Anon Hsv 119^VII

Blót né fórnir        þarf eigi til batnaðar at hafa
        fyrir afgerðir ýta;
heimskr er sá,        er ætlar sér til hjálpar,
        þótt hann sæfi smala,
þvít eins guðs elska        ok aldyggvir siðir
        bæta um gervan glæp.

Þarf eigi at hafa blót né fórnir til batnaðar fyrir afgerðir ýta; sá er heimskr, er ætlar sér til hjálpar, þótt hann sæfi smala, þvít eins guðs elska ok aldyggvir siðir bæta um gervan glæp.

It is not necessary to have sacrifices nor offerings as atonement for men’s transgressions; he is foolish who thinks it is a help for him when he sacrifices [small] livestock, because the one God’s love and very trustworthy morals compensate for a misdeed performed.

Mss: 1199ˣ(75r), 720a IV(2v), 723aˣ(82)

Readings: [1] né: ok 723aˣ    [3] afgerðir ýta: ýta afgerðir 720a IV, 723aˣ    [4] heimskr er sá: sá er ofheimskr 723aˣ    [5] er: sem 723aˣ;    sér til: ‘[...]’ 723aˣ;    hjálpar: sálubótar 720a IV, ‘[...]älu böt’ 723aˣ    [7] eins: so 720a IV, 723aˣ, om. 1199ˣ    [8, 9] siðir bæta um: ‘[...]ta[...]’ 723aˣ    [9] glæp: so 720a IV, 723aˣ, grun 1199ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 191, Skj BII, 205, Skald II, 107; Hallgrímur Scheving 1831, 28, 34, Gering 1907, 32, Tuvestrand 1977, 137, Hermann Pálsson 1985, 111.

Notes: [All]: Lat. parallel: (Dist. IV, 14) Cum sis ipse nocens, moritur cur victima pro te? / stultitia est morte alterius sperare salutem ‘When you yourself are a killer, why should the victim die for you? It is foolishness to hope for salvation from the death of another’. — [3]: The l. is unmetrical in all mss. — [7-9]: The extra 3 ll. have perhaps been added from a lost st. or from a commentary in a schoolbook. It is also possible that the redactor’s intention was to give the st. a more Christian touch, since the first six ll. deal with heathen sacrifices. The reading eins ‘the one’ in l. 7 is added from 720 a IV, 723aˣ to make the l. metrical.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. Tuvestrand, Birgitta, ed. 1977. Hugsvinnsmál: Handskrifter och kritisk text. Lundastudier i nordisk språkvetenskap A:29. Lund: Blom.
4. Hermann Pálsson, ed. 1985a. Áhrif Hugsvinnsmála á aðrar fornbókmenntir. Studia Islandica/Íslensk Fræði 43. Reykjavík: Menningarsjóður.
5. Gering, Hugo, ed. 1907. Hugsvinnsmál. Eine altisländische Übersetzung der Disticha Catonis. Kiel: Lipsius & Tischer.
6. Hallgrímur Scheving, ed. 1831. Hugsvinnsmál, ásamt þeirra látinska frumriti. Skóla hátið. Viðeyar Klaustri: prentuð af Helga Helgasyni, á kostnað Bessastaða Skóla.