Anon Mey 36VII
Kirsten Wolf (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilagra meyja drápa 36’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 914.
Lesandi oft með fagnað fúsan
fúsir menn, er treysta henni,
hennar sögu, þá er krankar kvinnur
kvennligt stríð í sóttum bíða.
Margaréta brúðum bætir
bætta hjálp með sínum mætti;
vaktar þessi meyjan mektug
mektargjörð á himni og jörðu.
Fúsir menn, er treysta henni, lesandi oft hennar sögu með fúsan fagnað, þá er krankar kvinnur bíða kvennligt stríð í sóttum. Margaréta bætir brúðum bætta hjálp með sínum mætti; mektug, þessi meyjan vaktar mektargjörð á himni og jörðu.
Keen men, who believe in her, often read her story with keen joy, when sick women suffer female affliction in illnesses. Margaret makes good help to women better with her might; powerful, this maiden keeps watch over the action of power in heaven and earth.
Mss: 721(9r), 713(26)
Readings: [4] kvennligt: kvenlig 713 [7] mektug: mektir 713 [8] mektar‑: so 713, megtar 721
Editions: Skj AII, 534, Skj BII, 591, Skald II, 327, NN §§1846, 2976B.
Notes: [All]: On the rhetorical colours of this st., see Note to st. 5. It is interesting that the poet uses this method of stylistic intensification at the point where he speaks of S. Margaret’s help for women’s illnesses. — [1, 2] fúsir menn ... lesandi ‘keen men ... read’: This seems to imply that clerics might have read the saga of S. Margaret to women who were suffering difficult childbirth or from gynaecological illnesses. Cf. the prayer for labouring women included in AM 433 c 12° (c. 1500) which also contains a saga of S. Margaret (Bekker-Nielsen 1961).
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Bekker-Nielsen, Hans. 1961. ‘En god bøn’. Opuscula 2, 52-62. BA 25.1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
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