Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2007, ‘Kolbeinn Tumason, Jónsvísur 4’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 226.
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2. kœnn (adj.; °superl. kǿnstr/kǿnastr): wise, skilful
[1, 2, 4] þú lézt hag hreinnar drótningar hugat blíðliga síðan ‘you let the circumstances of the pure queen be attended to kindly thereafter’: The ms. reading ‘leitz’ could be interpreted as the 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb líta ‘to look’, leizt ‘looked’ or as the corresponding m.v. form ‘looked at yourself/for yourself’. Neither verb form makes sense in the passage at hand and all eds follow Bugge’s emendation to lézt (= 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb láta ‘let’; Jón4 1874, 935). Bugge’s emendation of hugat ‘attended to’ to huggat ‘comforted’ (Jón4 1874, 935 n. 2) makes the l. too long by introducing a long plus a short syllable (= 2 syllables).
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
[1, 2, 4] þú lézt hag hreinnar drótningar hugat blíðliga síðan ‘you let the circumstances of the pure queen be attended to kindly thereafter’: The ms. reading ‘leitz’ could be interpreted as the 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb líta ‘to look’, leizt ‘looked’ or as the corresponding m.v. form ‘looked at yourself/for yourself’. Neither verb form makes sense in the passage at hand and all eds follow Bugge’s emendation to lézt (= 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb láta ‘let’; Jón4 1874, 935). Bugge’s emendation of hugat ‘attended to’ to huggat ‘comforted’ (Jón4 1874, 935 n. 2) makes the l. too long by introducing a long plus a short syllable (= 2 syllables).
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1. hagr (noun m.; °-s; -ir): situation, condition
[1, 2, 4] þú lézt hag hreinnar drótningar hugat blíðliga síðan ‘you let the circumstances of the pure queen be attended to kindly thereafter’: The ms. reading ‘leitz’ could be interpreted as the 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb líta ‘to look’, leizt ‘looked’ or as the corresponding m.v. form ‘looked at yourself/for yourself’. Neither verb form makes sense in the passage at hand and all eds follow Bugge’s emendation to lézt (= 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb láta ‘let’; Jón4 1874, 935). Bugge’s emendation of hugat ‘attended to’ to huggat ‘comforted’ (Jón4 1874, 935 n. 2) makes the l. too long by introducing a long plus a short syllable (= 2 syllables).
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2. hreinn (adj.; °compar. hreinari/hreinni, superl. hreinastr/hreinstr): pure
[1, 2, 4] þú lézt hag hreinnar drótningar hugat blíðliga síðan ‘you let the circumstances of the pure queen be attended to kindly thereafter’: The ms. reading ‘leitz’ could be interpreted as the 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb líta ‘to look’, leizt ‘looked’ or as the corresponding m.v. form ‘looked at yourself/for yourself’. Neither verb form makes sense in the passage at hand and all eds follow Bugge’s emendation to lézt (= 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb láta ‘let’; Jón4 1874, 935). Bugge’s emendation of hugat ‘attended to’ to huggat ‘comforted’ (Jón4 1874, 935 n. 2) makes the l. too long by introducing a long plus a short syllable (= 2 syllables).
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hǫfðingi (noun m.; °-ja; -jar): chieftain
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dróttning (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -u/-, acc. -u/-; -ar): queen
[1, 2, 4] þú lézt hag hreinnar drótningar hugat blíðliga síðan ‘you let the circumstances of the pure queen be attended to kindly thereafter’: The ms. reading ‘leitz’ could be interpreted as the 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb líta ‘to look’, leizt ‘looked’ or as the corresponding m.v. form ‘looked at yourself/for yourself’. Neither verb form makes sense in the passage at hand and all eds follow Bugge’s emendation to lézt (= 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb láta ‘let’; Jón4 1874, 935). Bugge’s emendation of hugat ‘attended to’ to huggat ‘comforted’ (Jón4 1874, 935 n. 2) makes the l. too long by introducing a long plus a short syllable (= 2 syllables).
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haf (noun n.; °-s; *-): sea
[3] meðan hafs hyr þǫll lifði ‘as long as the fir-sapling of the fire of the sea [GOLD > WOMAN = Mary] lived’: The first element of the cpd hyrþǫll (hyrr ‘fire’) is the base-word of a kenning for GOLD: hyrr ... hafs ‘fire of the sea’; this kenning for GOLD is the determinant of a kenning for WOMAN whose base-word is þǫllr ‘fir-sapling, young fir’, the second element of the cpd hyrþǫll: hafs hyrþǫll ‘fir-sapling of the sea’, ‘one who distributes gold’ [GOLD > WOMAN], the whole of this inverted kenning referring to the Virgin Mary.
