Anon Mv III 30^VII

Himiríkis hæst blóm,
hæstum guði ertu næst,
móðir og mey prúð
mildinnar fögr snild.
Máría, legg þú dóm, dýr,
diktandi, á verk slíkt;
tákna, mun eg, lofuð líkn,
linna hier við flokk þinn.

Hæst blóm himiríkis, ertu næst hæstum guði, móðir og prúð mey, fögr snild mildinnar. Dýr Máría, legg þú, diktandi, dóm á slíkt verk; lofuð líkn tákna, eg mun hier linna við flokk þinn.

Highest blossom of the heavenly kingdom, you are next to the highest God, mother and splendid Virgin, fair accomplishment of grace. Precious Mary, pass, carefully deliberating, judgement on such a work; praised mercy of miracles, I shall now end your poem.

Mss: 721(16v)

Editions: Skj AII, 500, Skj BII, 545, Skald II, 299, NN §3370; Kahle 1898, 49, Sperber 1911, 22, 69, Wrightson 2001, 81.

Notes: [1] hæst blóm himiríkis ‘highest blossom of the heavenly kingdom’: For terms of this type, see Note to st. 29/5 above. — [2] ertu ‘you are’: We should have expected a monosyllable or two short syllables in this position, and ert ‘you are’ would restore the metre. — [5] dýr (f. nom. sg.) ‘precious’: Skj B takes this with dóm (m. acc. sg) ‘judgment’, which is ungrammatical. — [6] diktandi (f. nom. sg., pres. part. of dikta) ‘carefully deliberating’: Sperber (1911, 69) connects this pres. part. with verk (n. acc. sg.) ‘work’ (with a reference to NS §241), which is translated as ‘poetic work’ (so also Skj B). However, the ending -i for n. acc. sg. is unattested (see ANG §435, Anm. 1). As it stands, the pres. part. can modify either Máría (f. nom. sg.) ‘Mary’ (l. 5) or eg ‘I’ (l. 6) as a m. nom. sg. For the different meanings of dikta, see Note to st. 19/8 above. In the present edn, diktandi is taken in the meaning ‘carefully deliberating’ modifying ‘Mary’ (see Fritzner: dikta 4; NN §3370; LP: dikta 1) because that construction is preferable from the point of view of w.o. However, eg, diktandi ‘I, composing’ is also a possible reading. Wrightson takes diktandi with Mary, and translates it as ‘as you dictate’, meaning that Mary is inspiring the poem. For the irregular rhyme -ikt- : -íkt-, see Note to st. 19/8 above. — [7] lofuð líkn tákna ‘praised mercy of miracles’: This interpretation follows Skj B. Skald takes líkn tákna ‘mercy of miracles’ as a form of address, and flokk þinn as the object of linna ‘end’: Nådiga undren, du prisade, skall jag avsluta nu med digten till dig ‘Merciful miracles, you praised one, I shall now conclude with the poem to you’ (see NN §3370). Wrightson connects tákna with flokk ‘poem of miracles’.

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. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
7. Sperber, Hans, ed. 1911. Sechs isländische Gedichte legendarischen Inhalts. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, filosofi, språkvetenskap och historiska vetenskaper 2. Uppsala: Akademische Buchdruckerei Edv. Berling.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
11. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.