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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Gamlkan Has 38VII

Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Gamli kanóki, Harmsól 38’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 106.

Gamli kanókiHarmsól
373839

Þjóð á hart, sús hlýða
hildings boðum vildat
lofða kyns meðan lifði,
lýtum kend fyr hendi.
Sú rasar aum í aumar
óvísligar píslir;
ey grœtir þar ýta
uggr, en vætki huggar.

Þjóð, kend lýtum, sús vildat hlýða boðum {hildings {kyns lofða}} meðan lifði, á hart fyr hendi. Sú rasar aum í aumar, óvísligar píslir; uggr grœtir þar ýta ey, en vætki huggar.

That group of people, known for sins, who would not heed the commandments {of the prince {of the race of men}} [MANKIND > RULER = Christ] while it lived, faces hardship. It rushes wretched into wretched, uncertain tortures; fear grieves people there perpetually, and nothing affords comfort.

Mss: B(13r), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [4] kend: ‘[...]’ B, ‘k[...]nd’ 399a‑bˣ    [8] huggar: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘huga[...]’ B

Editions: Skj AI, 567, Skj BI, 558, Skald I, 270, NN §§2805, 2926; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 25, Kempff 1867, 11-12, Rydberg 1907, 27, Black 1971, 236, Attwood 1996a, 231.

Notes: [4] kend ‘known’: B is badly worn, and it is not possible to identify the traces of possibly two letters which remain. 399a-bˣ read ‘k…nd’ with certainty, and a second hand (identified by Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 25 n. 48, as that of Jón Sigurðsson) supplied ‘kend’. This reconstruction is confirmed by the aðalhending with hendi, and has been adopted by all subsequent eds. — [6] óvísligar (f. acc. pl.) ‘uncertain’: So B, 399a-bˣ, Kempff and Rydberg; Skj A reads æ vísligar, which is followed by Skj B, Kock, Jón Helgason (1935-6, 252) and Black, the first word being understood as the adv. æ ‘always’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) construes sú rasar æ aum í aumar vísligar píslir, which he translates de styrter altid elendige i elendige visse pinsler ‘they rush always miserable into miserable certain torments’. Kock (NN §2805) takes the æ ‘always’ as modifying vísligar píslir, understood in apposition to aumar ‘wretched’.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
  3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
  4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  6. Attwood, Katrina. 1996a. ‘The Poems of MS AM 757a 4to: An Edition and Contextual Study’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Leeds.
  7. Black, Elizabeth L. 1971. ‘Harmsól: an edition’. B. Litt. thesis. University of Oxford.
  8. Rydberg, Hugo, ed. 1907. ‘Die geistlichen Drápur und Dróttkvættfragmente des Cod. AM 757 4to.’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Lund. Copenhagen: Møller.
  9. Jón Helgason. 1935-6. ‘Til skjaldedigtningen’. APS 10, 250-64.
  10. Kempff, Hjalmar, ed. 1867. Kaniken Gamles ‘Harmsól’ (Sol i Sorgen): isländskt andligt qväde från medeltiden med öfversättning och förklaringar. Uppsala: Edquist & Berglund.
  11. 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.
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