Anon Hsv 122^VII

Eigi skaltu hlæja,        ef þú vilt horskr vera,
        at öldruðum afa;
opt þat ellibjúgr man,        sem ungr veit eigi,
        ok kennir gott gum*um.

Skaltu eigi hlæja at öldruðum afa, ef þú vilt vera horskr; ellibjúgr man opt þat, sem ungr veit eigi, ok kennir gum*um gott.

You must not laugh at an elderly grandfather, if you want to be wise; often one bowed down with age remembers what a young person does not know, and teaches men well.

Mss: 1199ˣ(75r), 723aˣ(83), 624(146)

Readings: [1] Eigi skaltu hlæja: skal eigi sá hlægja 624    [2] ef þú vilt horskr: ef horskr vilt 723aˣ, er vill hoskr 624    [3] afa: so 723aˣ, veðrafa 1199ˣ, om. 624    [4] þat: veit þat 723aˣ, om. 624;    man: maðr 723aˣ, veit 624    [5] sem: þat er 624;    veit: mun 624;    eigi: so 723aˣ, 624, eigi til 1199ˣ    [6] ok: so 723aˣ, 624, om. 1199ˣ;    gum*um: all

Editions: Skj AII, 192, Skj BII, 206, Skald II, 108, NN §2344; Hallgrímur Scheving 1831, 29, Gering 1907, 33, Tuvestrand 1977, 138, Hermann Pálsson 1985, 113.

Notes: [All]: Lat. parallel: (Dist. IV, 18) Cum sapias animo, noli ridere senectam; / nam † quocumque † sene, puerilis sensus in illo est ‘Since you are wise in mind, do not mock old age; for whoever is growing old, there is a childish mind in him’. The OIcel. version has a much more positive view of old age than the Lat. distich. Concerning the advice not to laugh at elderly people cf. also Hávm 134/5-9 (NK, 39): at három þul | hlæðu aldregi! | opt er gott, | þat er gamlir qveða; | opt ór scǫrpom belg | scilin orð koma ‘at a grey-haired sage you should never laugh! Often what the old say is good; often from a wrinkled bag come judicious words’ (Larrington 1996, 33). — [3] afa ‘grandfather’: 723aˣ’s reading is chosen here for alliteration. 1199ˣ’s veðrafa (from veðrafi ‘weather-grandfather’) is a hap. leg. — [5]: The l. is unmetrical, having two alliterating staves in all mss. — [6] gum*um ‘men’: Cf. Note to st. 59/3.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Tuvestrand, Birgitta, ed. 1977. Hugsvinnsmál: Handskrifter och kritisk text. Lundastudier i nordisk språkvetenskap A:29. Lund: Blom.
5. Hermann Pálsson, ed. 1985a. Áhrif Hugsvinnsmála á aðrar fornbókmenntir. Studia Islandica/Íslensk Fræði 43. Reykjavík: Menningarsjóður.
6. Gering, Hugo, ed. 1907. Hugsvinnsmál. Eine altisländische Übersetzung der Disticha Catonis. Kiel: Lipsius & Tischer.
7. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
8. Hallgrímur Scheving, ed. 1831. Hugsvinnsmál, ásamt þeirra látinska frumriti. Skóla hátið. Viðeyar Klaustri: prentuð af Helga Helgasyni, á kostnað Bessastaða Skóla.
9. Larrington, Carolyne, trans. 1996. The Poetic Edda. The World’s Classics. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
10. Internal references
11. Not published: do not cite ()