Anon Mv III 29^VII

Máría, gief þú, meyin dýr,
mjúkust, þeim eð er sjúkr,
linun, að laung pín
líði, sú er vár bíðr,
því að ór heimi, hæst blóm,
hieðan, trúi eg, oss kveðr
sannur guð sonr þinn;
sálum hjálpi þitt mál.

Mjúkust Máría, gief þú, dýr meyin, linun, þeim eð er sjúkr, að laung pín, sú er bíðr vár, líði, því að, hæst blóm, sannur guð, sonr þinn, kveðr oss hieðan ór heimi, trúi eg; mál þitt hjálpi sálum.

Gentlest Mary, give, precious Virgin, comfort to the one who is sick, so that the long torment which awaits us may pass, because, highest blossom, the true God, your son, will call us away from this world, I believe; may your plea help souls.

Mss: 721(16v)

Editions: Skj AII, 500, Skj BII, 544-5, Skald II, 298-9, Metr. §17D; Kahle 1898, 49, Sperber 1911, 22, 69, Wrightson 2001, 81.

Notes: [All]: For the echoes of Hail Mary (ora pro nobis ‘pray for us’), see Notes to Mv I 28. — [5-8]: The last helmingr is difficult syntactically. — [5] hæst blóm ‘highest blossom’: For terms of this type for the Virgin Mary, see Schottmann (1973, 21-34). — [6] oss ... kveðr ‘us ... will call’: Skj B and Skald insert the conj. er ‘when’ before oss ‘us’, which gives the following translation of the second helmingr: ‘because I believe, highest blossom, that, when the true God, your son, calls us away from this world, your words will save the souls’. Wrightson makes no emendations and gives the following translation: ‘because I believe that true God, your son, will call us hence out of the world; may your speech save souls’. The problem with both readings is that they presuppose a suppressed conj. að ‘that’ (eg trúi, að ‘I believe that’), and that conj. cannot be omitted. — [8]: The word amen is added after the last word of the l. in 721.

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. Schottmann, Hans. 1973. Die isländische Mariendichtung. Untersuchungen zur volkssprachigen Mariendichtung des Mittelalters. Münchner germanistische Beiträge 9. Munich: Fink.
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.
8. Internal references
9. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Máríuvísur I 28’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 698-9.