Anon Mdr 35^VII

Veittu oss, hæstr, hitta
hreint líf, konungr vífa;
búðu veg, bragna græðir,
brunnr hreinar miskunnar.
Gief oss, árb… jöfra,
ítran Krist að líta,
þar er allir frið fullan
fáim vier guði kærir.

Hæstr konungr vífa, veittu oss hitta hreint líf; búðu veg, græðir bragna, brunnr hreinar miskunnar. Árb… jöfra, gief oss að líta ítran Krist, þar er vier allir, kærir guði, fáim fullan frið.

Highest king of women, grant us to experience a pure life; prepare the way, healer of men, spring of pure mercy. … of princes, grant us to see glorious Christ, where we all, dear to God, may obtain complete peace.

Mss: B(14r), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [1] Veittu: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘Veí[...]tu’ B, ‘Ve[...]tu’ BRydberg, BFJ;    hæstr: ‘hę[...]’ B, 399a‑bˣ, BFJ, ‘hę[...](tr)’(?) BRydberg    [3] græðir (‘grędeʀr’): so 399a‑bˣ, BRydberg, BFJ, ‘gręd[...]’ B    [4] brunnr: so 399a‑bˣ, BRydberg, ‘brun[...]’ B;    hreinar: ‘[...]’ B, 399a‑bˣ, ‘[...](ei)n[...]’(?) BRydberg;    miskunnar (‘[...]kunnar’): ‘’ so 399a‑bˣ, ‘[...]’ B, ‘miskunnar’ BRydberg    [5] árb…: ‘arb[...]’ B, BRydberg, ‘ar[...]’ 399a‑bˣ, ‘arla’ BFJ    [6] ítran: so 399a‑bˣ, BRydberg, BFJ, ‘itra[...]’ B    [7] frið: ‘f[...]d’ B, ‘f(ri)d’(?) 399a‑bˣ;    fullan: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘[...]’ B    [8] fáim: ‘[...]’ B, ‘fa(em)’(?) 399a‑bˣ;    guði: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘[...]’ B, ‘[...]ud[...]’ BRydberg

Editions: Skj AII, 470, Skj BII, 504, Skald II, 275; Rydberg 1907, 39, 57, Attwood 1996a, 111-12, 312.

Notes: [All]: The basic sense of st. 35 is confirmed by comparison with the sixth v. of the Lat.: Vitam praesta puram, / iter para tutum; / ut videntes Iesum, / semper collaetemur ‘Show us pure life, prepare a safe way so that, seeing Jesus, we may always rejoice’. This and the four following sts are badly mutilated by extensive damage to the lower half of fol. 14 in B. Helpful work to stabilise the ms.’s decline was undertaken by Mette Jacobsen of Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, Nordisk Forskningsinstitut, University of Copenhagen. The reconstructed text here is a conflation of Attwood’s transcription, made in 1994-6, with those of previous copyists, most importantly the 399a-bˣ copyist and Hugo Rydberg, whose 1907 thesis provides painstaking documentation of the deterioration of the manuscript in the late C19th and early C20th. Finnur Jónsson’s transcription in Skj A is heavily dependent on Rydberg, and he also reproduces the 444ˣ transcription of sts 35-40 (Skj AII, 471), incorporating Jón Sigurðsson’s suggested reconstructions. — [2] konungr vífa ‘king of women’: See Note to st. 5/2, where the phrase also occurs. — [4] brunnr hreinar miskunnar ‘spring of pure mercy’: Only ‘brun...’ is now legible in B. Both Rydberg and the 399a-bˣ copyist are certain of miskunnar and, although 399a-bˣ records no traces of the second word, Rydberg is reasonably certain of medial ein and indicates (1907, 39 n. 2) that he had previously seen traces of an initial <h>. He suggests reconstruction to hreinar, and the text here follows his reading and suggestion. — [5-8]: Finnur Jónsson makes no attempt to salvage this helmingr in Skj B, and it is not the subject of comment by Kock. The words ítran (l. 6), frið fullan (l. 7) and guði (l. 8) are confirmed by the 399a-bˣ copyist, who reads these forms with certainty. — [5] árb…: Rydberg reconstructs this word, of which only the first half is now legible, to árbót (f. nom.) ‘remedy or improvement of the year’s harvest or fertility’, which he construes with jöfra (l. 5) to form a Mary-epithet árbót jǫfra ‘harvest-remedy of princes’. — [8] fáim ‘we may obtain’: No traces now remain in B of this word, though initial <f> is implied by the alliteration. 399a-bˣ reads ‘fáem’, indicating uncertainty about the two final letters, and Rydberg (who reconstructs his text on the basis of the 399a-bˣ readings, but is unable himself to read the word) takes this as 3rd pers. pl. pres. subj. of fá ‘to get, obtain’. He construes þar er vér allir, Guði kærir, fáim frið fullan ‘where all of us, dear to God, may obtain secure peace’ (1907, 56). Cf. the final couplet with Leið 41/5-8.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Attwood, Katrina. 1996a. ‘The Poems of MS AM 757a 4to: An Edition and Contextual Study’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Leeds.
6. Rydberg, Hugo, ed. 1907. ‘Die geistlichen Drápur und Dróttkvættfragmente des Cod. AM 757 4to.’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Lund. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. Internal references
8. Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Leiðarvísan 41’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 175.