Anon Hsv 80VII
Tarrin Wills and Stefanie Gropper (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Hugsvinnsmál 80’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 408-9.
Hársíðan mann sá ek í hölða liði;
þó var honum skalli skapaðr;
svá er sá maðr, sem mart á fjár
ok verðr síðan snauðr.
Ek sá hársíðan mann í hölða liði; þó var honum skalli skapaðr; svá er sá maðr sem á mart fjár ok verðr snauðr síðan.
I saw a man with long hair in a host of men; he was, however, destined to be bald; like this is the man who has a lot of money but becomes poor later.
Mss: 1199ˣ(74v), 624(144)
Readings: [2] liði: so 624, siði 1199ˣ [5] mart á: so 624, á auð 1199ˣ [6] síðan: um síðir 624
Editions: Skj AII, 184-5, Skj BII, 199, Skald II, 104; Hallgrímur Scheving 1831, 34, Gering 1907, 22, Tuvestrand 1977, 117, Hermann Pálsson 1985, 84.
Notes: [All]: Lat. parallel: (Dist. II, 26) Rem tibi quam scieris aptam dimittere noli: / fronte capillata, post haec occasio calva ‘The thing which you know to be fitting for you, do not give up; chance has a forelock in front, behind [that] is bald’. The Lat. distich draws upon a literary and iconographical tradition, originating in ancient Greece but well known in the Middle Ages, that the figure of Kairos, god of the fleeting moment (Lat. occasio) had a forelock in front, which those who were able could grasp, while the back of his head was bald to prevent people taking hold of him from behind. This symbolises the notion that the favourable moment must be grasped immediately, otherwise it is gone and cannot be regained; see further Moreno 1999. Clearly, the Icel. translator of this distich was unaware of the classical tradition.
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Tuvestrand, Birgitta, ed. 1977. Hugsvinnsmál: Handskrifter och kritisk text. Lundastudier i nordisk språkvetenskap A:29. Lund: Blom.
- Hermann Pálsson, ed. 1985a. Áhrif Hugsvinnsmála á aðrar fornbókmenntir. Studia Islandica/Íslensk Fræði 43. Reykjavík: Menningarsjóður.
- Gering, Hugo, ed. 1907. Hugsvinnsmál. Eine altisländische Übersetzung der Disticha Catonis. Kiel: Lipsius & Tischer.
- Hallgrímur Scheving, ed. 1831. Hugsvinnsmál, ásamt þeirra látinska frumriti. Skóla hátið. Viðeyar Klaustri: prentuð af Helga Helgasyni, á kostnað Bessastaða Skóla.
- Internal references
- Not published: do not cite (RunVI)
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