Tarrin Wills and Stefanie Gropper (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Hugsvinnsmál 145’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 446.
Þessi *ljóð, ef þú þekkjaz vilt,
efla þik til þrifa,
en sá halr, sem hafna vill,
stríðir sjálfum sér.
Þessi *ljóð efla þik til þrifa, ef þú vilt þekkjaz, en sá halr, sem vill hafna, stríðir sér sjálfum.
‘This poem [lit. these poems] will help you to prosperity, if you want to receive it, but the man who wants to reject it, will harm himself.’
Lat. parallel: (III, Praefatio) Hoc quicumque voles carmen cognoscere lector / cum praecepta ferat, quae sunt gratissima vitae / commoda multa feres, sin autem spreveris illud, / non me scriptorem, sed te neglexeris ipse ‘Any reader who wishes to know this poem, since it brings precepts which are most applicable to life; you carry many useful things, but if you scorn it, you are not neglecting me, the author, but yourself’. The inclusion of an Icel. version of the prefaces to Books III-IV here is probably to supply an appropriate conclusion to the poem. The Lat. disticha end with IV, 49: Miraris verbis nudis me scribere versus; / hoc brevitas fecit, sensu coniungere binos ‘You marvel that I write these verses in bare words; this brevity brings about, to join in one thought two (lines)’.
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Þessi hljóð,
ef þú þekkjaz vilt,
efla þik til þrifa,
en sá halr,
sem hafna vill,
stríðir sjálfum sér.
Þesse hliöd ef þu þeckiast villt. efla þig til þrifa. enn sa halur sem | hafna vill, strijder siälfum sier.
(VEÞ)
Þessi ráð,
ef þú þekkjaz vilt,
efla þik til þrifa,
en sá halr,
er þeim hafna vill,
stríðir um sjálfum sér.
Þessi rad ef þv þeciaz uill efla þik til þrifa enn sa halur er þeim hafna | uill strider vm sialfvm ser
(VEÞ)
Þesse räd | ef þu þeckiast villt, efla þig thil þrifa, enn sä | halur er þeim hafna vill, strijder vm siälfum sier. |
(VEÞ)
Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], [C. E/5]. Hugsvinnsmál 145: AII, 197, BII, 210, Skald II, 110; Hallgrímur Scheving 1831, 22, Gering 1907, 24, Tuvestrand 1977, 150, Hermann Pálsson 1985, 128.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.