Anon Líkn 33^VII

Skeið ‘warship’

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1. skeið (noun f.; °-ar; -r/-ar/-ir): ship

notes

[1] skeið ‘ship’: Technically a warship of the long-ship (langskip) class (Falk 1912, 104-5; Jesch 2001a, 123-4). The noun can also mean ‘course, track’ (e.g. sunnu skeið ‘sun’s track’ in C14th Árni Gd 66/1^IV), and the poet’s choice of word for ‘ship’ may be calculated to play on the Cross as braut ‘way’ (Líknarbraut) and on the poem’s frequent ‘way, path’ images (see Note to 51/4). The Cross as ship is a patristic and medieval commonplace, based mostly on commentary on Noah’s ark, which is usually glossed as the Ship of the Church, with the Cross as mast. But this is often simplified to the Cross itself as ship, as in a l. from the hymn Salve lignum sanctae crucis which addresses the Cross as: veri nautae vera nauta ‘true ship of the true seaman’ (AH 54, 194). Through reverse typology, Noah’s ark is sometimes represented as having been made from the wood of the Cross: ligno crucis fabricatur / Arca Noe (AH 8, 29). In the late medieval Gimsteinn 105/1 the Cross also makliga merkiʀ ‘fittingly symbolises’ Noah’s ark (ÍM I.2, 327). On the history of these ideas see Rahner 1964, 239-564 ‘Antenna crucis’.

ert ‘You are’

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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am

fróns ‘of earth’

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2. frón (noun n.): earth, land

kennings

und ‘bearing [lit. under]’

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3. und (prep.): under, underneath

notes

[1-2] und fríðum þrælum ‘bearing [lit. under] beloved servants’: For fríðum 399a-bˣ reads firðum ‘fjords’; so Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 45 (although in a marginal note to 444 Sveinbjörn wrote fríðum). Und ‘under’ also governs the dat. farmi ‘cargo’ (l. 3) (on Christ as the cargo, and possibly as captain, see Notes to ll. 3 and 7). The ‘beloved servants’ are perhaps the saints or more generally the righteous, possibly even the clergy who guide the faithful.

fríðum ‘beloved’

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fríðr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): beautiful, fair

notes

[1-2] und fríðum þrælum ‘bearing [lit. under] beloved servants’: For fríðum 399a-bˣ reads firðum ‘fjords’; so Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 45 (although in a marginal note to 444 Sveinbjörn wrote fríðum). Und ‘under’ also governs the dat. farmi ‘cargo’ (l. 3) (on Christ as the cargo, and possibly as captain, see Notes to ll. 3 and 7). The ‘beloved servants’ are perhaps the saints or more generally the righteous, possibly even the clergy who guide the faithful.

far ‘a voyage’

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fǫr (noun f.): journey, fate; movement < farsæll (adj.)

sæl ‘prosperous’

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sæll (adj.): happy, blessed < farsæll (adj.)

konungs ‘of the king’

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konungr (noun m.; °dat. -i, -s; -ar): king

kennings

þrælum ‘servants’

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þræll (noun m.; °þrǽls, dat. þrǽli/þrǽl; þrǽlar): slave, servant

notes

[1-2] und fríðum þrælum ‘bearing [lit. under] beloved servants’: For fríðum 399a-bˣ reads firðum ‘fjords’; so Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 45 (although in a marginal note to 444 Sveinbjörn wrote fríðum). Und ‘under’ also governs the dat. farmi ‘cargo’ (l. 3) (on Christ as the cargo, and possibly as captain, see Notes to ll. 3 and 7). The ‘beloved servants’ are perhaps the saints or more generally the righteous, possibly even the clergy who guide the faithful.

fljót ‘swift’

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2. fljótr (adj.): quick

[3] fljót: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘fli[...]’ B

notes

[3] fljót ‘swift’: Restoration of ‘ót’ based upon 399a-bˣ, with ‘t’ confirmed by skothending. The lit. sense ‘floating’ (from fljóta ‘to float’) suits the nautical context.

