Anon Alpost 1^VII

Pétr er páfi drottins
prísaðr gleðivísum;
hvílir hans líkið sæla
höfuðdómarans í Róma.
Yfirpostula æstan
allir skulum hann kalla;
várr er völdugr herra
vörðr á himni og jörðu.
Prýðir hier pall várn inni
Pétr með sínu minni.

Pétr er drottins páfi, prísaðr gleðivísum; hans líkið sæla, höfuðdómarans, hvílir í Róma. Skulum allir kalla hann æstan yfirpostula; völdugr herra er várr vörðr á himni og jörðu. Pétr prýðir várn pall hier inni með sínu minni.

Peter is the Lord’s Pope, praised in verses of joy; the blessed body of him, the chief judge, rests in Rome. We must all call him the noblest chief Apostle; the mighty Lord is our protector in heaven and on earth. Peter adorns our bench herein with his memorial toast.

Mss: 721(15r)

Readings: [1] Pétr: ‘[...]etr’ 721    [3] líkið: ‘lkt’ corrected from ‘ldt’ 721    [5] Yfir‑: ‘y[...]’ 721

Editions: Skj AII, 509, Skj BII, 559, Skald II, 306.

Notes: [All]: Title added in top margin in hand of C17th: allra postula minniz vijsur; cf. Skj AII, 509 n.; cf. Kålund 1888-94, II, 149. — [1] Pétr: Initial P omitted. There is a space for an ornate capital P at 15r/17, where the poem begins in the ms. On S. Peter the Apostle, see Cross and Livingstone 1983, 1067-8; Jón Þorkelsson 1888, 58-60; Widding, Bekker-Nielsen and Shook 1963, 329-30; Gad 1968b, 254-6, 260-1; Bekker-Nielsen 1968b, 261-3; Kilström 1968, 256-9; Foote 1976, 158-9; Cormack 1994, 146-51, 244. — [1] drottins páfi ‘the Lord’s Pope’: Cf. Lat. domini papa (see Blaise 1954: papa 2). On drottins with short ‘o’, see Note to st. 8/8. — [3, 4] hans líkið ... hvílir í Róma ‘his body rests ... in Rome’: Hans (l. 3) is extrametrical. On the commonplace tradition that Peter’s final resting place is Rome, where the Apostle was crucified by the emperor Nero, see generally Cross 1979, 170; Foote 1976, 158-9; cf., e.g., IO 67, 5; Beda, Martyrologium, cols 960A-961A; and Icel. accounts in Holm perg 5 fol, 59va (Foote 1976, 154); AM 764 4°, 16v; AM 660 4°, 23v (Foote 1976, 153); Pétr²B 211; Páll²A 276/31; PP 315-17; AM 194 8°, 16v (AÍ I, 24). — [3] líkið: Corrected in ms. from what appears to have been first entered as an erroneous abbreviated form ‘ldt’ (? for landit). — [5] yfirpostula ‘chief Apostle’: A reference to Peter’s traditional title princeps apostolorum; cf. Anon Pét 27/1-2: princeps ... postulanna and the antiphon: Tu es pastor ovium, princeps apostolorum ‘You are the shepherd of the sheep, chief of the Apostles’ sung at the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul (29 June; CAO III, 513 no. 5207; cf. Ordo Nidr. 319, 358, 360, 374; Gjerløw 1961, 137; Thesaurus Linguae Latinae: princeps III.A.2.c [1287/75-88/1] apostolorum ... [de Petro]). — [5] æstan ‘noblest’: Ms. æztan retained in Skald. Normalisation to the late form æstan (as in Skj B) is necessary to provide skothending with yfirpostula. — [9-10] Pétr prýðir várn pall hier inni með sínu minni: Með sínu minni ‘with his memorial toast’, i.e. ‘with the memorial toast for him, in his honour’. On the connection between the formulaic final couplets (all of which contain the end-rhyme inni : minni) and the tradition of drinking toasts in amore sanctorum ‘to the love of saints’, see Introduction, where a close connection with the late religious poem Ceciliudiktur is observed. Rhymed refrains of this sort are not without parallel. Compare, for instance, the form of the late poem Adamsóður, included in the Vísnabók (1612) of Bishop Guðbrandur Þorláksson of Hólar (Jón Torfason and Kristján Eiríksson 2000, 218-21), in which each st. of six ll. also ends with a rhyming couplet. — [10] hier inni ‘herein’: Cf. Lok 1/4, 2/5 hér inni; Eyv Hák 16/5^I inni hér.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. AÍ = Kålund, Kristian and Natanael Beckman. 1908-18. Alfræði íslenzk: Islandsk encyklopædisk litteratur. 3 vols. SUGNL 37, 41 and 45. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. Bekker-Nielsen, Hans. 1968b. ‘Petrus, apostel. Norrøn tradition’. KLNM 13, 261-3.
7. Blaise, Albert. 1954. Dictionnaire Latin-Français des Auteurs Chrétiens. Revu spécialement pour le vocabulaire théologique par Henri Chirat. Turnhout: Brepols.
8. CAO = Hesbert, Renato-Joanne, ed. 1963-79. Corpus antiphonalium officii. 6 vols. Rerum ecclesiasticarum documenta, series maior, Fontes 7-12. Rome: Casa Editrice Herder.
9. Cormack, Margaret. 1994a. The Saints in Iceland: Their Veneration from the Conversion to 1400. Studia Hagiographica 78. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes.
10. Cross, F. L. and E. A. Livingstone. 1983. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2nd edn. 4th impression. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 3rd rev. edn 2005 by E. A. Livingstone. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
11. Cross, James E. 1979. ‘Cynewulf’s traditions about the apostles in Fates of the Apostles’. ASE 8, 163-75.
12. Gad, Tue. 1968b. ‘Petrus, apostel’. KLNM 13, 254-6, 260-1.
13. Gjerløw, Lilli. 1961. Adoratio Crucis: The Regularis concordia and The Decreta Lanfranci: Manuscript studies in the early medieval church of Norway. Oslo and Boston: Norwegian Universities Press.
14. IO = Gómez, César C., ed. 1985. [Isidore of Seville] De ortu et obitu patrum. Auteurs Latins du Moyen Age. Paris: Société d’Editions ‘Les Belles Lettres’.
15. Jón Torfason and Kristján Eiríksson, eds. 2000. Vísnabók Guðbrands Þorlákssonar biskups. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan.
16. Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1888. Om digtningen på Island i det 15. og 16. århundrede. Copenhagen: Høst & søns forlag.
17. Kilström, B. I. 1968. ‘Petrus (apostel). Ikon.’. KLNM 13, 256-9.
18. Kålund, Kristian. 1888-94. Katalog over den Arnamagnæanske håndskriftsamling. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
19. Internal references
20. David McDougall (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Pétrsdrápa 27’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 819-20.
21. Not published: do not cite ()
22. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Hákonarmál 16’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 190.