Anon Mdr 42^VII

Heil vertu, drottning dýrðar,
dags *önn valin mönnum,
líknar rót og læknir,
lýðs vegr, gift og prýði.
Heitir þú stígi og stræti
styrkr til ljóss frá myrkrum
grundvöllr gæzku allrar
gimsteinn konungs himna.

Heil vertu, drottning dýrðar, valin *önn dags mönnum, rót líknar og læknir, vegr lýðs, gift og prýði. Þú heitir stígi og styrkr stræti til ljóss frá myrkrum, grundvöllr allrar gæzku, gimsteinn {konungs himna}.

Hail to you, queen of glory, chosen as light’s vestibule for men, root of mercy and healer, mankind’s glory, gift and adornment. You are called a ladder and a strong road to light from darkness, the foundation of all mercy, jewel {of the king of the heavens} [= God (= Christ)].

Mss: B(14v), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [2] *önn: sönn B    [3] læknir: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘le[...]ner’ B    [6] styrkr: ‘stýrk[...]’ B, ‘styrkṛ’ 399a‑bˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 472, Skj BII, 504-5, Skald II, 276, NN §§1660, 2983; Rydberg 1907, 41, 58, Attwood 1996a, 114, 313.

Notes: [1-2]: The ms. reading sönn ‘true’ (l. 2) can only be retained if the syntax of ll. 1-2 is construed differently from the preceding sts 37-41, where the first l. of each st. is an independent cl., followed by a number of epithets for the Virgin in apposition to drottning dýrðar. It would be possible to break this pattern by reading Heil vertu sönn drottning dýrðar dags valin mǫnnum ‘Hail to you, true queen of the glory of day, chosen for [or by] men’ (so, with minor differences, Skj B and Attwood 1996a), or by construing sönn with líknar rót ok læknir (l. 3), as Rydberg does. However, the emendation proposed by Kock (NN §1660) of sönn to önn, construing this with dags (l. 2) to form a Mary-epithet, ‘vestibule of day’ is attractive, not only because it keeps syntactic parity with sts 37-41 but because it also provides a recognisable type of Mary-epithet (cf. Schottmann 1973, 49, who draws attention to the possible parallel with Lat. aula lucis ‘vestibule of light’ in the breviary hymn O gratiosa virginum ‘O most gracious of virgins’). Önn is attested as an alternative spelling for önd ‘porch, vestibule’, as in Skí 31/8 (NK, 75; Fritzner: ǫnd), but only occurs with this sense in one other instance in the skaldic corpus, Bjhit Lv 3/7^V. The majority of uses listed in LP: ǫnn of the phrase dags ǫnn have the sense of ‘day’s work’, but it is hard to see how this would fit the present context. — [3] rót líknar ‘root of mercy’: Cf. Schottmann 1973, 32-4 for comparable epithets and the Lat. Marian epithet salve radix, most familiar from the hymn Ave regina cælorum ‘Hail queen of the heavens’. — [7] grundvöllr allrar gæzku ‘foundation of all mercy’: Cf. grundvöllr sprunda ‘foundation of women’ 31/6; Schottmann 1973, 54. — [8] gimsteinn ‘jewel’: On the use of jewel imagery for the Virgin Mary, see Schottmann 1973, 60; cf. gimsteinn brúða ‘jewel among brides’ Lil 89/4, also used of the reformed Mary Magdalene in Anon Mey 11/8; gimsteinn vífa ‘jewel among women’ in Lil 27/8 and Mgr 39/4; gimsteinn sprunda ‘jewel among women’ Árni Gd 10/6^IV. Árni also describes Bishop Guðmundur as gimsteinn lærðra manna ‘jewel among educated men’ in 69/4.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. Attwood, Katrina. 1996a. ‘The Poems of MS AM 757a 4to: An Edition and Contextual Study’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Leeds.
7. Rydberg, Hugo, ed. 1907. ‘Die geistlichen Drápur und Dróttkvættfragmente des Cod. AM 757 4to.’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Lund. Copenhagen: Møller.
8. Schottmann, Hans. 1973. Die isländische Mariendichtung. Untersuchungen zur volkssprachigen Mariendichtung des Mittelalters. Münchner germanistische Beiträge 9. Munich: Fink.
9. 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.
10. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
11. Internal references
12. Kirsten Wolf (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilagra meyja drápa 11’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 898-9.
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Drápa af Máríugrát 39’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 786-7.
14. Not published: do not cite (Árni Gd 10^IV)
15. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 27’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 593-4.
16. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 89’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 662-3.
17. Not published: do not cite ()