Anon Hsv 136VII
Tarrin Wills and Stefanie Gropper (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Hugsvinnsmál 136’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 441.
Engi oftreysti, þótt eigi sé gamall,
at muni lengi lifa;
skugga sinn hygg ek eigi mega skatna flýja
né heldr forðaz feigð.
Engi oftreysti, at muni lifa lengi, þótt sé eigi gamall; ek hygg skatna mega eigi flýja skugga sinn né heldr forðaz feigð.
Nobody may trust too much that he will live long, even if he is not old; I think that men cannot escape their shadow nor avoid the approach of death.
Mss: 1199ˣ(75v), 624(147)
Readings: [1] oftreysti: oftreystiz 624 [2] eigi sé: hann sé eigi 624 [3] muni: hann muni 624 [5] mega skatna flýja: skatna flýja mega 624
Editions: Skj AII, 195, Skj BII, 208, Skald II, 109; Hallgrímur Scheving 1831, 32, Gering 1907, 37, Tuvestrand 1977, 146, Hermann Pálsson 1985, 122.
Notes: [All]: Lat. parallel: (Dist. IV, 37) Tempora longa tibi noli promittere vitae: / quocumque ingrederis, sequitur mors corporis umbra ‘Do not promise yourself a long stretch of life; wherever you go death, the shadow of the body, follows’. The advice to be wary of sudden death is also given in Hsv 38. Cf. also Hávm 16 (NK, 19): Ósniallr maðr | hyggz muno ey lifa, | ef hann við víg varaz ‘The foolish man thinks he will live for ever, if he keeps away from fighting’ (Larrington 1996, 16). The same idea is expressed in Has 43.
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Tuvestrand, Birgitta, ed. 1977. Hugsvinnsmál: Handskrifter och kritisk text. Lundastudier i nordisk språkvetenskap A:29. Lund: Blom.
- Hermann Pálsson, ed. 1985a. Áhrif Hugsvinnsmála á aðrar fornbókmenntir. Studia Islandica/Íslensk Fræði 43. Reykjavík: Menningarsjóður.
- Gering, Hugo, ed. 1907. Hugsvinnsmál. Eine altisländische Übersetzung der Disticha Catonis. Kiel: Lipsius & Tischer.
- 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.
- Hallgrímur Scheving, ed. 1831. Hugsvinnsmál, ásamt þeirra látinska frumriti. Skóla hátið. Viðeyar Klaustri: prentuð af Helga Helgasyni, á kostnað Bessastaða Skóla.
- Larrington, Carolyne, trans. 1996. The Poetic Edda. The World’s Classics. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
- Internal references
- Tarrin Wills and Stefanie Gropper (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Hugsvinnsmál 38’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 383-4.
- Not published: do not cite ()
- Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Gamli kanóki, Harmsól 43’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 111-12.
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