ok ‘and’

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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also

farmi ‘cargo’

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farmr (noun m.; °dat. -i; -ar): cargo

notes

[3] ítrum farmi (dat. sg.) ‘glorious cargo’: 399a-bˣ, expanding the abbreviation differently, reads frami ‘forward, in front’; so also Sveinbjörn Egilsson. The cargo is either the crucified Christ or the salvation (cf. auðr líknar ‘wealth of grace’, l. 7) won by his suffering. The Cross is often called ‘salvation-bearing’ (crux salutifera), in liturgy (Manz 1941, 132, no. 213), poetry (Bonaventure 1882-1902, VIII, 667, st. 7), and elsewhere: e.g. Dungal (Dungalus Reclusus C9th), who, in defending the veneration of images, writes how hopeless it is for mankind to try to navigate the stormy sea of this world sine nave salutiferae crucis ‘without the ship of the salvation-bearing Cross’ (Dungalus Reclusus, col. 489).

ítrum ‘a glorious’

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ítr (adj.): glorious

notes

[3] ítrum farmi (dat. sg.) ‘glorious cargo’: 399a-bˣ, expanding the abbreviation differently, reads frami ‘forward, in front’; so also Sveinbjörn Egilsson. The cargo is either the crucified Christ or the salvation (cf. auðr líknar ‘wealth of grace’, l. 7) won by his suffering. The Cross is often called ‘salvation-bearing’ (crux salutifera), in liturgy (Manz 1941, 132, no. 213), poetry (Bonaventure 1882-1902, VIII, 667, st. 7), and elsewhere: e.g. Dungal (Dungalus Reclusus C9th), who, in defending the veneration of images, writes how hopeless it is for mankind to try to navigate the stormy sea of this world sine nave salutiferae crucis ‘without the ship of the salvation-bearing Cross’ (Dungalus Reclusus, col. 489).

fóstr ‘of our native’

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fóstr (noun n.): foster- < fóstrland (noun n.): native land

lands ‘land’

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land (noun n.; °-s; *-): land < fóstrland (noun n.): native land

á ‘towards’

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3. á (prep.): on, at

vit ‘’

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2. vit (pron.): we two

strandar ‘the shore’

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strǫnd (noun f.; °strandar, dat. -u/-; strandir/strendr): beach, shore

Þú ‘You’

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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you

snýr ‘turn’

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snúa (verb): turn

böls ‘of evil’

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bǫl (noun n.; °-s, dat. bǫlvi): evil

notes

[5] hjá bárum böls ‘past the waves of evil’: 399a-bˣ (so also Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 45) reads barmi ‘brim’; in a marginal note 444 has bárum (so all other eds). Together with boðar lasta ‘billows of vices’ the phrase, possibly a kenning-like circumlocution for sin, evokes the widespread idea that this world is like a perilous sea, its surging waves and raging storms representing various aspects of evil, by which mankind is easily shipwrecked. For discussion see Rahner 1964, 272-303 and 432-72; cf. the common liturgical phrase mare saeculi ‘sea of the world’ (Manz 1941, 291, no. 586). Fortunatus’ Pange lingua evokes this tradition in the ll.: Sola digna tu fuisti ferre pretium saecli / atque portum praeparare nauta mundo naufrago ‘You alone were worthy to bear the price of the world (Christ) and, like the seaman, to make ready a haven for a shipwrecked world’ (Bulst 1956, 128, st. 10); in later liturgical use nauta was replaced by arca ‘ark’ to strengthen the idea of the Cross as ship (see Connelly 1957, 85).

hjá ‘past’

