Kirsten Wolf (ed.) 2007, ‘Kálfr Hallsson, Kátrínardrápa 5’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 935.
Alexandría hiet borg, sú er brendra
bauga Hlín með frændum sínum
stödd var í, þá er margar mæddu
mótgjörðirnar líkam snótar.
Odda flaums rieð öllum heimi
— eg nefni svá keisarann — stefnir,
Maxencíus liet meizlur vinna,
Máríu sonar er þrælar váru.
Alexandría hiet borg, sú er {Hlín brendra bauga} var stödd í með frændum sínum, þá er margar mótgjörðirnar mæddu líkam snótar. {Stefnir {flaums odda}} rieð öllum heimi — eg nefni svá keisarann — Maxencíus liet meizlur vinna, er váru {þrælar {sonar Máríu}}.
Alexandria was the name of the city, in which {the Hlín <goddess> of burnished rings} [WOMAN] lived with her relatives, when the many assaults tormented the body of the woman. {The summoner {of the stream of spear points}} [BATTLE > WARRIOR] ruled over the whole world — by this I mean the emperor — Maxentius had [those] undergo mutilation, who were {the servants {of the son of Mary}} [= Christ > CHRISTIAN PEOPLE].
Mss: 713(129), 399a-bˣ(4), 920ˣ(213v)
Editions: Skj AII, 517, Skj BII, 570, Skald II, 313, Kahle 1898, 68, 105, Sperber 1911, 44, 79.
Notes: [2-3] var stödd í með frændum sínum ‘[in which she] lived with her relatives’: The prose saga (Unger 1877, I, 401; Wolf 2003, 124) explains that Catherine’s father Kostus had died ok var hun eptir hans frafall med frændum sinum í þeiri ho᷎ll, er hann hafdi att ‘and she stayed after his death with her relatives in the hall which he had owned’.
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