Tarrin Wills and Stefanie Gropper (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Hugsvinnsmál 137’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 441-2.
Hjarðir sæfa þarf eigi til hylli guðs;
beit þú yxn fyrir arðr;
reykelsis ilm, þann er kemr af réttum siðum,
vill hann fyrir tafn taka.
Þarf eigi sæfa hjarðir til hylli guðs; beit þú yxn fyrir arðr; hann vill taka fyrir tafn reykelsis ilm, þann er kemr af réttum siðum.
It is not necessary to kill herds for the honour of God; harness oxen to a plough; He will accept in place of sacrifice the fragrance of incense which comes from correct religious observances.
Mss: 1199ˣ(75r), 720a IV(2v), 723aˣ(83), 624(147)
Readings: [2] þarf: skaltu 624; hylli: so 720a IV, 723aˣ, 624, hylla 1199ˣ [3] beit: bættu 624; þú: þín 720a IV, 624, því 723aˣ [4, 5] reykelsis ilm þann: þann reykelsis ilm 723aˣ [5] er: sem 723aˣ [6] vill: so 723aˣ, þat 1199ˣ, 720a IV, 624; tafn: takn 624
Editions: Skj AII, 195, Skj BII, 208-9, Skald II, 109; Hallgrímur Scheving 1831, 32, Gering 1907, 37, Tuvestrand 1977, 146, Hermann Pálsson 1985, 123.
Notes: [All]: Lat. parallel: (Dist. IV, 38) Ture deum placa, vitulum sine crescrat aratro: / ne credas gaudere deum, cum caede litatur ‘Please God with incense, that the calf may grow without the plough; do not think to please God when sacrifice is made to him by killing’. The same idea is expressed in Hsv 119, possibly deriving from Pss 49 and 50. — [3] beit ‘harness, bite’: There is a play here on the senses of beita: the expression beita fyrir ‘to harness (an animal) to (a vehicle, plough, etc.)’; and the sense of the same verb, ‘cause to bite, hunt’, which can relate to the killing of animals for sacrifice mentioned in the first cl. — [6] vill ‘will’: The reading þat at the start of this l. in most mss does not seem to work grammatically, as þat n. cannot agree with ilm m. in l. 4.
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