GunnLeif Merl II 67^VIII

Biðjum opt         bragna stilli
œztan eflð         ǫllu hjarta,
at víðfrægr         virða stjóri
dœgr ok dag         dróttar gæti.

Biðjum opt {stilli bragna}, œztan eflð, ǫllu hjarta, at {víðfrægr stjóri virða} gæti dróttar dœgr ok dag.

Let us often pray {to the Lord of men} [= God], highest power, with all our heart that {the widely-renowned governor of men} [= God] may watch over his following night and day.

Mss: Hb(50v) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 21, Skj BII, 23-4, Skald II, 15, NN §§30, 2567B; Bret 1848-9, II, 38 (Bret st. 67); Hb 1892-6, 277; Merl 2012, 125-6.

Notes: [3]: The interpretation of this line is not definitively resolved. While collocation of the verb efla in the sense of ‘support, strengthen’ with expressions for ‘God’ and ‘Christ’ is well attested (ONP: efla A1, cf. D5), the form eflð remains obscure. (a) No noun eflð is attested in CVC, Fritzner or ONP and it may represent a neologism designed to meet the demands of the kviðuháttr verse-form. (b) An alternative but less likely explanation is as an otherwise unattested noun derived from efla ‘strengthen’, with the -ð suffix seen also in efnð ‘fulfilment’ (< efna) and hefnð ’revenge’ (< hefna) and parallel to Goth. -ōþu, OHG -ōd. In contrast to Old Norse, where such nouns have acquired f. gender, they remain m. in Gothic and Old High German (Wright 1954, 174). The m. form of the adj. œztan ‘highest’ in Hb might represent a retention of the older gender but is more probably a rationalisation to reflect the conventionally m. gender of guð ‘god’ (originally a neuter). On this basis the ms. reading is tentatively retained here, but emendation to œzta ‘highest’, the f. form of the adj., agreeing with the presumed f. gender of eflð, as advocated by Kock (NN §2567B; Skald), and followed by Merl 2012, is an attractive option. In other respects the interpretation adopted in this edn is that of Kock (NN §2567B; Skald), who, followed by Merl 2012, interprets ll. 3 and 4 together: æzta [sic] eflð, | ǫllu hjarta, translating as människors furste, den högsta styrkan ‘the lord of men, the greatest support’. The line has a possible source in Lat. summa potentia, part of the chant O summa potentia o summa bonitas et laude digna Maria mitis et benigna ‘Oh highest power, oh highest goodness and merciful and beneficent Mary, worthy of praise’ (Sankt Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, 388, f. 471, sequence 2 (Can 204367i in Lacoste and Koláček [n. d.], accessed 11 July 2015). By contrast, Bret 1848-9, followed by Skj B, appears to construe eflð as a noun in the dat. sg., translating den ypperste om kraft ‘the highest in power’ and ypperste i kraft ‘highest in power’ respectively; LP: eflð treats the ms. reading as corrupt but tentatively proposes ypperst ved sin hjælpende kraft ‘highest in his supporting power’. — [7] dœgr ‘night’: Finnur Jónsson explains as referring to half the duration of the twenty-four hour cycle, in this context the night (LP: dœgr); cf. ONP: dǿgr 1, which is glossed ‘period of 12 hours [of a day or a night]’. Kock (NN §30) alternatively proposes ‘day after day’, which may also be correct: dag oc dægr occurs in Stjórn (Unger 1862, 417) as a rendering of Lat. per multos dies (ONP: dǿgr 1).

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Unger, C. R., ed. 1862. Stjorn. Gammelnorsk bibelhistorie fra verdens skabelse til det babyloniske fangenskab. Christiania (Oslo): Feilberg og Landmarks forlag.
6. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
8. 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.
9. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
10. Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
11. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
12. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
13. Wright, Joseph. 1954. Grammar of the Gothic Language. 2nd edn rev. O. L. Sayce. Oxford: Clarendon.
14. Internal references
15. 2017, ‘ Unattributed, Breta saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 38. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=125> (accessed 27 April 2024)
16. Not published: do not cite ()