Anon (FoGT) 7^III

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 579.

text and translation

notes and context

This stanza is the second example given by the author of FoGT to illustrate the figure of chronographia. It is introduced with the following explanation: Sva er ok hin sama figvra, þo at skaalldit segi, hvat samtiða er, ęðr hverer hofðingiar londvm styra, sem her ‘It is also the same figure when the poet tells what is contemporaneous or which chieftains rule lands, as here’.

The syntax of this stanza is difficult if W’s af (l. 4) and ok (l. 7) are retained, and they have been emended to að in both instances, following suggestions by Sveinbjörn Egilsson in the first instance and Jón Þorkelsson in FoGT 1884, 246 n. 6 in the second. If ok in l. 7 remains, it is necessary to construe og hjörðum glæpsku firðum ‘and for the flocks freed from sin’ (ll. 7, 8) as an extension of að angri rangri þjóð ‘to the distress of the sinful people’ (l. 4), and this seems an impossibly strained word order (see FoGT 1884, 246 n. 6) across two helmingar. — Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, II, 190 n. 1) first suggested that the main event mentioned in this stanza might be a reference to the burning of the cathedral at Skálholt by a lightning strike in 1309, mentioned in many of the Icelandic annals. Cf. Lárentíus saga biskups (ÍF 17, 304), Skálholts-Annaler (Storm 1888, 202). This took place in the reign of King Hákon háleggr ‘Long-leg’ Magnússon of Norway (r. 1299-1319). As the stanza represents this event as having taken place in the past, it has been presumed to date from after Hákon’s death in 1319, thus providing a terminus post quem for the stanza and possibly the treatise as a whole (cf. FoGT 1884, xliii). The stanza presents the cathedral fire as God’s punishment on the sinful Icelanders. It is an open question as to whether the author of FoGT considered this stanza an example of contemporaneous events or of a named ruler of the land, or both. See further Anon (FoGT) 11 and Notes. — [1]: This line is very similar to SnSt Ht 14/1 Hákun ræðr með heiðan, and the grammarian may well have had it in mind, as Snorri’s stanza appears later in FoGT as st. 35. 

readings

• [2] þar er: ‘þ[…]r er’ W
• [4] að: af W
• [7] að: ok W

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.

• AM 242 fol (W) — 112/9 - 112/11

  Hákon rieð fyr hauðri
  handsterkr, †þ[…]r er† guð merkti
  refsiþátt hinn rietta
  rangri þjóð af angri.
  Laust með elding æstri
  alvirkr höfuðkirkju
  himnagarðs ok hjörðum
  hirðir glæpsku firðum.

  Hakon rieð fyrer hauðri hand sterkr þ[…]r er gvð merkti refsi þatt| hinn rietta rangri þioð af angri. laust með ellding æstri allvirkr hǫfvt kirkiu himna garðz| ok hiǫrðvm hirðir glæpskv firðvm.

  (MCR)

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