Anon Hsv 143VII
Tarrin Wills and Stefanie Gropper (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Hugsvinnsmál 143’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 445.
Miskunnsamr skaltu við menn vera,
ef þú átt þræla þér,
þvít jarðligt eðli hygg ek jafnt hafa
þý sem þjóðans mögr.
Skaltu vera miskunnsamr við menn, ef þú átt þér þræla, þvít ek hygg þý hafa jafnt jarðligt eðli sem þjóðans mögr.
You must be merciful with men if you own slaves, because I think a bondwoman has the same earthly nature as the kinsman of a prince.
Mss: 1199ˣ(75v), 624(148)
Readings: [2] menn: mann 624 [4] þvít: om. 624; jarðligt: so 624, jarðligs 1199ˣ; eðli: om. 624 [5] hygg ek: minztu 624; hafa: hefir 624 [6] þý sem: þræll ok 624; þjóðans: so 624, þjóðkóngs 1199ˣ
Editions: Skj AII, 196, Skj BII, 209, Skald II, 110; Hallgrímur Scheving 1831, 33, Konráð Gíslason 1860, 552, Gering 1907, 39, Tuvestrand 1977, 149, Hermann Pálsson 1985, 127.
Notes: [All]: Lat. parallel: (Dist. IV, 44) Cum servos fueris proprios mercatus in usus / et famulos dicas, homines tamen esse memento ‘When you have bought your own slaves for your use, and you call them servants, remember they are still men’. — [4-6]: 624 reads quite differently here: jarðligt minztu, | at jafnt hefir | þræll ok þjóðans mögr (minztu, at þræll ok þjóðans mögr hefir jafnt jarðligt [eðli] ‘remember that a slave and a ruler’s kinsman have the same earthly [nature]’). — [6] þjóðans ‘of a prince’: The scribe of 1199ˣ may have misunderstood the word (perhaps with -an- abbreviated) and replaced it with the more familiar form þjóðkóngs. LP: þjóðann cites a number of similar phrases.
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.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Gering, Hugo, ed. 1907. Hugsvinnsmál. Eine altisländische Übersetzung der Disticha Catonis. Kiel: Lipsius & Tischer.
- Hallgrímur Scheving, ed. 1831. Hugsvinnsmál, ásamt þeirra látinska frumriti. Skóla hátið. Viðeyar Klaustri: prentuð af Helga Helgasyni, á kostnað Bessastaða Skóla.
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