Anon Mgr 33^VII

Heyri þjóð, það er heilug Máría
hýrlig sagði merkja stýri:
‘Skynlaus óaðiz skaparans dauða
skepna öll með konum og köllum.
Hristiz jörð, en björgin brustu;
beimar áttu dimt í heimi;
jafnvel misti sólin sæta
sína birti og mátti ei skína.

Heyri þjóð, það er hýrlig, heilug Máría sagði {stýri merkja}: ‘Öll skynlaus skepna með konum og köllum óaðiz dauða skaparans. Jörð hristiz, en björgin brustu; beimar áttu dimt í heimi; sólin sæta misti jafnvel birti sína og mátti ei skína.

Let people hear what friendly, holy Mary said {to the controller of symbols} [BISHOP = Augustine]: ‘All inanimate creation, along with women and men, was afraid at the death of the Creator. The earth shook and mountains shattered; men had darkness [lit. had (it) dark] in the world; the sweet sun likewise lost its brightness and could not shine.

Mss: 713(127), 1032ˣ(70v-71v), 920ˣ(208v)

Readings: [7] misti: so 1032ˣ, 920ˣ, ‘m[...]’ 713

Editions: Skj AII, 479, Skj BII, 514, Skald II, 281, NN §§2691, 2858; Kahle 1898, 62, 104, Sperber 1911, 37-8, 75, Wrightson 2001, 17.

Notes: [All]: Cf. Mar (1871, xvii): Ek kende iorðina pipra vndir fotum mer. enn solina felandi sig … Biorgin brvsto i sundr ‘I felt the earth shake beneath my feet, and the sun was hiding itself … The mountains burst asunder’. See also Matt. XXVII.51. — [2] stýri merkja ‘the controller of symbols [BISHOP = Augustine]’: Merkja ‘of symbols’ is taken here as a reference to the duties of a bishop (so also Wrightson). LP: merki 3 translates the word as ‘celestial bodies’ and takes stýrir merkja as a reference to ‘God’ (see stýrir 1), although the phrase is translated as ‘bishop’ in Skj B. Skald emends merkja ‘of symbols’ to klerka ‘of clerics’. — [6] áttu ‘had’: Skald emends to höfðu ‘had’ (misprint?). — [7]: The l. lacks internal rhyme.

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. 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.
6. Sperber, Hans, ed. 1911. Sechs isländische Gedichte legendarischen Inhalts. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, filosofi, språkvetenskap och historiska vetenskaper 2. Uppsala: Akademische Buchdruckerei Edv. Berling.
7. 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.
8. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.