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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon Morg 1III

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Morginsól 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 510.

Anonymous PoemsMorginsól1

text and translation

Hefka opt — enn ævi
ák fljóðs lofa góða —
ennileiptr af unnar
eldspǫng degi lǫngum.

Hefka opt {ennileiptr} af {{unnar eld}spǫng} lǫngum degi; enn ák lofa góða ævi fljóðs.
 
‘I do not often raise [my] forehead lightning [EYE] from the shard of the fire of the wave [(lit. ‘the fire-shard of the wave’) GOLD > WOMAN] the live-long day; yet I must praise the good life of the woman.

notes and context

This helmingr is quoted among stanzas that are extant only in ms. W of SnE (Skm) to illustrate kennings for the eyes. It is introduced there by the statement: Svá segir í Morginsól ‘Thus it says in Morginsól’ (so also 2368ˣ).

The poem’s title, Morginsól ‘Morning Sun’, may well be a metaphor for the beautiful woman the poet loves. Alternatively, it is possible that images comparing the woman to heavenly bodies and weather phenomena may have been a special feature of the poem. Too little of it survives to allow us to comprehend the semantic force of the title.

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XII], A. 2. Morginsól: AI, 590, BI, 590, Skald I, 288, NN §2809; SnE 1848-87, II, 499, W 1924, 112; LaufE 1979, 354.

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