Gamlkan Has 16^VII

Hefr, at hvern of rifjak,
harri minn, til fjarri,
grandi firðr, þanns gerðak
geig, es sék þik eigi,
elsku kuðr, alls yðvarr,
ǫðlingr, hefik, rǫðla,
aumligr þræll í ǫllum
afgerðum mik vafðan.

Hefr til fjarri, at of rifjak hvern geig, þanns gerðak, es sék þik eigi, harri minn, grandi firðr, alls, yðvarr aumligr þræll, hefik mik vafðan í ǫllum afgerðum, {ǫðlingr rǫðla}, elsku kuðr.

It is far [from the case] that I can enumerate every injury that I have committed when I do not see you, my Lord, removed from sin, since I, your wretched servant, have wrapped myself in all [kinds of] misdeeds, {prince of heavenly bodies} [= God], renowned for love.

Mss: B(12v), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [1] rifjak: ‘rifiat’ B    [3] þanns: þann B;    gerðak (‘gǫrdag’): so 399a‑bˣ, BFJ, ‘go᷎r[...]’ B    [7] aumligr: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘aumle[...]’ B

Editions: Skj AI, 564, Skj BI, 552, Skald I, 268; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 18, Kempff 1867, 5, Rydberg 1907, 23, Black 1971, 181, Attwood 1996a, 88, 225.

Notes: [1] rifjak ‘I ennumerate’: It is not possible to make sense of B’s reading ‘rifiat’. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1844, 18 n. 22) suggested emendation to rifjak, 1st pers. sg. pres. of rifja ‘to rake hay into rows’ with the figurative meaning ‘to go over with oneself, reckon up, enumerate’ (see CVC: rifja). This emendation has been adopted by all subsequent eds. — [3] þanns ‘the one that’: It is necessary to add the suffixed rel. particle for syntactic reasons. — [6] ǫðlingr rǫðla ‘prince of heavenly bodies [= God]’: The identical kenning appears in Leið 32/2. What one would expect to be a popular rhyming pair, in Christian poetry at least, occurs elsewhere only in a fragment of a poem about Sveinn tjúguskegg attributed to Þorleifr jarlsskáld Rauðfeldarson (Þjsk Sveindr 1/2^I) and Mgr 3/2 .

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
4. Attwood, Katrina. 1996a. ‘The Poems of MS AM 757a 4to: An Edition and Contextual Study’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Leeds.
5. Black, Elizabeth L. 1971. ‘Harmsól: an edition’. B. Litt. thesis. University of Oxford.
6. Rydberg, Hugo, ed. 1907. ‘Die geistlichen Drápur und Dróttkvættfragmente des Cod. AM 757 4to.’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Lund. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. Kempff, Hjalmar, ed. 1867. Kaniken Gamles ‘Harmsól’ (Sol i Sorgen): isländskt andligt qväde från medeltiden med öfversättning och förklaringar. Uppsala: Edquist & Berglund.
8. Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1844. Fjøgur gømul kvæði. Boðsrit til að hlusta á þá opinberu yfirheyrslu í Bessastaða Skóla þann 22-29 mai 1844. Viðeyar Klaustri: prentuð af Helga Helgasyni, á kostnað Bessastaða Skóla. Bessastaðir: Helgi Helgason.
9. Internal references
11. Kate Heslop 2012, ‘(Biography of) Þorleifr jarlsskáld Rauðfeldarson’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367.
12. Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Leiðarvísan 32’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 169.
13. Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Leiðarvísan 36’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 172.
14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Drápa af Máríugrát 3’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 761.
15. Katrina Attwood 2007, ‘ Gamli kanóki, Harmsól’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 70-132. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1196> (accessed 25 April 2024)
16. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2012, ‘Þorleifr jarlsskáld Rauðfeldarson, Drápa about Sveinn tjúguskegg 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 374.