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haf (noun n.; °-s; *-): sea
[3] meðan hafs hyr þǫll lifði ‘as long as the fir-sapling of the fire of the sea [GOLD > WOMAN = Mary] lived’: The first element of the cpd hyrþǫll (hyrr ‘fire’) is the base-word of a kenning for GOLD: hyrr ... hafs ‘fire of the sea’; this kenning for GOLD is the determinant of a kenning for WOMAN whose base-word is þǫllr ‘fir-sapling, young fir’, the second element of the cpd hyrþǫll: hafs hyrþǫll ‘fir-sapling of the sea’, ‘one who distributes gold’ [GOLD > WOMAN], the whole of this inverted kenning referring to the Virgin Mary.
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meðan (conj.): while
[3] meðan hafs hyr þǫll lifði ‘as long as the fir-sapling of the fire of the sea [GOLD > WOMAN = Mary] lived’: The first element of the cpd hyrþǫll (hyrr ‘fire’) is the base-word of a kenning for GOLD: hyrr ... hafs ‘fire of the sea’; this kenning for GOLD is the determinant of a kenning for WOMAN whose base-word is þǫllr ‘fir-sapling, young fir’, the second element of the cpd hyrþǫll: hafs hyrþǫll ‘fir-sapling of the sea’, ‘one who distributes gold’ [GOLD > WOMAN], the whole of this inverted kenning referring to the Virgin Mary.
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hyrr (noun m.): fire < hyrþǫll (noun f.)
[3] meðan hafs hyr þǫll lifði ‘as long as the fir-sapling of the fire of the sea [GOLD > WOMAN = Mary] lived’: The first element of the cpd hyrþǫll (hyrr ‘fire’) is the base-word of a kenning for GOLD: hyrr ... hafs ‘fire of the sea’; this kenning for GOLD is the determinant of a kenning for WOMAN whose base-word is þǫllr ‘fir-sapling, young fir’, the second element of the cpd hyrþǫll: hafs hyrþǫll ‘fir-sapling of the sea’, ‘one who distributes gold’ [GOLD > WOMAN], the whole of this inverted kenning referring to the Virgin Mary.
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hyrr (noun m.): fire < hyrþǫll (noun f.)
[3] meðan hafs hyr þǫll lifði ‘as long as the fir-sapling of the fire of the sea [GOLD > WOMAN = Mary] lived’: The first element of the cpd hyrþǫll (hyrr ‘fire’) is the base-word of a kenning for GOLD: hyrr ... hafs ‘fire of the sea’; this kenning for GOLD is the determinant of a kenning for WOMAN whose base-word is þǫllr ‘fir-sapling, young fir’, the second element of the cpd hyrþǫll: hafs hyrþǫll ‘fir-sapling of the sea’, ‘one who distributes gold’ [GOLD > WOMAN], the whole of this inverted kenning referring to the Virgin Mary.
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þǫll (noun f.): fir-tree < hyrþǫll (noun f.)
[3] meðan hafs hyr þǫll lifði ‘as long as the fir-sapling of the fire of the sea [GOLD > WOMAN = Mary] lived’: The first element of the cpd hyrþǫll (hyrr ‘fire’) is the base-word of a kenning for GOLD: hyrr ... hafs ‘fire of the sea’; this kenning for GOLD is the determinant of a kenning for WOMAN whose base-word is þǫllr ‘fir-sapling, young fir’, the second element of the cpd hyrþǫll: hafs hyrþǫll ‘fir-sapling of the sea’, ‘one who distributes gold’ [GOLD > WOMAN], the whole of this inverted kenning referring to the Virgin Mary.
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lifa (verb): live
[3] meðan hafs hyr þǫll lifði ‘as long as the fir-sapling of the fire of the sea [GOLD > WOMAN = Mary] lived’: The first element of the cpd hyrþǫll (hyrr ‘fire’) is the base-word of a kenning for GOLD: hyrr ... hafs ‘fire of the sea’; this kenning for GOLD is the determinant of a kenning for WOMAN whose base-word is þǫllr ‘fir-sapling, young fir’, the second element of the cpd hyrþǫll: hafs hyrþǫll ‘fir-sapling of the sea’, ‘one who distributes gold’ [GOLD > WOMAN], the whole of this inverted kenning referring to the Virgin Mary.
