Anon Hsv 27^VII

Þann dugnað veitt        vinum þínum,
        sem eigi fylgir mein til mikit;
annars illsku        láttu aldrigi
        standa þér fyrir þrifum.

Veitt vinum þínum þann dugnað, sem eigi fylgir til mikit mein; láttu aldrigi annars illsku standa þér fyrir þrifum.

Give your friends that [kind of] assistance which is not accompanied by too much harm; never let another’s ill will stand in the way of your wellbeing.

Mss: 1199ˣ(72v), 723aˣ(78), 624(141)

Readings: [1] dugnað: dugnað þú skalt 624    [2] vinum þínum: þínum vin 723aˣ    [3] sem eigi fylgir mein til mikit: so 624, at eigi fylgi mikit mein 1199ˣ, 723aˣ    [4] illsku: eigin 624    [5] láttu: girnztu 624    [6] standa: eða lát standa 624

Editions: Skj AII, 173-4, Skj BII, 190, Skald II, 99; Hallgrímur Scheving 1831, 11, Gering 1907, 8, Tuvestrand 1977, 85, Hermann Pálsson 1985, 43.

Notes: [All]: Lat. parallel: (Dist. I, 11) Dilige sic alios, ut sis tibi carus amicus; / sic bonus esto bonis, ne te mala damna sequantur ‘Love others in such a way that you are a dear friend to yourself; so be good to the good, so that bad losses will not happen to you’. The mutual respect among friends is also mentioned in Hsv 15. — [3] sem eigi fylgir til mikit mein ‘which is not accompanied by too much harm’: 624’s reading is chosen here. The scribe of 1199ˣ may not have understood the intensifier til. — [4-6]: These ll. have no exact equivalent in the Lat. text, but the phrasing of 1199ˣ might be interpreted as trying to render the sic bonus esto bonis ‘so be good to the good’ in the redactor’s own words.

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. Hallgrímur Scheving, ed. 1831. Hugsvinnsmál, ásamt þeirra látinska frumriti. Skóla hátið. Viðeyar Klaustri: prentuð af Helga Helgasyni, á kostnað Bessastaða Skóla.
7. Internal references
8. Tarrin Wills and Stefanie Gropper (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Hugsvinnsmál 15’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 369-70.