Anon Mv I 11^VII

Hun fyrir heimsku sína
hrygðiz viðr og iðraz
þegar, en þorði eigi
þrætu máls að sæta.
Gjörði hun öllum orðum
angrþrútin við ganga;
það mann tíðum meinar;
morð er ór vígi orðið.

Hun hrygðiz viðr fyrir heimsku sína og iðraz þegar, en þorði eigi að sæta þrætu máls. Angrþrútin gjörði hun ganga við öllum orðum; það meinar mann tíðum; ór vígi er morð orðið.

She became sorrowful because of her foolishness and repents at once, but did not dare to seek litigation in the case. Bursting with grief she admitted to every word [lit. all words]; that frequently harms a person; manslaughter has turned into murder.

Mss: 721(12v-13r), 1032ˣ(85v-86v)

Readings: [4] að sæta: ‘a[...]æta’ 721FJ, ‘a[...]æ[...]a’ 721, ‘a. ..e.a’ 1032ˣ    [7] tíðum: ‑tíðin 721

Editions: Skj AII, 448-9, Skj BII, 528, Skald II, 289-90, NN §§1683, 2865; Kahle 1898, 33, 98, Sperber 1911, 3, 58, Wrightson 2001, 45.

Notes: [4] að sæta ‘to seek’: Finnur could still read the ‘t’ in sæta ‘seek’ (which is also confirmed by the internal rhyme -æt- : -æt-), and he notes that the top of a long letter can be discerned after the first <a>. For sæta ‘seek, cause, start’, see Fritzner: sæta 3. — [7] tíðum (adv.) ‘frequently’: The ms. reading -tíðin (f. nom. sg.) ‘the time’ makes little sense (manntíðin ‘the man-time’). Skj B gives no translation (Finnur merely notes that the l. is incomprehensible). Kock emends to manntíðni (NN §1683) or mantíðni (NN §2865; so also Wrightson) which he translates as omtyckthet hos människorna ‘the reputation among men’ and en kvinnas omtyckthet ‘the reputation of a woman’ respectively. According to that interpretation, the cl. reads as follows: ‘that harms the reputation among men’ or ‘that harms the reputation of a woman’. However, a noun tíðni (f. dat. sg.?) ‘esteem’ is unattested. While it is certainly true that one would lose esteem by admitting to murder, it is more reasonable to assume that a person will be harmed by readily confessing to an accusation. In this case, the admission of the woman leads to the subsequent charges of murder and the punishment of being burned alive. For the use of the acc. case with meina ‘harm’, see NS §102 d, Anm. — [8] ór vígi er morð orðið ‘manslaughter has turned into murder’: Lit. ‘from manslaughter murder has come about’. This means that the killing had now been proven to be murder, i.e. a slaying that had been done in secret and concealed. In ON society murder was considered one of the most heinous crimes that a person could commit. For the legal distinction between víg ‘manslaughter’ and morð ‘murder’ see Grg Ia, 150-4; Dennis et. al. 1980-2000, I, 146-8. According to ON law, murder was punished with full outlawry, not by being burned alive.

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. Sperber, Hans, ed. 1911. Sechs isländische Gedichte legendarischen Inhalts. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, filosofi, språkvetenskap och historiska vetenskaper 2. Uppsala: Akademische Buchdruckerei Edv. Berling.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
9. Grg = Grágás.
10. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.