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hjá (prep.): beside, with

notes

[5] hjá bárum böls ‘past the waves of evil’: 399a-bˣ (so also Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 45) reads barmi ‘brim’; in a marginal note 444 has bárum (so all other eds). Together with boðar lasta ‘billows of vices’ the phrase, possibly a kenning-like circumlocution for sin, evokes the widespread idea that this world is like a perilous sea, its surging waves and raging storms representing various aspects of evil, by which mankind is easily shipwrecked. For discussion see Rahner 1964, 272-303 and 432-72; cf. the common liturgical phrase mare saeculi ‘sea of the world’ (Manz 1941, 291, no. 586). Fortunatus’ Pange lingua evokes this tradition in the ll.: Sola digna tu fuisti ferre pretium saecli / atque portum praeparare nauta mundo naufrago ‘You alone were worthy to bear the price of the world (Christ) and, like the seaman, to make ready a haven for a shipwrecked world’ (Bulst 1956, 128, st. 10); in later liturgical use nauta was replaced by arca ‘ark’ to strengthen the idea of the Cross as ship (see Connelly 1957, 85).

bárum ‘the waves’

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1. bára (noun f.; °-u; -ur): wave

notes

[5] hjá bárum böls ‘past the waves of evil’: 399a-bˣ (so also Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 45) reads barmi ‘brim’; in a marginal note 444 has bárum (so all other eds). Together with boðar lasta ‘billows of vices’ the phrase, possibly a kenning-like circumlocution for sin, evokes the widespread idea that this world is like a perilous sea, its surging waves and raging storms representing various aspects of evil, by which mankind is easily shipwrecked. For discussion see Rahner 1964, 272-303 and 432-72; cf. the common liturgical phrase mare saeculi ‘sea of the world’ (Manz 1941, 291, no. 586). Fortunatus’ Pange lingua evokes this tradition in the ll.: Sola digna tu fuisti ferre pretium saecli / atque portum praeparare nauta mundo naufrago ‘You alone were worthy to bear the price of the world (Christ) and, like the seaman, to make ready a haven for a shipwrecked world’ (Bulst 1956, 128, st. 10); in later liturgical use nauta was replaced by arca ‘ark’ to strengthen the idea of the Cross as ship (see Connelly 1957, 85).

boðar ‘billows’

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boði (noun m.; °-a; -ar): messenger, breaker

notes

[6] boðar lasta kasta þér ‘billows of vices toss you’: Rydberg includes hjá böls bárum ‘past the waves of sin’ (l. 5) in this intercalary cl. Skj B and Skald add a negative particle (kastat ‘do not toss’), but this misses the point that the voyage is rough and that mankind’s only safety in such peril is the Cross and what it represents. Peter Chrysologus (C5th), e.g., writes that the ship tunditur ... non mergitur ‘is pounded but not sunk’ (Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo 21, col. 258); Augustine, too, describes the sea as so turbulent that even those who are borne upon the cross-tree can scarcely (vix) traverse it (Augustinus Hipponensis, Confessionum, I, XVI.25, col. 672; O’Donnell 1992, I, 12). The etymology of boði in a marine context is disputed. Most ON dictionaries see it as deriving from boða ‘to announce’ (boði ‘messenger, proclaimer’), i.e. a wave which, breaking over a submerged reef or skerry, ‘announces’ or ‘bodes’ the hidden rocks (so CVC, LP, and Fritzner). Ulvestad and Beeler 1957 believe this to be a folk etymology and conclude that it is ‘more appropriate to regard “submerged reef” (semantically unrelated to boða) as the primary meaning, and “wave” or “breaker” as the secondary’ (214). For yet another view, see AEW: boði 2. With the verb kasta ‘to throw, toss’, however, ‘billow’ seems the preferable sense; a ship that strikes a reef in a storm does not survive to continue its journey. It is possible that the poet is also playing on the lit. sense in which boðar lasta means simply ‘proclaimers, preachers of vices’; these, too, are sometimes associated with threatening waves, as in the Epistle of Jude, who likens false teachers to fluctus feri maris despumantes suas confusiones ‘waves of the raging sea, foaming out their own confusion’ (13).

kasta ‘toss’

