Anon Mey 5VII
Kirsten Wolf (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilagra meyja drápa 5’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 894-5.
text and translation
Sæt Máría gjörði að gráta
gráti mædd í sonarins láti;
lát Júðanna fældi að fljóði;
fljóðið horfði á krossinn rjóðan.
Rjóðandi þá flaut og flóði
flóð táranna niðr um móður,
móðurbrjóstið streingt af stríði
stríðið bar sem eingi síðan.
Sæt Máría, mædd gráti, gjörði að gráta í láti sonarins; lát Júðanna fældi að fljóði; fljóðið horfði á rjóðan krossinn. Rjóðandi flóð táranna flaut og flóði þá niðr um móður; móðurbrjóstið, streingt af stríði, bar stríðið sem eingi síðan.
‘Sweet Mary, overcome by weeping, wept at the death of the son; the conduct of the Jews mocked the woman; the woman looked at the red Cross. The reddening stream of tears then flowed and streamed down the mother; the mother’s chest, tight from grief, bore the grief like no one since.’
notes and context
This st. uses a variety of the echoing verse-form that Snorri Sturluson in Ht called iðurmælt ‘repeatedly said’ (SnE 1999, 22). Here the stressed syllable of the final word in l. 1 is repeated (though in a cognate, not the same, word) at the beginning of l. 2; l. 2’s aðalhending changes the stem while maintaining the rhyme, and the new lexeme begins l. 3; this format is repeated through the rest of the st., employing four rhymes in all. Note also that the st. comprises four apposed couplets, allowing the word-play, a type of adnominatio, to suggest a rapid sequence of significant events. This rhetorical ornamentation, which is very like some of the devices employed by the poet of Lil (cf. Foote 1982, 260-3), doubtless reflects the emotional intensity associated with the common medieval motif of Mary standing weeping at the foot of Christ’s Cross. See st. 36, whose subject is S. Margaret, for a similar display.
readings
sources
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
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AM 721 4° (721) — 11r - 11r
imagesSæt Máría gjörði að gráta
gráti mædd í sonarins láti;
lát Júðanna feldi að fljóði;
fljóðið horfði á krossinn rjóðan.
Rjóðandi þá flaut og flóði
flóð táranna niðr um móður,
móðurbrjóstið streingt af stríði
stríðið bar sem eingi síðan.Sæt maría giordí at grata· | gratí mædd í sonaríns latí· lät íudana felldí at flíodí· flíodit horfde ä krossínn rí | odan· ríodandí þa flaut ok flodi· flod tarana nidr um modr· modr briostít | streíngt af stridí stridit bar sem eingi sidan· //
(KW)
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AM 713 4° (713) — 23/16 - 23/18
Sæt Máría gjörði að gráta
images
gráti mædd í sonarins láti;
lát Júðanna feldi að fljóði;
fljóðið horfði á krossinn rjóðan.
Rjóðandi þá er flaut í flóði
flóð táranna niðr um móður,
móðurbrjóstið streingt af stríði
stríðið bar sem einginn síðan.
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