Gamlkan Has 33^VII

Hǫrð munat hógligt verða
hjalmstýranda ins dýra
sunnu synðgum mǫnnum
sekðarorð at forðask,
systkin mín, þvít sýnask
sôr ok kross fyr ossu
dróttins várs með dreyra
dyggs augliti hryggu.

Munat verða hógligt synðgum mǫnnum at forðask hǫrð sekðarorð {ins dýra {sunnu hjalm}stýranda}, þvít, systkin mín, sôr ok kross dyggs dróttins várs með dreyra sýnask fyr hryggu augliti ossu.

It will not be easy for sinful men to escape the harsh words of damnation {of the precious ruler {of the helmet of the sun}} [(lit. ‘helmet-ruler of the sun’) SKY/HEAVEN > = God (= Christ)], because, my brothers and sisters, the wounds and Cross of our faithful Lord, as well as his blood, will appear before our rueful faces [lit. face].

Mss: B(13r), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [1] Hǫrð: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘H[...]’ B

Editions: Skj AI, 566-7, Skj BI, 556-7, Skald I, 270; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 23-4, Kempff 1867, 10, Rydberg 1907, 26, Black 1971, 223, Attwood 1996a, 230.

Notes: [All]: Paasche (1914a, 146) notes that the concept of the appearance of Christ’s wounds at Judgement can be traced to biblical passages concerned with the Last Days. Zech. XII.10 describes the sorrow of the Jews at this time: et aspicient ad me quem confixerunt et plangent eum planctu quasi super unigenitum ‘and they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son’. This v. is recalled at the opening of Rev. I.7: ecce venit cum nubibus et videbit eum omnis oculus et qui eum pupugerunt et plangent se super eum omnes tribus terrae etiam ‘behold, he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth shall bewail themselves because of him’. — [2-3] hjalmstýranda sunnu ‘steerer of the helmet of the sun [SKY/HEAVEN > = God (= Christ)]’: Although the sky- or heaven-kenning sunnu hjalmr is a hap. leg., it recalls hjalmr sólar ‘helmet of the sun’ in Arnórr jarlaskáld’s supposed fragment from a memorial poem for Gellir Þorkelsson (Arn Frag 1^III; cf. Whaley 1998, 134), the earliest surviving poetic account of the Last Judgement in ON. The helmet reference also occurs in Leið 30/5-8, where God is referred to as ǫðlingr lopthjalms ‘king of the sky-helmet’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. Attwood, Katrina. 1996a. ‘The Poems of MS AM 757a 4to: An Edition and Contextual Study’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Leeds.
4. Black, Elizabeth L. 1971. ‘Harmsól: an edition’. B. Litt. thesis. University of Oxford.
5. Rydberg, Hugo, ed. 1907. ‘Die geistlichen Drápur und Dróttkvættfragmente des Cod. AM 757 4to.’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Lund. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. Whaley, Diana, ed. and trans. 1998. The Poetry of Arnórr jarlaskáld: An Edition and Study. Westfield Publications in Medieval Studies 8. Turnhout: Brepols.
7. Kempff, Hjalmar, ed. 1867. Kaniken Gamles ‘Harmsól’ (Sol i Sorgen): isländskt andligt qväde från medeltiden med öfversättning och förklaringar. Uppsala: Edquist & Berglund.
8. Paasche, Fredrik. 1914. Kristendom og kvad: En studie i norrøn middelalder. Christiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. in Paasche 1948, 29-212.
9. 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.
10. Internal references
11. Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Leiðarvísan 30’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 167-8.
12. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2017, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Fragments 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. 3.