Anon Mfl 2^III

Busti beggja rista
barmskúr ofan hvarma
fljóðs á frægja meiða
fjǫlglyggs himins tyggja.
Vann, sús kœnst es kvenna,
kvǫlbannaðar manna
él*um undirstóla
iltún þvegit brúna.

{{Hvarma barm}skúr} fljóðs busti ofan á {frægja meiða beggja rista} {tyggja fjǫlglyggs himins}. Vann, sús es kœnst kvenna, þvegit {iltún} {kvǫlbannaðar manna} {él*um {undirstóla brúna}}.

{The shower {of the edge of eyelids}} [(lit. ‘edge-showers of eyelids’) EYES > TEARS] of the woman streamed down on {the famous trees of both insteps} [FEET] {of the lord of the windswept heaven} [= Christ]. She, who is the wisest of women, washed {the footsole-yards} [FEET] {of the torment-banisher of men} [= Christ] {with storms {of the support-chairs of brows}} [EYES > TEARS].

Mss: W(169) (SnE)

Readings: [4] himins: himin W    [7] él*um: eljun W

Editions: Skj AI, 627, Skj BI, 634, Skald I, 308, NN §1271; SnE 1848-87, II, 500, III, 181-2.

Context: As st. 1 above.

Notes: [All]: This stanza also contains intricate kennings for tears and body parts as well as an unconventional kenning for Christ (kvǫlbǫnnuðr manna ‘torment-banisher of men’, l. 6; cf. Note to st. 1/3), and Mary is referred to as fljóð ‘woman’ (l. 3) and kœnst kvenna ‘wisest of women’ (l. 5) without any religious overtones (see Introduction and Note to st. 1/2). — [1] beggja rista ‘of both insteps’: So also Skj B and Konráð Gíslason (1895-7, II, 225). Kock (NN §1271) argues that beggja (gen. pl.) ‘of both’ ought to qualify hvarma (gen. pl.) ‘of eyelids’ (l. 2), but such a syntactic arrangement would be highly unusual (see Kuhn 1983, 135; Gade 1995a, 131-4). In Skald Kock indicates that beggja qualifies rista rather than hvarma. — [2] hvarma barmskúr ‘the shower of the edge of eyelids [(lit. ‘edge-showers of eyelids’) EYES > TEARS]’: According to Kock (NN §1271), barmr means ‘seething, swelling, fermenting’ here, but his argumentation is not persuasive, and barmr is otherwise not attested in Old Norse in that sense (see also AEW: barmr 2, 3). The present interpretation follows LP: barmskúr. — [4] fjǫlglyggs himins ‘of the windswept heaven’: The adj. (nom. fjǫlglyggr) is a hap. leg. derived from the noun glygg ‘wind, storm’, and the gen. ‑glyggs forces the emendation of himin to gen. himins (so also Skj B and Skald). Emended to the cpd himintyggi ‘heaven-lord’ in SnE 1848-87 and in LP: himintyggi. — [7]: The line recalls Bragi Frag 6/3. — [7, 8] él*um undirstóla brúna ‘with storms of the support-chairs of brows [EYES > TEARS]’: The ms. reading eljun ‘power, endurance, energy’ cannot be construed to make any sense in the context, and the emendation is in keeping with earlier eds. Both Skj B and Skald print éljum, which is not clear since él is a n. a-stem and not a ja-stem (see AEW: él; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, II, 226 has élom). The cpd undirstóll ‘support-chair’ (lit. ‘under-chair’, from the adv. undir ‘under, below, beneath’ and stóll ‘chair’) is a hap. leg. In the present context it must refer to the eyes sitting below the eyebrows, but undirstóll brúna is admittedly an odd kenning for ‘eyes’. Konráð Gíslason (loc. cit.) accordingly emends to undirsóla brúna lit. ‘of the under-suns of the brows’, denoting the brightness of the eyes.

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. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
7. 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.
8. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
9. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1983. Das Dróttkvætt. Heidelberg: Winter.
10. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
11. Internal references
12. Not published: do not cite ()
13. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Fragments 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 62.