Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Gamli kanóki, Harmsól 48’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 115.
Frétt hafa* dyggvar dróttir,
Dávíð konungr síðan
snilli vanðr ept synðir
siðabót at tók skjóta.
Blíðr nam þengill þýðask
— þats bann — konu annars,
en réð, svát bar brôðum,
búandmann* af því svanna.
Dyggvar dróttir hafa* frétt, at Dávíð konungr, snilli vanðr, tók síðan skjóta siðabót ept synðir. Blíðr þengill nam þýðask konu annars — þats bann —, en réð af því búandmann* svanna, svát bar brôðum.
Worthy men have heard that King David, accustomed to eloquence, later made quick moral amends after his sins. The gentle king took pleasure in the wife of another man — that is forbidden — and for that reason brought about the death of the woman’s husband, in such a way that it happened by surprise.
Mss: B(13r), 399a-bˣ
Readings: [1] hafa*: ‘hafum’ B, 399a‑bˣ, ‘hǫfum’ BRydberg, ‘hofum’ BFJ [4] siðabót: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘s[...]bot’ B [8] búandmann*: ‘[...]uand mannz’ B, ‘buand mannz’ 399a‑bˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 569, Skj BI, 272, Skald I, 272, NN §3243; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 28, Kempff 1867, 14, Rydberg 1907, 28, Black 1971, 258, Attwood 1996a, 234.
Notes: [1] hafa* ‘have’: Finnur Jónsson, followed by Kock, Black, and this edn, emends B’s ‘hafum’ (l. 1) to hafa* in order to supply a verb in the 3rd pers. pl., and construes dyggvar dróttir hafa frétt ‘worthy men have heard’. — [3] snilli vanðr ‘accustomed to eloquence’: Cf. Leið 6/6, where God is described as snillifimr ‘prowess-nimble’. Both expressions appear to be hap. leg. Use of this cpd here to describe the Psalmist, David, is particularly appropriate. — [4] siðabót ‘moral amends’: Cf. 3/8. — [5-8]: The story of David’s adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent death of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite, is recounted in 2 Sam. XI. — [8] búandmann* ‘husband’: B’s reading ‘[...]uand mannz’ is gen. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (note to 444ˣ transcript and 1844, 28 n. 59) emends to búandmann acc., which has been adopted by all subsequent eds. — [8] af því ‘for that reason’: Kock (NN §3243) notes that the force of this phrase is consequential, rather than temporal. Gamli is implying that David arranged the death of Uriah as a consequence of his love for Bathsheba, not, as Skj B’s translation derefter ‘thereafter’ suggests, merely after he had fallen in love with her.
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