Anon Mgr 47^VII

‘Gjör svá vel,’ kvað göfgust Máría,
‘gleði mig þjóð með eingils kveðju;
langar mig til, að á lýða tungu
lieki jafnan Dóminus técum.
Lítið hier, að laun á móti
lúkaz skulu, ef beðið er sjúkum
himna gæti heilsubótar;
heiti eg yðr, að líkn skal veita.’

‘Gjör svá vel,’ kvað göfgust Máría, ‘þjóð gleði mig með {kveðju eingils}; langar mig til, að “Dóminus técum” lieki jafnan á lýða tungu. Lítið hier, að laun skulu lúkaz á móti, ef er beðið {gæti himna} heilsubótar sjúkum; eg heiti yðr, að skal veita líkn.’

‘Be so good,’ said most excellent Mary, ‘may men please me with {the greeting of the angel} [= Hail Mary]; I long that “the Lord is with you” shall always play on people’s tongue. See here, that rewards shall be paid in return, if people pray [lit. it is prayed] {to the guardian of the heavens} [= God (= Christ)] for a cure for the sick; I promise you that [he] shall grant mercy.’

Mss: 713(128)

Readings: [4] lieki jafnan: ‘jafnan lekí’ 713

Editions: Skj AII, 481, Skj BII, 518, Skald II, 284, NN §§2680D, 2696, 2857; Kahle 1898, 65, Sperber 1911, 41, 76, Wrightson 2001, 24.

Notes: [4] lieki jafnan ‘shall always play’: The words are given in the reverse order in 713, but the main alliterating stave (l-) must fall in l.-initial position. — [4] Dóminus técum ‘the Lord is with you’: This is part of the Hail Mary (Ave Maria). The rhyme -iek- : -éc- shows that lieki ‘play’ must have been pronounced with [ie:] because it is unlikely that the Lat. vowel would have been diphthongised (see Björn K. Þórólfsson 1925, xiv-v). For the identical macaronic rhyme see Lil 99/8. — [5] lítið hier ‘see here’: So Sperber 1911, 76. Skj B emends lítið (2nd pers. pl. imp.) ‘see’ to lítil (n. nom. pl.) ‘little, small’, which is taken to modify laun (n. acc. pl.) ‘rewards’. Wrightson retains lítið but also treats it as an adj. ‘little’ (‘they shall be paid little as a reward’). Skald takes it as p.p. ‘it is seen’ (see NN §2857). — [6] ef beðið er ‘if people pray [lit. it is prayed]’: Skald emends to ef biðið ér ‘if you pray’, which is unnecessary. — [8] heiti (1st pers. sg. pres. indic.) ‘promise’: For this weak form of the strong verb heita in the meaning ‘promise’, see ANG §532.2. Other eds emend to the strong form heit ‘I promise’. — [8] að líkn skal veita ‘that [he] shall grant mercy’: It is also possible that the cl. could mean ‘that mercy shall be granted’.

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. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
6. Björn K. Þórólfsson. 1925. Um íslenskar orðmyndir á 14. og 15. öld og breytingar þeirra úr fornmálinu. Reykjavík: Fjelagsprentsmiðjan. Rpt. 1987. Rit um íslenska málfræði 2. Reykjavík: Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.
7. Sperber, Hans, ed. 1911. Sechs isländische Gedichte legendarischen Inhalts. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, filosofi, språkvetenskap och historiska vetenskaper 2. Uppsala: Akademische Buchdruckerei Edv. Berling.
8. 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.
9. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.
10. Internal references
11. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 99’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 675-6.