Anon Mv III 7^VII

Enn fór hann eitt sinn
ofanvert nætrrof
heiman yfir stórstraum;
strangan efldi foss gang.
Farið gjörðiz fult nær,
flóðið þar er hann stóð;
leynir óttaz líftjón
lýta, ef skipið brýtr.

Enn fór hann eitt sinn ofanvert nætrrof heiman yfir stórstraum; foss efldi strangan gang. Farið gjörðiz nær fult, þar er flóðið stóð hann; {leynir lýta} óttaz líftjón, ef skipið brýtr.

Again he went one time at the end of the night’s retreat from home across the mighty stream; the torrent gathered a strong current. The vessel became almost full, because the flooding overtook him; {the concealer of sins} [NEGLIGENT PRIEST] fears life-loss if the ship breaks.

Mss: 721(16r)

Editions: Skj AII, 497, Skj BII, 539-40, Skald II, 296, NN §3366; Kahle 1898, 44, 100, Sperber 1911, 16, 65, Wrightson 2001, 70.

Notes: [2] ofanvert nætrrof (n. acc. sg.) ‘at the end of the night’s retreat’: I.e. ‘at the very end of the night’. This is an acc. of time. Nætrrof ‘night’s retreat’, lit. ‘night’s breach’ is a hap. leg. — [3] heiman ‘from home’: Schottmann (1973, 370-1) suggests the emendation heim ‘home’ because of the time frame (end of the night). — [4] foss efldi strangan gang ‘the torrent gathered a strong current’: Efla means ‘make strong, gather, muster’. Skj B and Wrightson take stórstraum ‘mighty river’ (l. 3) as the understood subject of the cl., and construe a cpd fossgang ‘river-current’ as the object (see NN §3366). — [6] þar er flóðið stóð hann ‘because the flooding overtook him’: Skj A mistakenly resolves the abbreviation þar er ‘where’ (so 721) as það er ‘that which’. That forces the emendation of gjörðiz ‘became’ (l. 1) to gjörði ‘made’ and gives the following reading: Það flóðið, er stóð hann, gjörði farið nær fult ‘That flooding, which overtook him, made the vessel almost full’ (so Skj B; Skald; Wrightson).

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Schottmann, Hans. 1973. Die isländische Mariendichtung. Untersuchungen zur volkssprachigen Mariendichtung des Mittelalters. Münchner germanistische Beiträge 9. Munich: Fink.
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. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.