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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon (FoGT) 8III

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 581.

Anonymous LausavísurStanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise
789

introduction

Three stanzas (one whole, two couplets) are cited by the author of FoGT to illustrate the rhetorical figure of hypallage, in which the natural relations of two words in a statement are interchanged. The chapter is introduced with the statement: Ypallage verðr þat, er sꜳ er kallaðr þolandi, sem at rettv er gerandi, ęðr sꜳ giorandi, sem at rettv er þolandí, sem herHypallage occurs when he who is rightly active is called passive, or he [is called] active, who is by rights passive, as here’. The metre of st. 8 is alhent ‘completely rhymed’, a variant of dróttkvætt in which there are two pairs of full rhymes in each line; cf. SnSt Ht 44 (SnE 2007, 21). Stanzas 9 and 10 are in dróttkvætt.

text and translation

Framan unnu gram gunnar
†grafins seiðs† framir meiðar;
biðu Jótar lið ljótan
lagagangs daga strangra.
Lofag sjaldan hóf haldið;
hataz dygð; *rataz lygðir;
tregs halda vegs valdar
veginn arf megindjarfir.

{Meiðar {†seiðs grafins†}}, framir gunnar, unnu framan gram; Jótar biðu ljótan lið lagagangs strangra daga. Lofag sjaldan haldið hóf; dygð hataz; lygðir *rataz; {megindjarfir valdar tregs vegs} halda veginn arf.
 
‘The trees … [GOLD? > MEN], outstanding in battle, overcame the prominent prince; the Jótar experienced an ugly situation of legal proceedings during harsh times. I seldom praise moderation preserved; virtue is destroyed; lies are abroad; the very bold possessors of slow honour [CONTEMPTIBLE MEN] keep hold of the slain [man’s] inheritance.

notes and context

As described in the Introduction to sts 8-10 above. This stanza is followed with the explanation: her er arfrenn veginn kallaðr, sa er maðr var fra vegínn, sa er með rettv hellt, er þeir tokv, er hann drapv ‘here the inheritance is called slain, which was taken from the slain man who by right owned it, and which those who killed him took’.

As has been noted by previous eds, some of the rhymes in this stanza (e.g. lof- : hóf, l. 5 and dygð : lygð-, l. 6) suggest a late date of composition. That is also corroborated by the fact that in l. 5, an odd line of Type XE3, metrical position 4 is occupied by a trimoraic nomen (hóf ‘moderation’). — The stanza juxtaposes several short moralising statements in alhent metre, whose message is cleverly reinforced by the double aðalhending in each line. Examples of alhent in the skaldic corpus are not numerous; for a list see SnE 2007, 83. The speaker of the stanza ( the ‘I’ of l. 5) seems to be reflecting on contemporary events with which he is clearly out of sympathy. Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 250-2) suggested that the stanza (and ll. 3-4 and 7-8 in particular) might be an allusion to the situation in Denmark in the interregnum of 1332-40 when the kingdom was divided into four parts. He proposed that the reference to Jótar ‘Jutlanders’ (l. 3) might allude to the situation in Northern Jutland in which there was an uprising against the German count Gert (Gerhard III of Holstein), who was the real ruler of the area, and widely despised. He may be the ‘prominent prince’ (framan gram) of l. 1. This uprising led to Gert’s death at the hands of Niels Ebbesen and his brothers and ultimately to Valdimar IV’s ascent of the throne in June 1340. Gert was assasinated in April 1340. As the stanza represents the events troubling the Jótar as past (cf. biðu ‘they experienced’ l. 3), while using the pres. tense later, Björn Magnússon Ólsen argued that this stanza must date from some time in later 1340 after the news of Gert’s death had reached Iceland. However, it is by no means certain that ll. 7-8 refer to a specific historical circumstance, as they could easily be interpreted, along with ll. 5-6, as a general comment on the moral deterioration of the times.

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: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], D. 3. Vers af den 4. grt. afhandling 5: AII, 215, BII, 232, Skald II, 120, NN §2354; SnE 1848-87, II, 198-9, III, 155, FoGT 1884, 124, 247-52, FoGT 2004, 34, 62, 95-6, FoGT 2014, 6-9, 62-3.

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