Ekúl Kristdr 1III
Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Eilífr kúlnasveinn, Kristsdrápa 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 130.
kennings
Ferð hróts heims‘The host of the roof of the world ’
= ANGELS
the roof of the world → SKY/HEAVEN
The host of the SKY/HEAVEN → ANGELS
kennings
Ferð hróts heims‘The host of the roof of the world ’
= ANGELS
the roof of the world → SKY/HEAVEN
The host of the SKY/HEAVEN → ANGELS
lýtr ‘bow’
(not checked:)
1. lúta (verb): (strong)
notes
[1] lýtr ‘bow’: The verb is 3rd pers. sg. with a coordinate subject. The same verb is used in st. 2/1 in the same position, though there the subject is a single collective noun.
helgum ‘to the holy’
(not checked:)
heilagr (adj.; °helgan; compar. -ari, superl. -astr): holy, sacred
[1] helgum: ‘hal[…]m’ U
notes
[1] crúci ‘to the … cross’: The reading of all mss except R. On the Latinate spelling, see Anon Líkn 39/1VII and Note. Most recent eds (Skj B; Skald; SnE 1998) have followed R’s spelling and written krúzi. Here the syllable crúc- forms a skothending with hróts and <c> presumably had the pronunciation [ts], whether the spelling was with <c> or <z>.
heims ‘of the world’
(not checked:)
heimr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i/-; -ar): home, abode; world
kennings
Ferð hróts heims‘The host of the roof of the world ’
= ANGELS
the roof of the world → SKY/HEAVEN
The host of the SKY/HEAVEN → ANGELS
heims ‘of the world’
(not checked:)
heimr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i/-; -ar): home, abode; world
kennings
Ferð hróts heims‘The host of the roof of the world ’
= ANGELS
the roof of the world → SKY/HEAVEN
The host of the SKY/HEAVEN → ANGELS
ferð ‘The host’
(not checked:)
ferð (noun f.; °-ar; -ir/-arMork 196¹²)): host, journey
kennings
Ferð hróts heims‘The host of the roof of the world ’
= ANGELS
the roof of the world → SKY/HEAVEN
The host of the SKY/HEAVEN → ANGELS
ok ‘and’
(not checked:)
3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
kennings
lið beima‘the company of men ’
= HUMANS
the company of men → HUMANS
notes
[2] lið beima ‘the company of men [HUMANS]’: Ms. A has kyn beima ‘the kinsfolk of men’. The same kenning is at Gamlkan Has 20/6VII.
kennings
lið beima‘the company of men ’
= HUMANS
the company of men → HUMANS
notes
[2] lið beima ‘the company of men [HUMANS]’: Ms. A has kyn beima ‘the kinsfolk of men’. The same kenning is at Gamlkan Has 20/6VII.
sannr ‘the true’
(not checked:)
2. sannr (adj.; °-an; compar. -ari, superl. -astr): true
[3] sannr: sǫnn all
kennings
sannr sólkonungr‘the true king of the sun ’
= God
the true king of the sun → God
notes
[3] sannr ‘true’: All mss read sǫnn and this reading was adopted by Finnur Jónsson in Skj B, construing sólkonungr es einn hreinni an ǫll ǫnnur sǫnn dýrð ‘the king of the sun is alone purer than all other true glory’. SnE 1998 also follows the ms. forms here. The problem with doing so, as Kock (NN §2546) noted, is that Finnur’s construal has the verb embedded in the comparative part of the clause, whereas the word before es ‘is’ must belong to its main part; hence the emendation to the m. sg. adj. sannr to agree with sólkonungr.
s ‘is’
(not checked:)
2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
an ‘than’
(not checked:)
2. an (conj.): than
ǫll ‘all’
(not checked:)
allr (adj.): all
dýrð ‘glory’
(not checked:)
dýrð (noun f.; °-ar/-a(NoDipl(1279) 44²); -ir): glory
ǫnnur ‘other’
(not checked:)
1. annarr (pron.; °f. ǫnnur, n. annat; pl. aðrir): (an)other, second
einn ‘alone’
(not checked:)
2. einn (pron.; °decl. cf. einn num.): one, alone
[4] einn: so Tˣ, U, A, ein R, W
sól ‘of the sun’
(not checked:)
sól (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -u/-; -ir): sun < sólkonungr (noun m.): [king of sun]
[4] sólkonungr: so U, A, Máríu R, Tˣ, W
kennings
sannr sólkonungr‘the true king of the sun ’
= God
the true king of the sun → God
konungr ‘king’
(not checked:)
konungr (noun m.; °dat. -i, -s; -ar): king < sólkonungr (noun m.): [king of sun]
[4] sólkonungr: so U, A, Máríu R, Tˣ, W
kennings
sannr sólkonungr‘the true king of the sun ’
= God
the true king of the sun → God
hreinni ‘purer’
(not checked:)
2. hreinn (adj.; °compar. hreinari/hreinni, superl. hreinastr/hreinstr): pure
[4] hreinni: so U, A, sveini R, Tˣ, W
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
The helmingr is introduced, among other examples of kennings for Christ, with the words svá kvað Eilífr kúlnasveinn ‘so said Eilífr kúlnasveinn’ (Eilífr alone without kúlnasveinn in U).
The scene envisaged in the first couplet of this helmingr is of angels on the one hand, and humans on the other, bowing down to worship Christ’s cross. In the second couplet the focus shifts to Christ himself. It is possible that the poet had a visual representation of the adoratio crucis ‘adoration of the cross’ in mind when composing these lines. — [4]: Three mss, R, Tˣ and W, have ein Máríu sveini here. No sense can be made of ll. 3-4 with this reading, which must have been produced by scribal dittography in an earlier exemplar of these mss, anticipating st. 2/2.
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