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1. kasta (verb): throw

notes

[6] boðar lasta kasta þér ‘billows of vices toss you’: Rydberg includes hjá böls bárum ‘past the waves of sin’ (l. 5) in this intercalary cl. Skj B and Skald add a negative particle (kastat ‘do not toss’), but this misses the point that the voyage is rough and that mankind’s only safety in such peril is the Cross and what it represents. Peter Chrysologus (C5th), e.g., writes that the ship tunditur ... non mergitur ‘is pounded but not sunk’ (Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo 21, col. 258); Augustine, too, describes the sea as so turbulent that even those who are borne upon the cross-tree can scarcely (vix) traverse it (Augustinus Hipponensis, Confessionum, I, XVI.25, col. 672; O’Donnell 1992, I, 12). The etymology of boði in a marine context is disputed. Most ON dictionaries see it as deriving from boða ‘to announce’ (boði ‘messenger, proclaimer’), i.e. a wave which, breaking over a submerged reef or skerry, ‘announces’ or ‘bodes’ the hidden rocks (so CVC, LP, and Fritzner). Ulvestad and Beeler 1957 believe this to be a folk etymology and conclude that it is ‘more appropriate to regard “submerged reef” (semantically unrelated to boða) as the primary meaning, and “wave” or “breaker” as the secondary’ (214). For yet another view, see AEW: boði 2. With the verb kasta ‘to throw, toss’, however, ‘billow’ seems the preferable sense; a ship that strikes a reef in a storm does not survive to continue its journey. It is possible that the poet is also playing on the lit. sense in which boðar lasta means simply ‘proclaimers, preachers of vices’; these, too, are sometimes associated with threatening waves, as in the Epistle of Jude, who likens false teachers to fluctus feri maris despumantes suas confusiones ‘waves of the raging sea, foaming out their own confusion’ (13).

þér ‘you’

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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you

notes

[6] boðar lasta kasta þér ‘billows of vices toss you’: Rydberg includes hjá böls bárum ‘past the waves of sin’ (l. 5) in this intercalary cl. Skj B and Skald add a negative particle (kastat ‘do not toss’), but this misses the point that the voyage is rough and that mankind’s only safety in such peril is the Cross and what it represents. Peter Chrysologus (C5th), e.g., writes that the ship tunditur ... non mergitur ‘is pounded but not sunk’ (Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo 21, col. 258); Augustine, too, describes the sea as so turbulent that even those who are borne upon the cross-tree can scarcely (vix) traverse it (Augustinus Hipponensis, Confessionum, I, XVI.25, col. 672; O’Donnell 1992, I, 12). The etymology of boði in a marine context is disputed. Most ON dictionaries see it as deriving from boða ‘to announce’ (boði ‘messenger, proclaimer’), i.e. a wave which, breaking over a submerged reef or skerry, ‘announces’ or ‘bodes’ the hidden rocks (so CVC, LP, and Fritzner). Ulvestad and Beeler 1957 believe this to be a folk etymology and conclude that it is ‘more appropriate to regard “submerged reef” (semantically unrelated to boða) as the primary meaning, and “wave” or “breaker” as the secondary’ (214). For yet another view, see AEW: boði 2. With the verb kasta ‘to throw, toss’, however, ‘billow’ seems the preferable sense; a ship that strikes a reef in a storm does not survive to continue its journey. It is possible that the poet is also playing on the lit. sense in which boðar lasta means simply ‘proclaimers, preachers of vices’; these, too, are sometimes associated with threatening waves, as in the Epistle of Jude, who likens false teachers to fluctus feri maris despumantes suas confusiones ‘waves of the raging sea, foaming out their own confusion’ (13).

lasta ‘of vices’

