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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon Lil 16VII

Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 16’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 581-2.

Anonymous PoemsLilja
151617

text and translation

Sem próvandi segir, að ‘Éva,
svara mier skjótt! En hví hefir dróttinn
sætast ykkur blóm að bíta
bannað, lofað en flest alt annað?’
Svá fór það, er svaraði Éva,
sem margbrugðinn fjandinn hugði:
‘að ei fari við lífs af leiðum,
liettliga hröpum í dauðans stiettir.’

Sem próvandi segir, að ‘Éva, svara mier skjótt! En hví hefir dróttinn bannað ykkur að bíta sætast blóm, en lofað flest alt annað?’ Það fór svá, er Éva svaraði, sem margbrugðinn fjandinn hugði: ‘Að fari við ei af leiðum lífs, hröpum liettliga í stiettir dauðans.’
 
‘As one testing, he says, that ‘Eve, answer me quickly! Why has the Lord forbidden you to eat the sweetest fruit, but allowed almost everything else?’ So it went, that Eve answered, as the shifty fiend had expected: ‘So that we do not wander off the paths of life, perhaps rush into the ways of death.’

notes and context

See Note on st. 15. — [7-8]: Foote (1982, 120) observes that these ll., combined with the word-play of ll. 1-2 of the following st. (ei, liettliga, Liettliga, liettleika) echo the word-play of Geoffrey of Vinsauf: ‘Hoc ideo ne forte per hoc moriamur.’ Ad illud ‘Forte’ minus fortem credentem vidit; et inde Fortior his illam vicit ... ‘She replied, ‘For this reason, indeed: lest perchance through it we die.’ At that ‘perchance’ he saw her unstable in faith; and then, gaining assurance, he overcame her with this ...’.

readings

sources

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.

editions and texts

Skj: Eysteinn Ásgrímsson, Lilja 16: AII, 368, BII, 394, Skald II, 214, NN §2629 B.

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