David McDougall (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Pétrsdrápa 1’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 797-8.
Orð satt upphafs gjörði*
eitt næst stafi hæsta
— orð trúi* fyst það * fyrðar —
föður líkt, og með ríkti.
Gjörði alt með orði
ítr guð* stórt og lítið;
orð var sent, en særðiz
sonr, mey guðs, að deyja.
Eitt satt orð, líkt föður, gjörði* næst hæsta upphafs stafi og ríkti með; trúi* fyrðar fyst það * orð. Ítr guð* gjörði alt, stórt og lítið, með orði; orð var sent {mey guðs}, en sonr særðiz að deyja.
The one true word, like the Father, made completely the highest beginnings and ruled with [him]; let men believe that word [was] first. Glorious God made everything, great and small, with the word; the word was sent {to the maid of God} [= Mary], but [her] son was wounded to die [i.e. to death].
Mss: 621(57v) (Pétr)
Readings: [1] gjörði*: gjörðir 621 [3] trúi*: trúik 621; það *: það er 621 [6] guð*: guðs 621
Editions: Skj AII, 500-1, Skj BII, 545, Skald II, 299, NN §§1707, 1708, 2831; Kahle 1898, 78, 109.
Notes: [1-4]: For the interpretation followed here, see NN §1707. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) takes ll. 1-2 and 3-4 together. — [1-2] upphafs stafi ‘beginnings’: Kock (NN §2831) compares the use of stafir ‘staves’ in, e.g., flærðar stafir (= flærðir ‘falsehoods’), feiknstafir (= feiknir ‘portents’). Hence upphafs stafir = upphöf. — [1] gjörði* ‘made’: Cf. John I.1. The ms. reading gjörðir is ungrammatical. — [2] næst ‘completely’: See LP: nær 3. — [3] trúi* ‘let (men) believe’: Ms. truik (the -k possibly from miscopying of initial f- in the next word). — [6] guð* ‘God’: Ms. ‘ɢuds’ (-s probably by dittography of initial s- in next word). — [7-8] orð var sent mey guðs ‘the Word was sent to the maid of God’: i.e. in the Annunciation (Luke I.26-35). Cf., e.g., Hóm 6712 187/1-4. Kock (NN §1708) argues instead that the ll. should be punctuated: orð var sent, en særðiz sonr mey guðs at deyja ‘the word was sent, but for the maid of God the son was wounded to death’.
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