Þrándr Kredda 1^I

Gangat ek einn út;
fjórir mér fylgja         fimm goðs englar.
Berk bœn fyr mér,         bœn fyr Kristi;
syng ek salma sjau;         séi goð hluta minn.

Ek gangat út einn; fjórir, fimm englar goðs fylgja mér. Berk bœn fyr mér, bœn fyr Kristi; ek syng sjau salma; goð séi hluta minn.

I do not go out alone; four, five angels of God accompany me. I speak a prayer for myself, a prayer before Christ; I sing seven psalms; may God watch over my lot.

Mss: Flat(130va) (Flat)

Editions: Skj AI, 211, Skj BI, 202, Skald I, 106, NN §575, 2463D, 3064; Flat 1860-8, II, 400, ÍF 25, 115 (Fœr ch. 57).

Context: Arrived at Þrándr’s farm, Þóra Sigmundardóttir is reunited with her nine-year-old son Sigmundr and asks him what Christian knowledge his foster-father Þrándr has taught him. He responds by singing the Pater Noster ‘Our Father’ more or less to her satisfaction, en kredda Þrándar er á þessa leið ‘but Þrándr’s creed goes like this’. After the stanza, Þóra disparages this creed, but Þrándr replies that Christ had twelve disciples each with his own version of the creed, that ‘you and I’ have our own, and there is no single correct version of such things.

Notes: [All]: The stanza contains only seven lines, and the first line fails to match the basic málaháttr pattern of alliteration seen elsewhere in the stanza, from which at least three possible deductions could be made: (a) Line 1, with its alliteration on einn and út, should be followed by a line continuing the vocalic alliteration on the first stressed syllable. Kock (Skald and NN §2463D) suggested annarr né þriði ‘a second nor a third’, as part of a theory that the numerical sequence runs right through the stanza. (b) If gangat opened the second line, a preceding line could have alliterated on g-. Gefnir eru englar góðir ‘good angels are granted’ was mentioned by Rafn in Fær 1832 on the basis of existing Faroese versions of the kredda (and cited from there in Foote 1969a, 356-7). This would be unmetrical, but gefnir eru góðir englar would be satisfactory. (c) However, the sense is complete, the stanza is written out without a break in Flat, and given the symbolic resonances of the number seven, it could be that there is no line missing (cf. Foote 1969a, 359-60). — [1] gangat ‘I do not go’: The form contains the negative suffix ‑at, but, unusually, lacks an explicit (e)k ‘I’ (as observed by Foote 1969a, 361). Kock (NN §3064) drew attention to the non-standard form of the verb ganga here, believing it to be a weak form. Foote, however, is sceptical about this. He considers the possibility of a rare optative (subj.) form (ibid., 361-2, citing NS §182(a)), but ultimately inclines to see gangat as a Faroese form *gang- (ibid., 362-3). — [3, 4] fjórir, fimm englar ‘four, five angels’: The significance of this is uncertain, but Revelation 7.1-2 describes four angels standing at the corners of the earth, then a fifth. Among depictions of four angels is the picture of Christ accompanied by four angels on fol. 32v of the Book of Kells (Fox 1990, 281-2). — [5] mér ‘me’: Kock (NN §575), in line with his theory of a complete numerical sequence (Note to [All] above), suggested that sex ‘six’ (written ‘uí’ or ‘uȷ́’) underlay mér in l. 5 (which is clear in Flat, written as ‘m’ with superscript ‘r’). — [5] berk ‘I speak’: Cf. Fritzner: bera 5 for bera in the sense ‘report, tell, deliver (a message, words etc.)’; the usage is equivalent to bera fram. — [5, 6] fyr ‘for’; fyr ‘before’: The sense of fyr seems to shift between these lines, unless Þrándr’s religious eccentricity led him so far as to pray for Christ.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
5. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
6. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
7. ÍF 25 = Færeyinga saga; Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar eptir Odd munk Snorrason. Ed. Ólafur Halldórsson. 2006.
8. Fær 1832 = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1832. Færeyínga saga eller Færøboernes historie. Copenhagen: J. H. Schulz.
9. Foote, Peter G. 1969a. ‘A Note on Þránd’s kredda’. In Jakob Benediktsson 1969, 355-63. Rpt. with postscript in Foote 1984a, 199-208.
10. Fox, Peter, ed. 1990. The Book of Kells: MS 58 Trinity College Library Dublin. Commentary. Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag.