Tarrin Wills and Stefanie Gropper (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Hugsvinnsmál 99’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 419.
Upp at hefja sómir þér eigi vel
meiri iðn, en þú megir;
algers verks, þá er unnit er;
æ spyrr lýðr at lokum.
Sómir þér eigi vel at hefja upp meiri iðn, en þú megir; lýðr spyrr æ at lokum algers verks, þá er unnit er.
It does not befit you to start a bigger business than you can manage; people always find out about the results of a completed work when it is finished.
Mss: 1199ˣ(74r), 624(145)
Readings: [2] sómir: samir 624 [4] algers verks: algert verk dugir 624 [6] æ: at 624
Editions: Skj AII, 187-8, Skj BII, 202, Skald II, 105-6; Hallgrímur Scheving 1831, 24, Gering 1907, 27, Tuvestrand 1977, 126, Hermann Pálsson 1985, 98.
Notes: [All]: Lat. parallel: (Dist. III, 14) Quod potes, id tempta: operis ne pondere pressus / succumbat labor, et frustra temptata relinquas ‘Whatever you can, try, lest under the weight of the burden of the task work collapses and you give up that tried in vain’. In 1199ˣ there is additional text which serves as a paraphrase for the st.: uppbyrja sæmir eigi iðju meiri en algert fáir ‘it is not fitting to undertake an activity greater than can be finished’.
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