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huga (verb): consider, mind, think
[1, 2, 4] þú lézt hag hreinnar drótningar hugat blíðliga síðan ‘you let the circumstances of the pure queen be attended to kindly thereafter’: The ms. reading ‘leitz’ could be interpreted as the 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb líta ‘to look’, leizt ‘looked’ or as the corresponding m.v. form ‘looked at yourself/for yourself’. Neither verb form makes sense in the passage at hand and all eds follow Bugge’s emendation to lézt (= 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb láta ‘let’; Jón4 1874, 935). Bugge’s emendation of hugat ‘attended to’ to huggat ‘comforted’ (Jón4 1874, 935 n. 2) makes the l. too long by introducing a long plus a short syllable (= 2 syllables).
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blíðliga (adv.; °superl. -ast): [kindly]
[1, 2, 4] þú lézt hag hreinnar drótningar hugat blíðliga síðan ‘you let the circumstances of the pure queen be attended to kindly thereafter’: The ms. reading ‘leitz’ could be interpreted as the 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb líta ‘to look’, leizt ‘looked’ or as the corresponding m.v. form ‘looked at yourself/for yourself’. Neither verb form makes sense in the passage at hand and all eds follow Bugge’s emendation to lézt (= 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb láta ‘let’; Jón4 1874, 935). Bugge’s emendation of hugat ‘attended to’ to huggat ‘comforted’ (Jón4 1874, 935 n. 2) makes the l. too long by introducing a long plus a short syllable (= 2 syllables).
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síðan (adv.): later, then
[1, 2, 4] þú lézt hag hreinnar drótningar hugat blíðliga síðan ‘you let the circumstances of the pure queen be attended to kindly thereafter’: The ms. reading ‘leitz’ could be interpreted as the 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb líta ‘to look’, leizt ‘looked’ or as the corresponding m.v. form ‘looked at yourself/for yourself’. Neither verb form makes sense in the passage at hand and all eds follow Bugge’s emendation to lézt (= 2nd pers. sg. pret. indic. form of the verb láta ‘let’; Jón4 1874, 935). Bugge’s emendation of hugat ‘attended to’ to huggat ‘comforted’ (Jón4 1874, 935 n. 2) makes the l. too long by introducing a long plus a short syllable (= 2 syllables).
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
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sem (conj.): as, which
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3. hár (adj.; °-van; compar. hǽrri, superl. hǽstr): high
[5, 6, 7] hildingr hárar þekju éla ‘{the warlord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ]’: The ms. reading is ‘harar’, which could be normalised to harrar (nom. pl. of harri ‘lord’) or to harar (f. gen. sg. or f. nom./acc. pl. of the adj. hár ‘high’; r appears in mss as a grapheme for rr or for r, cf. Lindblad 1954, 73, 206-7). Here it is evidently the f. gen. sg. of hár ‘high’ and modifies the base-word (þekju ‘thatch, roof’) of the kenning for ‘heaven’ þekju éla ‘thatch of snow-storms’, which in turn is the determinant of a sannkenning for Christ: hárar hildingr ... éla þekiu ‘{(war)lord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ].
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3. hár (adj.; °-van; compar. hǽrri, superl. hǽstr): high
[5, 6, 7] hildingr hárar þekju éla ‘{the warlord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ]’: The ms. reading is ‘harar’, which could be normalised to harrar (nom. pl. of harri ‘lord’) or to harar (f. gen. sg. or f. nom./acc. pl. of the adj. hár ‘high’; r appears in mss as a grapheme for rr or for r, cf. Lindblad 1954, 73, 206-7). Here it is evidently the f. gen. sg. of hár ‘high’ and modifies the base-word (þekju ‘thatch, roof’) of the kenning for ‘heaven’ þekju éla ‘thatch of snow-storms’, which in turn is the determinant of a sannkenning for Christ: hárar hildingr ... éla þekiu ‘{(war)lord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ].
