Anon Mgr 52^VII

Sæll, hjálpa mier, sólar stillir
sóma prýddr, á efsta dómi;
ýtum bið eg þig öllum veita
alt gott með þier, lofaður dróttinn.
Allir bið eg menn, að minniz
Máríu vess, og lesi með tárum,
móður guðs, og dróttins dauða,
dreyra þess, er Grátinn heyra.

{Sæll stillir sólar}, prýddr sóma, hjálpa mier á efsta dómi; eg bið þig veita öllum ýtum alt gott með þier, lofaður dróttinn. Eg bið allir menn, er heyra Grátinn, að minniz {vess Máríu} og lesi með tárum, {móður guðs} og dróttins dauða, dreyra þess.

{Blessed ruler of the sun} [= God (= Christ)], adorned with honour, help me at the Last Judgement; I ask you to grant all men everything good with you, praised Lord. I ask all men who hear the Lament, that they remember {the verse of Mary} [= Hail Mary] and read it with tears, [that they remember] {the mother of God} [= Mary] and the death of the Lord, his blood.

Mss: 713(129)

Editions: Skj AII, 482, Skj BII, 519, Skald II, 285, NN §§1663, 3357; Kahle 1898, 66, Sperber 1911, 42, 76-7, Wrightson 2001, 26.

Notes: [1] hjálpa (imp. sg.) ‘help’: Inflected as a weak verb here (see ANG §495, Anm. 5). — [4] gott ... dróttinn: This irregular rhyme reflects the instability in vowel quantity during this period. — [5-8]: The w.o. of this helmingr is very convoluted, and more than one interpretation is possible. The present edn follows Skj B and Wrightson. Kock (NN §3357) suggests that all the genitives (Máríu ‘Mary’, l. 6; móður guðs ‘the mother of God’, l. 7; dauða dróttins ‘the death of the Lord’, l. 7; dreyra þess ‘his blood’, l. 8) function as appositives to vess ‘verse’ (l. 6). That interpretation is less likely, because vess Máriú ‘the verse of Mary’ must refer to the Hail Mary, i.e. the poet ask the people who hear his poem to read the Hail Mary with tears while recalling Mary and the death of Jesus. — [8]: Ms. 713 adds Amen at the end of the l.

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. 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.