Anon Mv I 29^VII

Nú hefi eg út fyrir ýtum
— intag svá, að minti —
inta jartegn eina
alhróðigs guðs móður.
Veittu, Máría, meiri
miskunn, en vier kunnum
oss, þá er andir missum,
iðröndum guð biðja.

Nú hefi eg inta eina jartegn {móður alhróðigs guðs} út fyrir ýtum; intag svá, að minti. Máría, veittu meiri miskunn, en vier kunnum biðja guð oss iðröndum, þá er missum andir.

Now I have told one miracle {of the mother of all-glorious God} [= Mary] to the end before the people; I composed it thus, so that it should be remembered. Mary, grant more mercy than we are able to ask God for us penitents, when we give up our spirits.

Mss: 721(13v), 1032ˣ(94v)

Readings: [2] intag svá að minti: ‘þitt [...]at mintí’ 721, ‘ynítt sem m . at ṃịntí’ 1032ˣ    [4] alhróðigs: alhróðigri 721;    móður: ‘mod[...]r’ 721, ‘mod.r’ 1032ˣ    [6] vier: ‘[...]’ 721, ‘...’ 1032ˣ    [8] biðja: biðjum 721

Editions: Skj AII, 491-2, Skj BII, 532, Skald II, 292, NN §§1691, 1692, 2870; Kahle 1898, 37, Sperber 1911, 8, 61, Wrightson 2001, 54.

Notes: [2] intag svá að minti ‘I composed it thus, so that it should be remembered’ (lit. ‘I composed it thus, so that it should remind’)’: The l. is damaged and cannot be reconstructed. The initial syllable in 721 (þitt [n. nom. or acc. sg.] ‘your’) is unmetrical because it does not alliterate. Skj B leaves the l. incomplete and untranslated (… minti). Kock (Skald; NN §1691) suggests: innit þitt mik minti ‘your temple I remember’. This reading is ungrammatical, because the verb minna ‘remember’ takes the acc. of person and gen. of the thing. Furthermore, minti ‘remembered’ is in the pret. and the conj. að ‘that’ is unaccounted for. Wrightson reads þitt sem það minti ‘your ... as I remembered it’, which is both ungrammatical and unmetrical. — [3]: The l. contains three alliterative staves. It could be that the glide [j] in jartegn ‘miracle’ was no longer felt to be a vowel that could participate in vowel alliteration. — [4] alhróðigs (m. gen. sg.) ‘of all-glorious’: The reading alhróðigri (f. dat. sg.) ‘for the glorious’ is unmetrical, because it renders the l. heptasyllabic. The present edn follows NN §2870. Skj B emends to alhróðigr (m. nom. sg.), which is taken as an adj. referring to the poet. Wrightson retains alhróðgri which is construed with móður ‘mother’ (both taken as f. dat. sg.). According to that interpretation, the phrase reads eina jartegn alhróðigri móður guðs (ll. 3-4) ‘a miracle performed by you the entirely triumphant mother of God’. That dat. construction is difficult to account for in terms of grammar, and the l. is still unmetrical. — [4] móður (f. gen. sg.) ‘of the mother’: The missing vowel has been supplied in accordance with earlier eds. — [6] vier ‘we’: The word is illegible and the emendation is in keeping with earlier eds. — [6, 8] kunnum biðja ‘are able to ask for’: The inf. biðja ‘ask for’ (l. 8) is connected with the modal auxiliary kunnum (1st pers. pl. pres. indic.) ‘are able to’ (l. 6). Earlier eds read kunnim (1st pers pl. pres. subj.) ‘will be able to’, but both mss have the indic. form kunnum. Biðjum (1st pers. pl. pres. indic.) ‘we ask’ (so 721) is ungrammatical. Wrightson tries to avoid emendation by construing the last two words of l. 8 as a separate cl.: Guð biðjum ‘let us pray to God’, but that interpretation is very strained. — [7, 8] oss iðröndum ‘for us penitents’: Skj B connects these words with the verb veittu (imp. sg.) ‘give’ (l. 5) (‘give us sinners’) which complicates the w.o. (see NN §1692).

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. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.