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lǫstr (noun m.; °lastar, dat. lesti/lǫst; lestir, acc. lǫstu/lasta(Mar655XXXII 462Š)): fault, sin

notes

[6] boðar lasta kasta þér ‘billows of vices toss you’: Rydberg includes hjá böls bárum ‘past the waves of sin’ (l. 5) in this intercalary cl. Skj B and Skald add a negative particle (kastat ‘do not toss’), but this misses the point that the voyage is rough and that mankind’s only safety in such peril is the Cross and what it represents. Peter Chrysologus (C5th), e.g., writes that the ship tunditur ... non mergitur ‘is pounded but not sunk’ (Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo 21, col. 258); Augustine, too, describes the sea as so turbulent that even those who are borne upon the cross-tree can scarcely (vix) traverse it (Augustinus Hipponensis, Confessionum, I, XVI.25, col. 672; O’Donnell 1992, I, 12). The etymology of boði in a marine context is disputed. Most ON dictionaries see it as deriving from boða ‘to announce’ (boði ‘messenger, proclaimer’), i.e. a wave which, breaking over a submerged reef or skerry, ‘announces’ or ‘bodes’ the hidden rocks (so CVC, LP, and Fritzner). Ulvestad and Beeler 1957 believe this to be a folk etymology and conclude that it is ‘more appropriate to regard “submerged reef” (semantically unrelated to boða) as the primary meaning, and “wave” or “breaker” as the secondary’ (214). For yet another view, see AEW: boði 2. With the verb kasta ‘to throw, toss’, however, ‘billow’ seems the preferable sense; a ship that strikes a reef in a storm does not survive to continue its journey. It is possible that the poet is also playing on the lit. sense in which boðar lasta means simply ‘proclaimers, preachers of vices’; these, too, are sometimes associated with threatening waves, as in the Epistle of Jude, who likens false teachers to fluctus feri maris despumantes suas confusiones ‘waves of the raging sea, foaming out their own confusion’ (13).

lýðs ‘for mankind’

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lýðr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -; -ir): one of the people

notes

[7] und auði líknar lýðs ‘bearing [lit. under] the wealth of grace for mankind’: A reference to Christ’s Passion and mankind’s consequent salvation, parallel to ítrum farmi ‘glorious cargo’ (l. 3). On ‘wealth of grace’, cf. the liturgical phrases copia miserationum ‘abundance of compassions’ and immensa clementia ‘immense mercy’ (Manz 1941, 124 §194; 225 §431).

und ‘bearing’

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3. und (prep.): under, underneath

notes

[7] und auði líknar lýðs ‘bearing [lit. under] the wealth of grace for mankind’: A reference to Christ’s Passion and mankind’s consequent salvation, parallel to ítrum farmi ‘glorious cargo’ (l. 3). On ‘wealth of grace’, cf. the liturgical phrases copia miserationum ‘abundance of compassions’ and immensa clementia ‘immense mercy’ (Manz 1941, 124 §194; 225 §431).

líknar ‘of grace’

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líkn (noun f.; °-ar; gen. -a): grace, mercy

notes

[7] und auði líknar lýðs ‘bearing [lit. under] the wealth of grace for mankind’: A reference to Christ’s Passion and mankind’s consequent salvation, parallel to ítrum farmi ‘glorious cargo’ (l. 3). On ‘wealth of grace’, cf. the liturgical phrases copia miserationum ‘abundance of compassions’ and immensa clementia ‘immense mercy’ (Manz 1941, 124 §194; 225 §431).

auði ‘the wealth’

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1. auðr (noun m.; °-s/-ar, dat. -i/-): wealth

notes

[7] und auði líknar lýðs ‘bearing [lit. under] the wealth of grace for mankind’: A reference to Christ’s Passion and mankind’s consequent salvation, parallel to ítrum farmi ‘glorious cargo’ (l. 3). On ‘wealth of grace’, cf. the liturgical phrases copia miserationum ‘abundance of compassions’ and immensa clementia ‘immense mercy’ (Manz 1941, 124 §194; 225 §431).

lífs ‘life’s’

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líf (noun n.; °-s; -): life

hafnar ‘haven’

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1. hǫfn (noun f.; °hafnar; hafnir(/hafnar(Streng 234³²)): haven, harbour

til ‘to’

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til (prep.): to

stafni ‘prow’

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stafn (noun m.; °dat. -i/-; -ar): prow