Anon Mey 58VII
Kirsten Wolf (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilagra meyja drápa 58’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 928-9.
Sínar dætur sigri vænum
Soffía hafði drottni offrað;
Fíðes, Spes og Káritas kvæðum,
kristiliga er lífið mistu.
Adriánus jungar meyjar
ónauðigar kvelr til dauða;
Máríu sonr hefir mæðgur fjórar
mætar leitt í himneskt sæti.
Soffía hafði offrað sínar dætur drottni vænum sigri; kvæðum Fíðes, Spes og Káritas, er kristiliga mistu lífið. Adriánus kvelr ónauðigar jungar meyjar til dauða; {Máríu sonr} hefir leitt fjórar mætar mæðgur í himneskt sæti.
Sophia had sacrificed her daughters to the Lord with a beautiful victory; we praise Fides, Spes and Caritas, who in a Christian manner lost their lives. Hadrian torments the undeserving young maidens to death; {Mary’s son} [= Christ] has led the three precious daughters and their mother to the heavenly seat.
Mss: 721(10r), 713(28)
Readings: [1] Sínar dætur: so 713, Sýnarligri 721 [2] Soffía: so 713, Sofía 721 [3] Fíðes: ‘fides’ 721, 713; kvæðum: kveðum 713 [5] jungar: ungar 713 [7] sonr: son 721, 713
Editions: Skj AII, 538, Skj BII, 596, Skald II, 330, NN §§2970B, 2971B, 3391C.
Notes: [All]: Fides (Faith), Spes (Hope) and Caritas (Love), represented as three daughters of a mother Sophia (Wisdom), may have been introduced to Icelanders in C14th from the Rhineland, where their cult was well known (see Cormack 1994, 37-8 for details). Several C14th-15th fragments of their lives exist (Unger 1877, I, 369-76; Widding, Bekker-Nielsen and Shook 1963, 310). These saints are said to have been martyred in Rome under the Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD). — [1-2]: Kock (NN §3391C) draws attention to the fact that vænum sigri ‘beautiful victory’ (dat.) may modify drottni ‘the Lord’. — [3] kvæðum ‘we praise’: Kock (NN §3391C) emends to kveðjum ‘we greet’. LP: kvæði expresses doubt, but presumes the existence of a verb kvæða ‘praise, celebrate’, which is otherwise unattested.
References
- Bibliography
- Unger, C. R., ed. 1877. Heilagra manna søgur. Fortællinger og legender om hellige mænd og kvinder. 2 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Bentzen.
- 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.
- Cormack, Margaret. 1994a. The Saints in Iceland: Their Veneration from the Conversion to 1400. Studia Hagiographica 78. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes.
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