Anon Hsv 25^VII

Ef þú vin átt,        þann er þér vildr sé,
        fýs þú hann gott at gera;
orða þinna        þótt hann kunni öngva þökk,
        þó skaltu hann við vammi vara.

Ef þú átt vin, þann er sé þér vildr, fýs þú hann at gera gott; þótt hann kunni öngva þökk orða þinna, skaltu hann þó vara við vammi.

If you have a friend who is agreeable to you, encourage him to do good; although he might be ungrateful for your words, you must nonetheless warn him against wrongdoing.

Mss: 1199ˣ(72v), 720a IV(1v) (ll. 1-5), 723aˣ(78), 401ˣ(1r), 624(141)

Readings: [2] vildr sé: hollr geriz 624    [4] orða: þó orða 723aˣ    [5] kunni öngva þökk: ‘kunne au[...]’ 720a IV, öngva þökk kunni 401ˣ, óþökk kunni 624    [6] þó: so 624, þá 1199ˣ, 723aˣ, om. 401ˣ;    skaltu: skalt 723aˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 173, Skj BII, 189, Skald II, 99; Hallgrímur Scheving 1831, 11, Gering 1907, 7, Tuvestrand 1977, 84, Hermann Pálsson 1985, 41.

Notes: [All]: Lat. parallel (Dist. I, 9): Cum moneas aliquem nec se velit ille moneri, / si tibi sit carus, noli desistere coeptis ‘When you warn somebody even though he does not want to be warned, if he is dear to you, do not desist in what you have begun’. — [1-3]: These ll. are parallelled in Hávm 44 (NK, 24): Veiztu, ef þú vin átt, | þann er þú vel trúir, | oc vill þú af hánom gott geta... ‘You know, if you’ve a friend whom you really trust / and from whom you want nothing but good...’ (Larrington 1996, 20). The reading vildr ‘pleasant, agreeable’ in 1199ˣ may have been influenced by Hávm 124/4 (NK, 37): era sá vinr ǫðrom, | er vilt eitt segir ‘he is no true friend who only says pleasant things’ (Larrington 1996, 31).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. Tuvestrand, Birgitta, ed. 1977. Hugsvinnsmál: Handskrifter och kritisk text. Lundastudier i nordisk språkvetenskap A:29. Lund: Blom.
4. Hermann Pálsson, ed. 1985a. Áhrif Hugsvinnsmála á aðrar fornbókmenntir. Studia Islandica/Íslensk Fræði 43. Reykjavík: Menningarsjóður.
5. Gering, Hugo, ed. 1907. Hugsvinnsmál. Eine altisländische Übersetzung der Disticha Catonis. Kiel: Lipsius & Tischer.
6. 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.
7. Hallgrímur Scheving, ed. 1831. Hugsvinnsmál, ásamt þeirra látinska frumriti. Skóla hátið. Viðeyar Klaustri: prentuð af Helga Helgasyni, á kostnað Bessastaða Skóla.
8. Larrington, Carolyne, trans. 1996. The Poetic Edda. The World’s Classics. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
9. Internal references
10. Not published: do not cite ()