Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Leiðarvísan 19’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 157-8.
Tunglbryggju gaf tyggi
tíu orð laga forðum
— fríðr af fǫstu mœðisk —
fjǫlhress goðs vin Móises,
ok þrekprúðum þjóðar
þann veg yfirmanni
várr dróttinn lét veittan
víðkunnan dag sunnu.
{Fjǫlhress tyggi {tunglbryggju}} gaf forðum Móises, goðs vin, tíu orð laga — fríðr mœðisk af fǫstu —, ok dróttinn várr lét veittan {þrekprúðum yfirmanni þjóðar} þann víðkunnan veg sunnu dag.
‘The very hearty king of the moon-pier [SKY/HEAVEN > = God] once gave Moses, God’s friend, ten words of law — the handsome one grows weary from fasting —, and our Lord let the strength-magnificent overseer of the people [RULER = Moses] be granted that widely-known honour on a Sunday.’
Moses’s receipt of the Ten Commandments (tíu orð laga, l. 2) is documented in Exod. XX.3-17. Although no fast (l. 3) is mentioned at this point in the biblical narrative, Moses is later (Exod. XXXIV.28) said to have spent forty days and nights in conversation with God on Mt Sinai and to have fasted there: fecit ergo ibi cum Domino quadraginta dies et quadraginta noctes panem non comedit et aquam non bibit et scripsit in tabulis verba foederis decem ‘and he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights: he neither ate bread nor drank water, and he wrote upon the tables the ten words of the covenant’. — [3-4]: Skj B emends vin (dat. sg.) ‘friend’ (l. 4), to the nom. form vinr, and takes the resulting kenning goðs vinr ‘God’s friend’ as part of the intercalary cl., modified by fríðr (l. 3). In this, he is followed by Kock (NN §§1263, 2559), who also takes fjǫlvíss ‘very wise’ (l. 4) (on the emendation, see following Note) as in apposition to fríðr ‘handsome’. This gives fríðr fjǫlhress vinr goðs mœðisk af fǫstu ‘the fair, very wise friend of God grows weary from fasting’. However, it is not necessary to emend vin, if it is taken, as the w.o. suggests, with Móises (l. 4).
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.
Tunglbryggju gaf tyggi
tíu orð laga forðum
— fríðr af fǫstu mœðisk —
fjǫlhress goðs vin Móises,
ok þrekprúðum †þ[...]ar†
þann veg yfirmanni
várr dróttinn lét veittan
víðkunnan dag sunnu.
Tunngl brýggiu gaf tigge tíu ordla - | ga fordum friðr af fo᷎stu mędíz fio᷎lhress guds vín moýses. ok þrekprudum þ…ar þann | veg ýfermanne vo᷎r drottinn let veíttan vidkunnan dag sunnu.
(TW)
Tunglbryggju gaf tyggi
tíu orð laga forðum
— fríðr af fǫstu mœðisk —
fjǫlhress goðs vin Móises,
ok þrekprúðum þjóðar
þann veg yfirmanni
várr dróttinn lét veittan
víðkunnan dag sunnu.
Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XII], G [2]. Leiðarvísan 19: AI, 622, BI, 626-7, Skald I, 305, NN §§1263, 2559, 3250; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 62, Rydberg 1907, 7, Attwood 1996a, 64-5, 175.
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