Kálf Kátr 13^VII

Heilög rödd tók hátt að mæla
harðla dýr við meyna skýra:
‘Kátrín, vit þú, að guðdóms gætir
gistir bjartr í þínu hjarta.
… Hörn hin bezta,
heiðna spekinga, orma leiðar;
unnar leið þú elda Nanna
alla þá til minnar hallar’.

Heilög rödd, harðla dýr, tók að mæla hátt við skýra meyna: ‘Kátrín, vit þú, að {gætir guðdóms} gistir bjartr í þínu hjarta. … {hin bezta Hörn {leiðar orma}}, heiðna spekinga; leið þú alla þá, {Nanna {elda unnar}}, til minnar hallar.

A holy voice, very precious, began to speak loudly to the bright maiden: ‘Catherine, know that {the guardian of the Godhead} [= God] resides bright in your heart. … {the best Hörn <goddess> {of the path of serpents}} [GOLD > WOMAN], the heathen sages; lead them all, {Nanna <goddess> {of the fires of the wave}} [GOLD > WOMAN], to my hall’.

Mss: 713(130), 399a-bˣ(8), 920ˣ(214v)

Readings: [4] hjarta: so 399a‑bˣ, 920ˣ, ‘hiart[...]’ 713    [5] …: ‘[...]’ all    [7] þú elda Nanna: ‘þ[...] e[...]da na[...]’ 713, ‘þu e(ld)a Na(nna)’(?) 399a‑bˣ, ‘þu[...]’ corrected from ‘þa[...]’ 920ˣ    [8] hallar: ‘ha[...]’ 713, ‘ha(llar)’ 399a‑bˣ, 920ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 519, Skj BII, 572, Skald II, 315, Kahle 1898, 69, 106, Sperber 1911, 46, 80.

Notes: [1] heilög rödd ‘a holy voice’: According to the prose saga, this is the voice of an angel of God, advising Catherine not to fear, saying that God, being the sole source of wisdom, will not allow her to lose the contest (Unger 1877, I, 405; Wolf 2003, 128). — [5] …: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) proposed the conjectural emendation Hræz þú eigi ‘do not fear’ to fill the half-l. lacuna in all mss. In this he is followed by Kock (Skald). In the prose text, the angel’s words are Hirð eigi þu at óttaz ‘do not care about being afraid’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Unger, C. R., ed. 1877. Heilagra manna søgur. Fortællinger og legender om hellige mænd og kvinder. 2 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Bentzen.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Sperber, Hans, ed. 1911. Sechs isländische Gedichte legendarischen Inhalts. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, filosofi, språkvetenskap och historiska vetenskaper 2. Uppsala: Akademische Buchdruckerei Edv. Berling.
6. Wolf, Kirsten, ed. 2003. Heilagra meyja sögur. Íslenzk trúarrit 1. Reykjavík: Bókmenntafræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands.
7. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.