Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 25’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1238.
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sjaldan (adv.): seldom
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hitta (verb): meet, encounter
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feigr (adj.; °compar. -ari/ri): fated to die, fey, dead
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vǫk (noun f.; °vakar; vakir/vakar): [ice-hole, gap]
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frør (noun n.): [frozen, frost]
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fljóð (noun n.): woman
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1. verða (verb): become, be
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3. at (prep.): at, to
[2] at ǫldrum ‘at drinking parties’: So Möbius (1874), Wisén (1886-9, I), NN §3155, but LP: aldr and Skj B interpret this as ‘according to their age’. Eddic poetry associates choosing women and alcoholic beverages: see HHj 32/3-6 (NK 147) ec hefi kerna | ina konungborno, | brúði þína, | at bragarfulli ‘I have chosen the royal descended one, your bride, at the drinking cup’. Ǫldr designates a drinking party in Hávm 13/2; Sigrdr 28/1-3 warns men about the dangers presented by beautiful women on the hall-benches. The notion of choosing a bride over the ale cup is central to the poem immediately preceding Mhkv in R, Bjbp Jóms 14/5-6, 8I. Bugge (1896b, 6) thought it possible that Mhkv was here playing on HHj.
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ǫlðr (noun n.; °-s/-): ale
[2] at ǫldrum ‘at drinking parties’: So Möbius (1874), Wisén (1886-9, I), NN §3155, but LP: aldr and Skj B interpret this as ‘according to their age’. Eddic poetry associates choosing women and alcoholic beverages: see HHj 32/3-6 (NK 147) ec hefi kerna | ina konungborno, | brúði þína, | at bragarfulli ‘I have chosen the royal descended one, your bride, at the drinking cup’. Ǫldr designates a drinking party in Hávm 13/2; Sigrdr 28/1-3 warns men about the dangers presented by beautiful women on the hall-benches. The notion of choosing a bride over the ale cup is central to the poem immediately preceding Mhkv in R, Bjbp Jóms 14/5-6, 8I. Bugge (1896b, 6) thought it possible that Mhkv was here playing on HHj.
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kjósa (verb): choose
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lengi (adv.): for a long time
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hafa (verb): have
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2. lýsa (verb): illuminate, show
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fyr (prep.): for, over, because of, etc.
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ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
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lítill (adj.; °lítinn): little
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1. kostr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. -i/-; -ir, acc. -i/-u): choice, food, goods, good quality
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2. eiga (verb; °á/eigr (præs. pl. 3. pers. eigu/eiga); átti, áttu; átt): own, have
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2. margr (adj.; °-an): many
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3. und (prep.): under, underneath
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sik (pron.; °gen. sín, dat. sér): (refl. pron.)
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segja (verb): say, tell
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
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frá (prep.): from
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hvé (conj.): how
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neflauss (adj.): [a noseless person]
[5] neflauss ‘a noseless person’: Taken here (with Möbius 1874, 69 and Skj B) as a cpd nef- ‘nose’ plus -lauss ‘less’, while Wisén (1886-9, II, 211) interprets the cpd neflauss as ‘one without relatives’ (nefi ‘kinsman’ plus -lauss). There are references to noseless men and women in Strengleikar and Hauksbók (see Fritzner: neflauss citations), as if this condition held some interest for the medieval North.
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nara (verb): [languishes]
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nú (adv.): now
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1. verða (verb): become, be
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2. sumr (pron.): some
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2. er (conj.): who, which, when
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manngi (pron.): no
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5. vara (verb): expect
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
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betr (adv.; °superl. bezt/bazt; pos. vel adv.): better
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4. at (conj.): that
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þegja (verb): be silent
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þokkr (noun m.): thought, disposition
[7] þoks ‘far’: The perfect eye-rhyme (þoks : loks) of the ms. is lost when the noun is normalised to ‘correct’ þokks; see LP: þokkr ‘mind, disposition’ and cf. Anon Has 13/6VII þokka ... betri ‘considerably better’. It is quite likely that the geminate in þokks had been shortened before another consonant (-kks > ‑ks) at this point (see ANG §284).
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hafa (verb): have
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2. hverr (pron.): who, whom, each, every
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2. er (conj.): who, which, when
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3. verðr (adj.): worth, worthy
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
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loks (adv.): finally
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Seldom is a doomed man’s ice-hole found frozen; women are chosen at drinking parties; that has long been clear to me: many a one has little in his power. It is related how a noseless person languishes; now comes something that no one expects; it would be far better that I should be silent; each gets what he deserves in the end.
[1]: Cf. Fáfn 11/6 (NK 182) alt er feigs forað ‘all is dangerous for the doomed man’; for parallels to this proverb in other Old Norse texts, see Ísl. Málsh.: feigur, feigð and Anon Sól 36/6VII frammi eru feigs götur ‘the doomed man’s roads lead away’. The sense here is that if a man is fated to drown in an ice-hole, the hole will not freeze over but be there waiting for him. — [6]: Cf. Anon Sól 8/4-5VII margan þat sækir, | er minst of varir ‘what he least expects comes upon many a man’; Orkneyinga saga (Orkn ch. 30, ÍF 34, 77): margan hendir þat, er minnst varir ‘what he least expects happens to many a man’; Grettis saga (Gr ch. 14, ÍF 7, 41): Verðr þat, er varir, ok svá hitt, er eigi varir ‘The expected happens and the unexpected too’.
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