Anon Mgr 10^VII

Máría kvaddi mítra stýri:
‘Mætur vinr ertu eingla gætis,’
miskunnar, ‘og minn að sönnu,’
móðir talar svá * blessuð, fróðan.
‘Biðr þú það, sem aungva aðra
áðr hefir fýst á grýttu láði;
háleit skal eg með helgum vilja
hylli lýðs þíns gjarna fylla.

Máría kvaddi {fróðan stýri mítra}: ‘Að sönnu ertu mætur vinr {gætis eingla} og minn’; svá talar * {blessuð móðir miskunnar}. ‘Þú biðr það, sem aungva aðra hefir áðr fýst á grýttu láði; háleit skal eg gjarna fylla hylli lýðs þíns með helgum vilja.

Mary greeted {the learned commander of mitres} [BISHOP = Augustine]: ‘Indeed you are a valued friend {of the guardian of angels} [= God (= Christ)] and myself’; thus speaks {the blessed mother of mercy} [= Mary]. ‘You ask that which no one else has earlier desired on the graveled earth; sublime, I shall readily complete the friendship of your people with holy will.

Mss: 713(124)

Readings: [4] svá *: svá við 713    [8] þíns: þinn 713

Editions: Skj AII, 474, Skj BII, 508, Skald II, 277-8, NN §§1666, 2683; Kahle 1898, 57, Sperber 1911, 32, 74, Wrightson 2001, 5.

Notes: [All]: Mar (1871, xvi) gives the following account of Mary’s response: Augustine vinr sonar mins oc minn. Friðr se þer oc þinni godfysi. En þat efni er þu girniz af mér. er hardla grætiligt oc viðrkenniligt oc hit hormuligsta. Enn með þvi at ec em nv vppnvumin af minum sæta seyni til himinrikis. þannig sem engi er hryggleikr. þa ma ec eigi grata. Enn þu skrifa með sorgfullum hvg oc tꜳrum þat er ec þolþi i sialfrar minnar hiarta ‘Augustine, friend of my son and myself. Peace be to you and your good will. But that matter which you desire from me is very lamentable and sad and most grievous. And because I have now been uplifted by my sweet son to the heavenly kingdom, where there is no anguish, I cannot weep. But you must write with a sorrowful mind and tears that which I suffered in my very heart’. — [4] blessuð, fróðan (f. nom. sg., m. acc. sg.) ‘blessed, learned’: As it stands in 713 (móðir talar svá við blessuð fróðan lit. ‘the mother speaks thus to the blessed wise’), the l. makes no sense syntactically, because blessuð ‘blessed’ is f. nom. sg. and fróðan ‘learned’ is m. acc. sg. The present emendation follows Skj B and Skald (see also the comparable structures in 18/6 and 22/1 below). Wrightson retains the ms. reading and separates the prep. við ‘to’ from its object fróðan ‘learned’: svá talar blessuð móðir miskunnar við fróðan ‘so the blessed Mother of Mercy speaks to the learned one’. Such a w.o. is unprecedented in skaldic poetry (a proclitic prep. cannot be separated from the object). — [5] það (n. acc. sg.) ‘that’: The verb biðja ‘ask’ usually takes the gen., and Skj B and Skald emend to þess (n. gen. sg.) ‘that’. However, biðja in the meaning ‘ask for something’ can also be construed with the acc. (see Fritzner: biðja). — [7-8]: The emended reading follows NN §1666. The sense is that, since Augustine has been a faithful friend to Christ and Mary, in return she is willing to grant Augustine’s plea so as to make his congregation’s love for him complete (see st. 4 and NN §1666). Skj B posits an unattested hap. leg. hyllir ‘favourer, friend’ (hylli m. acc. or dat. sg.), which is adopted in Wrightson 2001: með helgum hylli lýðs skal eg gjarna fylla vilja þinn ‘I together with the holy favourer of mankind [Christ] shall willingly fulfill your wish’.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Sperber, Hans, ed. 1911. Sechs isländische Gedichte legendarischen Inhalts. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, filosofi, språkvetenskap och historiska vetenskaper 2. Uppsala: Akademische Buchdruckerei Edv. Berling.
6. Wrightson, Kellinde, ed. 2001. Fourteenth-Century Icelandic Verse on the Virgin Mary: Drápa af Maríugrát, Vitnisvísur af Maríu, Maríuvísur I-III. Viking Society for Northern Research Text Series 14. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
8. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.