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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Ólsv Kristdr 1III

Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Óláfr svartaskáld Leggsson, Kristsdrápa 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 314.

Óláfr svartaskáld LeggssonKristsdrápa
12

text and translation

Heldr vas honum, es seldi,
harðkeypt, — sonu jarðar
oss stillir þat alla —
auðugt líf fyr dauða.

Vas heldr harðkeypt honum, es seldi auðugt líf fyr dauða; þat stillir oss, {alla sonu jarðar}.
 
‘It was a very hard bargain for him who sold his precious life in return for death; that regulates us, all the sons of the earth [HUMANS].

notes and context

The helmingr illustrates kennings for ‘man’ in which the base-word is a term for ‘son’ (sonr, mǫgr) and the determinant is a word either for ‘earth’ or for þeirrar hofudskiepnu, er madur er afskapadur ‘that main element from which man is created’ (LaufE 1979, 372).

The present edn follows Skj B. Kock (Skald; NN §1332) emends sonu m. acc. pl. ‘sons’ (l. 2) to sonum m. dat. pl. and construes the phrase sonum jarðar as the indirect object of the second clause (es seldi sonum jarðar auðugt líf fyr dauða  ‘who gave the sons of the earth precious life instead of death’). That emendation is unnecessary and goes against the ms. witnesses.

readings

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Óláfr Leggsson, svartaskáld, 3. En drape om Kristus (?) 1: AII, 85, BII, 96, Skald II, 52, NN §§1332, 2936; SnE 1848-87, II, 629, III, 192-3, LaufE 1979, 372.

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