Anon Mdr 5^VII

Oss þungliga þraungdum
þú hlíf, konungr vífa;
traust hafa menn ið mesta,
mær göfug, af þier, kærust.
Dragðu til dróttins bygða,
drottning heims og gotna,
… frá illu
aftr með þínum krafti.

Konungr vífa, hlíf þú oss þungliga þraungdum; menn hafa ið mesta traust af þier, göfug, kærust mær. {Drottning heims og gotna}, dragðu … aftr frá illu til bygða dróttins með krafti þínum.

King of women, shelter us, heavily oppressed; men have the greatest support from you, noble, dearest maiden. {Queen of the world and of men} [= Mary], drag … back from wickedness to the Lord’s dwellings by your power.

Mss: B(13v), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [3] hafa (‘hafua’): so 399a‑bˣ, ‘[...]afua’ B    [7] …: ‘[...]n l[...]’ B, BRydberg, BFJ, ‘[...]ll[...]’ 399a‑bˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 456, Skj BII, 497-8, Skald II, 272, NN § 2668; Konráð Gíslason 1860, 556, Rydberg 1907, 33, 54, Attwood 1996a, 103, 304.

Notes: [2] konungr vífa ‘king of women’: Cf. Has 61/1-2: blíðr hǫfðingi snóta ‘gentle chief of women’ and Note ad loc. This kenning-like epithet is repeated at 35/2. — [7] …: B is badly torn, with only final n in the first word and initial l in the second legible, followed by an accented letter (the accent stroke remains). A vowel followed by <ll> is required for rhyme and alliteration, and the context suggests that the st. contained some reference to redeemed mankind. A note by Jón Sigurðsson at this point in the 399a-bˣ transcript suggests reconstruction to allan lýð ‘all the people’, giving the prose arrangement dragðu allan lýð aftr frá illu til dróttins bygða með krafti þínum ‘drag the whole people back from wickedness to the Lord’s dwellings by your power’. Jón’s reconstruction is approved by Sveinbjörn Egilsson in a marginal note to 444ˣ, and has been adopted by subsequent eds.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Attwood, Katrina. 1996a. ‘The Poems of MS AM 757a 4to: An Edition and Contextual Study’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Leeds.
5. Rydberg, Hugo, ed. 1907. ‘Die geistlichen Drápur und Dróttkvættfragmente des Cod. AM 757 4to.’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Lund. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. Internal references
7. Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Gamli kanóki, Harmsól 61’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 127-8.