moon.’ → God
notes
[7] hinn mildi valdr mána ‘merciful ruler of the moon [= God]’: Lit. ‘the merciful ruler of the moon’.
mildi ‘merciful’
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mildr (adj.; °compar. -ri/-ari, superl. -astr): mild, gentle, gracious, generous
kennings
hinn mildi valdr mána.’‘merciful ruler of the moon.’’
= God
merciful ruler of the moon.’ → God
notes
[7] hinn mildi valdr mána ‘merciful ruler of the moon [= God]’: Lit. ‘the merciful ruler of the moon’.
mín ‘my’
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minn (pron.; °f. mín, n. mitt): my
riettvísi ‘righteousness’
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1. réttvísi (noun f.): [righteousness]
þína ‘your’
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þinn (pron.; °f. þín, n. þitt): your
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
The stanza illustrates the rhetorical figure termed euphemismos, which is defined in FoGT as gott vm skiptí stafa í orðinv, sem david settí ‘Exultat’ fyrer ‘exaltat’ ‘a good exchange of letters in the word, as [when] David replaced exaltat [“exalts”] with exultat [“exults”]’.
The second helmingr of st. 32, which is in dróttkvætt metre, is a very clever rendition into Icelandic of the Latin text of Ps. 50.16 Et exultabit lingua mea justitiam tuam ‘And my tongue will exult your righteousness’. A version of the quotation from the psalm is given in the Doctrinale (Reichling 1893, 176, ll. 2615-16) as an example of euphemismos. After the stanza, the prose text explains that the verb hlakka ‘cry out, rejoice, exult’ is used here instead of the more common hefja upp ‘raise, exalt’ in order to replace a less prestigious with a more prestigious word. — [1-4]: The sense and syntactic arrangement of the words in the first helmingr have been the subject of some editorial differences. It is assumed here, with Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 282) and Longo (FoGT 2004, 142-3 and 210-11), that the first helmingr represents the Biblical King and Psalmist David as a penitent sinner, who died and spent time in the grave as a punishment for his sins before being released at the Last Judgement. The second helmingr is then represented in direct speech as what he sang from the grave in praise of God’s righteousness. For the common medieval representation of David as a type of the penitent sinner, see Gamlkan Has 48-9VII and Notes to those stanzas.
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