Gamlkan Has 54^VII

Sôlu veittak, sættir,
— sárrs minn … —
bana hættligar benjar,
bragna kyns, fyr synðir.
Nú beiðum þik, þjóðar
þrekfœðandi, grœða
andar sôr, þaus óru
ósvífr glata lífi.

{Sættir {kyns bragna}}, veittak … sôlu hættligar benjar bana fyr synðir; sárrs minn …. Nú beiðum þik, {þrekfœðandi þjóðar}, grœða andar sôr, þaus ósvífr glata lífi óru.

{Reconciler {of the kindred of heroes}} [MEN > = God], I dealt … soul dangerous wounds of death because of my sins; bitter is my …. Now we [I] beg you, {strength-nourisher of the people} [= God], to heal the soul’s wounds which, relentless, destroy our [my] life.

Mss: B(13r), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [1] Sôlu: ‘Sals’ B    [2] …: ‘[...]re[...]’ B, 399a‑bˣ, ‘træ(g)i’(?) BRydberg, ‘(t)re[...]’ BFJ    [3] bana: ‘[...]na’ B, ‘[...]ana’ 399a‑bˣ, ‘[...]na’ BRydberg, BFJ    [5] þik: om. B    [6] grœða: ‘gręd[...]’ B, 399a‑bˣ    [7] andar: ‘[...]ar’ B, ‘ạṇdar’ 399a‑bˣ, ‘[...](dar)’(?) BRydberg, (an)dar(?) BFJ    [8] lífi: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘[...]’ B

Editions: Skj AI, 570, Skj BI, 562, Skald I, 272; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 30, Kempff 1867, 16, Rydberg 1907, 29, Black 1971, 274, Attwood 1996a, 235.

Notes: [1] sôlu (dat. sg.) ‘soul’: B reads Sáls gen. sg. Sveinbjörn Egilsson suggests emendation to Sálu dat. (unsigned note in 444ˣ and 1844, 30 n. 64). That reading has been adopted by all subsequent eds. — [2-3] … bana: B is very badly damaged, and traces of only one letter and a superscript re abbreviation are visible (fol. 13r, ll. 45-6). The 399a-bˣ copyist was able to read only one further letter in the second word ‘…ana’. Reconstruction of this word thus relies on this reading and on the fact that initial <b> is required for alliteration. Other eds have made valiant attempts to reconstruct the missing text here, which is likely to comprise two words. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (444ˣ and 1844) postulates sárr es minn hugr þinni | bana. He is followed by Kempff and Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), who construes Slu þinni veittak benjar fyr bana hættiligar synðir, sættir bragna kyns; sárr es hugr minn ‘I dealt wounds to your soul by means of my deathly dangerous sins, reconciler of the kindred of heroes; my soul is wounded’. Rydberg (1907, xxiii) rejects this interpretation on the grounds that the remaining traces of the text will not sustain it. He asserts (1907, 29 n. 9) that he once was able to read a number of letter forms no longer visible in 1907, and reconstructs the text sarr er minn tregi varri bana, construing veittak várri slu hættiligar benjar bana fyr synðir; minn tregi es sárr ‘I dealt our [my] soul dangerous death-wounds because of [my] sins; my grief is bitter’. Sveinbjörn’s reconstruction requires þinni to be construed with slu, as in Finnur’s prose arrangement. The continuation of the theme through the st., however, suggests that, as in the second helmingr, the injured soul here is not likely to be Christ’s, but rather that of the sinner-narrator, who refers to himself in the 1st pers. throughout. — [5] þik ‘you’: B is short of an alliterating syllable here. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1844, 30 n. 67) supplies the acc. sg. pron. þik, which has been adopted by all eds.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
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.