Anon (FoGT) 11III
Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 11’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 584.
Grund ‘Country’
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grund (noun f.): earth, land
taktu ‘do’
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2. taka (verb): take
bölvi ‘with evil’
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bǫl (noun n.; °-s, dat. bǫlvi): evil
blandin ‘imbued’
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2. blanda (verb; °blendr; blett, blendu; blandinn): mix, blend (strong)
notes
[1] blandin ‘imbued’: Lit. ‘mixed’.
bót ‘penance’
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bót (noun f.; °-ar; bǿtr): compensation
fyr ‘for’
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fyr (prep.): for, over, because of, etc.
glæpsku ‘sin’
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glœpr (noun m.): sin, misdeed
ljóta ‘ugly’
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ljótr (adj.): ugly
Þier ‘for you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
mun ‘will’
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munu (verb): will, must
óhlyðni ‘disobedience’
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óhlýðni (noun f.): [disobedience]
ærin ‘great’
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œrinn (adj.): ample, sufficient
notes
[3] ærin ‘great’: Lit. ‘sufficient’.
Ísland ‘Iceland’
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Ísland (noun n.): [Iceland, ice-land]
píslir ‘punishments’
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písl (noun f.; °-ar; -ir/-ar(Maurit 650²²)): torture
[4] píslir: ‘p[…]lir’ W
notes
[4] píslir ‘punishments’: Ms. W’s reading is obscured by a hole, but the emendation píslir is confirmed by aðalhending and by sense and has been adopted in all eds.
Þú ‘You’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
mátt ‘can’
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mega (verb): may, might
ófrið ‘hostility’
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ófriðr (noun m.): unrest
óttaz ‘fear’
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2. ótta (verb): fear
notes
[6] óþýð* ‘rough’: Ms. W’s m. adj. óþýðr ‘rough, hard, unfriendly’ must be emended to the f. form (so SnE 1848-87, II, 200 n. 2 and all subsequent eds) to agree with fold ‘land’ (l. 7).
nema ‘unless’
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2. nema (conj.): unless
vel ‘well’
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vel (adv.): well, very
hlýðið ‘you obey’
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2. hlýða (verb): hear, listen; be able
fold ‘land’
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fold (noun f.): land
þeim ‘those’
notes
[7, 8] þeim er sjaldan neyta sverðum ‘those who seldom use swords’: I.e., members of the clergy, priests and monks. Neyta ‘use’ usually takes the gen. of what is used, but here the dat. sverðum ‘swords’ is found, possibly (cf. FoGT 1884, 253 n. 5) in imitation of a Latin construction with the same sense, uti gladiis (Lat. utor takes the ablative rather than the dat. case, but the forms are identical).
er ‘who’
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2. er (conj.): who, which, when
notes
[7, 8] þeim er sjaldan neyta sverðum ‘those who seldom use swords’: I.e., members of the clergy, priests and monks. Neyta ‘use’ usually takes the gen. of what is used, but here the dat. sverðum ‘swords’ is found, possibly (cf. FoGT 1884, 253 n. 5) in imitation of a Latin construction with the same sense, uti gladiis (Lat. utor takes the ablative rather than the dat. case, but the forms are identical).
sverðum ‘swords’
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sverð (noun n.; °-s; -): sword
notes
[7, 8] þeim er sjaldan neyta sverðum ‘those who seldom use swords’: I.e., members of the clergy, priests and monks. Neyta ‘use’ usually takes the gen. of what is used, but here the dat. sverðum ‘swords’ is found, possibly (cf. FoGT 1884, 253 n. 5) in imitation of a Latin construction with the same sense, uti gladiis (Lat. utor takes the ablative rather than the dat. case, but the forms are identical).
sjaldan ‘seldom’
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sjaldan (adv.): seldom
notes
[7, 8] þeim er sjaldan neyta sverðum ‘those who seldom use swords’: I.e., members of the clergy, priests and monks. Neyta ‘use’ usually takes the gen. of what is used, but here the dat. sverðum ‘swords’ is found, possibly (cf. FoGT 1884, 253 n. 5) in imitation of a Latin construction with the same sense, uti gladiis (Lat. utor takes the ablative rather than the dat. case, but the forms are identical).
siðir ‘morals’
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siðr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. -/-i; -ir, acc. -u): faith, morals
breytiz ‘change’
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breyta (verb; °-tt-): alter, change; conduct oneself
hier ‘here’
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hér (adv.): here
neyta ‘use’
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neyta (verb): use, enjoy
notes
[7, 8] þeim er sjaldan neyta sverðum ‘those who seldom use swords’: I.e., members of the clergy, priests and monks. Neyta ‘use’ usually takes the gen. of what is used, but here the dat. sverðum ‘swords’ is found, possibly (cf. FoGT 1884, 253 n. 5) in imitation of a Latin construction with the same sense, uti gladiis (Lat. utor takes the ablative rather than the dat. case, but the forms are identical).
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Stanza 11 is the first example of prosopopoeia given in FoGT. The figure is defined and the stanza introduced thus: Prosopophía er isetning nyrar personv, ok verðr ꜳ̋ .iij. leiðer. Sv er hin fyrsta ef skꜳlldit seger, at lífligr lvtr talí til líf lavss lutar, sem her ‘Prosopopoeia is the insertion of a new person, and it occurs in three ways. The first is if the poet says that a living thing is speaking to a lifeless thing, as here’. After the stanza, the prose text explains: her talar skalldit nefndri figvrv, eggiandi vnder menn at hlyða vel for stiorum sínvm, ok nefner landit istað þeirra, er þat [þav W] byggia ‘here the poet speaks in the said figure, exhorting subjects to listen well to their rulers, and names the land instead of those who live in it’.
The moralising tone already evident in sts 7 and 8 is again apparent here, and it intensifies to a Jeremiad. Some eds (most recently FoGT 2004, 99) have linked the upbraiding of Icelanders in this stanza with the reference in st. 7 to the poetic persona’s allegation that a lightning strike on a major church (possibly Skálholt) was God’s judgement upon sinful Icelanders. The two stanzas may be connected, but equally they may be independent expressions of a common theme.
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