Anon Mhkv 4^III

Ró skyldu menn reiði gefa;
raunlítit kømsk opt á þrefa;
gagarr er skaptr, þvít geyja skal;
gera ætlak mér létt of tal.
Verit hafði mér verra í hug;
var þat nær sem kveisu flug;
jafnan fagnar kvikr maðr kú;
kennir hins, at gleðjumk nú.

Menn skyldu gefa reiði ró; raunlítit kømsk opt á þrefa; gagarr er skaptr, þvít skal geyja; ætlak gera mér létt of tal. Hafði mér verit verra í hug; var þat nær sem flug kveisu; kvikr maðr fagnar jafnan kú; kennir hins, at gleðjumk nú.

Men should give rest to their wrath; often a very little thing occasions strife; a dog is shaped for barking; I intend to make my speech lighthearted. Something worse had been in my mind; it was almost like the pain of a boil; the living man always rejoices in a cow; it is clear that I am cheering up now.

Mss: R(54v)

Editions: Skj AII, 131, Skj BII, 139, Skald II, 74, NN §3270; Möbius 1874, 4, Wisén 1886-9, I, 73.

Notes: [1]: Cf. Am 78/7 (NK 259): skǫmm mun ró reiði ‘short will be wrath’s rest’. Reiði ‘wrath’ (older vreiði) is required by alliteration. The loss of v- also means that the poem cannot be Norwegian (see ANG §288 Anm. 1). — [2] þrefa ‘strife’: For this meaning of þrefa (m. nom. sg. þrefi), see NN §3270, LP: þrefi 2 and AEW: þrefa (verb). — [3]: For similar proverbs, see Ísl. Málsh.: hundur. For the theory that Lat. canis ‘dog’ was named for its bark (canor ‘song’, canere ‘resound’), see Isidore, Etym. 12.2.25. — [6] kveisu ‘of a boil’: The word is attested in poetry only here. For its meaning and semantic development, see Fritzner: kveisa. — [6] flug ‘the pain’: Cf. (O)Icel. flog ‘shooting pain’. The Norwegian/Orcadian form ([u] for [o]) is required by the rhyme. See comparable dialectal colouring in sts 5/8, 11/4 and 18/2. — [7]: Cf. Hávm 70/3 (NK 28): ey getr qvicr kú ‘the living man always gets the cow’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
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. 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.
7. Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1886-9. Carmina Norrœnæ: Ex reliquiis vetustioris norrœnæ poësis selecta, recognita, commentariis et glossario instructa. 2 vols. Lund: Ohlsson.
8. 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.
9. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
10. Möbius, Theodor. 1874. ‘Malshatta-kvædi’. ZDP Ergänzungsband, 3-73, 615-16.
11. Internal references
12. Not published: do not cite ()
13. Not published: do not cite ()