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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Gamlkan Has 62VII

Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Gamli kanóki, Harmsól 62’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 128-9.

Gamli kanókiHarmsól
616263

Hvern biðk hald ok árnan
helgan mann ins sanna,
(trús) við tírar ræsi
(trausts leitak) mér veita,
svát óbœttan ættim
engi kost, þás drengja
jǫfurr vill andar krefja
ástnenninn hal þenna.

Biðk hvern helgan mann veita mér hald ok árnan við ræsi ins sanna tírar — leitak trús trausts —, svát ættim engi kost óbœttan, þás {ástnenninn jǫfurr drengja} vill krefja þenna hal andar.

I ask every holy man to grant me support and intercession with the king of the true glory — I am seeking certain protection —, so that we [I] might have no circumstance unatoned for when {the love-disposed prince of men} [= God (= Christ)] will ask this man for his soul.

Mss: B(13v), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [2] helgan: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘h[...]lgan’ B;    mann: ‘[...]’ B, m(ann)(?) 399a‑bˣ    [6] engi: ‘ein[...]’ B, ‘eịṇgị’ 399a‑bˣ, ‘æin[...](i)’(?) BRydberg, ‘ein(gi)’(?) BFJ;    þás: ‘þa[...]’ B, 399a‑bˣ, þá (er)(?) BRydberg, þá (e)r(?) BFJ

Editions: Skj AI, 571, Skj BI, 564, Skald I, 273, ; NN §3126; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 33, Kempff 1867, 19, Rydberg 1907, 31, Jón Helgason 1935-36, 262, Black 1971, 294, Attwood 1996a, 237.

Notes: [1-2] hvern helgan mann ‘every holy man’: That is, every saint. — [2-3] við ræsi ens sanna tírar ‘with the king of true glory’: A kenning-like periphrasis for Christ, probably based on Lat. rex gloriae ‘king of glory’. — [4] mér ‘to me’: As Kock (NN §3126) observes, the dat. sg. pers. pron. may be construed with either veita ‘to grant’ (l. 1) or leita ‘to seek’ (l. 4), giving either the prose order above or the intercalated phrase ek leita mér trús trausts ‘I am seeking certain protection for myself’. — [6] kost ‘circumstance’: Jón Helgason (1935-6, 262) objects to the ms. reading here, on the ground that kostr ‘condition, circumstance’ is usually only used of positive circumstances. He suggests an emendation to lǫst, acc. sing. of lǫstr m. ‘fault, flaw’. However, as Black (1971, 295) notes, Fritzner: kostr gives examples of the morally neutral meaning ‘situation, circumstance’, which is followed in the translation here. — [8] ástnenninn ‘love-disposed, -inclined’: B is quite clear at this point, and the reading is confirmed by all transcribers of the ms. Sveinbjörn Egilsson adopts this form, the m. nom. sg. of the hap. leg. adj. ástnenninn ‘love-disposed’ in his 1844 edn, but suggests emendation to a m. sg. acc. form ástnennin in a note in 444ˣ, which produces a prose rearrangement þás jǫfurr drengja vill krefja þenna ástnennin hal andar ‘when the prince of men will ask this love-disposed man for his soul’. This reading is adopted by Kempff. Ms. evidence apart, ástnenninn ‘love-disposed’, would seem more suitable as an appellation for the merciful Christ than for the sinful poet and his hearers in the context of this st.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 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. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
  8. Jón Helgason. 1935-6. ‘Til skjaldedigtningen’. APS 10, 250-64.
  9. Kempff, Hjalmar, ed. 1867. Kaniken Gamles ‘Harmsól’ (Sol i Sorgen): isländskt andligt qväde från medeltiden med öfversättning och förklaringar. Uppsala: Edquist & Berglund.
  10. 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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