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hildingr (noun m.; °; -ar): king, ruler
[5, 6, 7] hildingr hárar þekju éla ‘{the warlord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ]’: The ms. reading is ‘harar’, which could be normalised to harrar (nom. pl. of harri ‘lord’) or to harar (f. gen. sg. or f. nom./acc. pl. of the adj. hár ‘high’; r appears in mss as a grapheme for rr or for r, cf. Lindblad 1954, 73, 206-7). Here it is evidently the f. gen. sg. of hár ‘high’ and modifies the base-word (þekju ‘thatch, roof’) of the kenning for ‘heaven’ þekju éla ‘thatch of snow-storms’, which in turn is the determinant of a sannkenning for Christ: hárar hildingr ... éla þekiu ‘{(war)lord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ].
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1. skipa (verb): change, place
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vilja (verb): want, intend
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
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lof (noun n.; °-s; -): praise, leave, permission
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él (noun n.; °; dat. -um): storm
[5, 6, 7] hildingr hárar þekju éla ‘{the warlord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ]’: The ms. reading is ‘harar’, which could be normalised to harrar (nom. pl. of harri ‘lord’) or to harar (f. gen. sg. or f. nom./acc. pl. of the adj. hár ‘high’; r appears in mss as a grapheme for rr or for r, cf. Lindblad 1954, 73, 206-7). Here it is evidently the f. gen. sg. of hár ‘high’ and modifies the base-word (þekju ‘thatch, roof’) of the kenning for ‘heaven’ þekju éla ‘thatch of snow-storms’, which in turn is the determinant of a sannkenning for Christ: hárar hildingr ... éla þekiu ‘{(war)lord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ].
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él (noun n.; °; dat. -um): storm
[5, 6, 7] hildingr hárar þekju éla ‘{the warlord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ]’: The ms. reading is ‘harar’, which could be normalised to harrar (nom. pl. of harri ‘lord’) or to harar (f. gen. sg. or f. nom./acc. pl. of the adj. hár ‘high’; r appears in mss as a grapheme for rr or for r, cf. Lindblad 1954, 73, 206-7). Here it is evidently the f. gen. sg. of hár ‘high’ and modifies the base-word (þekju ‘thatch, roof’) of the kenning for ‘heaven’ þekju éla ‘thatch of snow-storms’, which in turn is the determinant of a sannkenning for Christ: hárar hildingr ... éla þekiu ‘{(war)lord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ].
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1. þekja (noun f.; °-u; -ur): [thatch]
[5, 6, 7] hildingr hárar þekju éla ‘{the warlord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ]’: The ms. reading is ‘harar’, which could be normalised to harrar (nom. pl. of harri ‘lord’) or to harar (f. gen. sg. or f. nom./acc. pl. of the adj. hár ‘high’; r appears in mss as a grapheme for rr or for r, cf. Lindblad 1954, 73, 206-7). Here it is evidently the f. gen. sg. of hár ‘high’ and modifies the base-word (þekju ‘thatch, roof’) of the kenning for ‘heaven’ þekju éla ‘thatch of snow-storms’, which in turn is the determinant of a sannkenning for Christ: hárar hildingr ... éla þekiu ‘{(war)lord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ].
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1. þekja (noun f.; °-u; -ur): [thatch]
[5, 6, 7] hildingr hárar þekju éla ‘{the warlord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ]’: The ms. reading is ‘harar’, which could be normalised to harrar (nom. pl. of harri ‘lord’) or to harar (f. gen. sg. or f. nom./acc. pl. of the adj. hár ‘high’; r appears in mss as a grapheme for rr or for r, cf. Lindblad 1954, 73, 206-7). Here it is evidently the f. gen. sg. of hár ‘high’ and modifies the base-word (þekju ‘thatch, roof’) of the kenning for ‘heaven’ þekju éla ‘thatch of snow-storms’, which in turn is the determinant of a sannkenning for Christ: hárar hildingr ... éla þekiu ‘{(war)lord {of the high thatch of snow-storms}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Christ].
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allr (adj.): all
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þjóð (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -/-u; -ir): people
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í (prep.): in, into
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1. staðr (noun m.; °-ar/-s; -ir): place
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móðir (noun f.): mother
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Kœnn, lé*zt þú hag hreinnar |
Wise chieftain, you let the circumstances of the pure queen be attended to kindly thereafter, as long as the fir sapling of the fire of the sea [(lit. ‘sea’s fire-fir sapling’) GOLD > WOMAN = Mary] lived. She was in the position of a mother to you, as the warlord of the high thatch of snowstorms [SKY/HEAVEN > = God (= Christ)] wanted it arranged; all people praise you.
See Introduction.
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