Anon Mv I 8^VII

Brann í brjósti hennar
bæði grimd og æði
fyld, er húsfrú vildi
forðaz slíku orði,
svá að af sorgum nýjum
sáran dauð með fári
— urðu illar gjörðir —
affíni rieð sínum.

Bæði grimd og fyld æði brann í brjósti hennar, er húsfrú vildi forðaz slíku orði, svá að af nýjum sorgum rieð sáran dauð affíni sínum með fári; illar gjörðir urðu.

Both ferocity and pent-up frenzy burned in her breast when the housewife wanted to save herself from such a rumour, so that because of renewed sorrows she plotted the bitter death of her son-in-law with wrath; wicked actions ensued.

Mss: 721(12v)

Editions: Skj AII, 488, Skj BII, 527-8, Skald II, 289, NN §1681; Kahle 1898, 32, Sperber 1911, 2-3, 57, Wrightson 2001, 43.

Notes: [1] brann (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic.) ‘burned’: The verb is in the sg., but it has a pl. subject (see NS §70). — [3]: The l. is unmetrical because the second alliteration falls in position four on the second element of the cpd húsfrú ‘housewife’. Sperber accordingly emends to frú sú ‘that woman’. — [3] fyld (f. nom. sg.) ‘pent-up’: Lit. ‘filled’. This adj. modifies æði (f. nom. sg.) ‘frenzy’. It could also be taken with húsfrú (f. nom. sg.) ‘housewife’, in which case fyld bæði grimd og æði ‘filled with both ferocity and frenzy’ (ll. 1-2) must be construed as dat. instr., and l. 1 would be an impersonal cl.: ‘it burned in her breast’ (see Sperber). However, the adj. fyldr ‘filled’ usually takes the gen. case (see LP: fylla). Skj B translates fyld as i fuldt mål ‘in full measure’, but the syntax of that construction is unclear. Sperber takes fyld as an unattested noun ‘fulness’ with æði as a gen. ‘of frenzy’. — [4] forðaz ‘save herself’: This verb always takes the acc. (see Fritzner: forðask), but slíku orði ‘such rumour’ (l. 4) is in the dat. LP: forða 2 cites this instance as the only dat. construction with forðaz. — [5] af nýjum sorgum ‘because of renewed sorrows’: Skj B takes this phrase with the parenthetical cl. in l. 7: ‘wicked actions ensued from renewed sorrows’ (so also Wrightson). That interpretation creates an unnecessarily complex w.o. (see NN §1681). — [8] affíni ‘son-in-law’: Lit. ‘relative by marriage’ (not in LP). This is a loanword from Lat. (affīnis ‘relative by marriage’), which has led some scholars to speculate that the poet worked from a Lat. version of the text (see Introduction above).

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