Anon Pét 43^VII

Sárfeinginn hug særir
sótt hjarðreka dróttins;
*eldi í gegn fyr gildan
gleði tárkveiktan steðja.
Ástkennis fyr innan
angr hjartrót*um stangaz,
meistara síns að misti
mætr kinnroða gætir.

Sótt særir sárfeinginn hug {hjarðreka dróttins}; *eldi í gegn fyr gildan {steðja gleði tárkveiktan}. Angr stangaz hjartrót*um {ástkennis} fyr innan, að {mætr gætir kinnroða} misti síns meistara.

Anguish afflicts the pain-stricken heart {of the shepherd of the Lord} [APOSTLE]; it has kindled through and through for the excellent [man] his {anvil of joy [which has been] moved to tears} [HEART]. Grief pierces the heart-roots {of the teacher of love} [APOSTLE] inwardly, because {the worthy possessor of shame} [HOLY MAN] has lost his master.

Mss: 621(59v)

Readings: [3] *eldi: ‘selldi’ 621    [6] hjartrót*um: ‘hiartrotnum’ 621

Editions: Skj AII, 506, Skj BII, 555, Skald II, 304, NN §§1745, 2883; Kahle 1898, 87, 111.

Notes: [1] sárfeinginn ‘pain-stricken’: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) prints sárfengin and takes it with sótt (l. 2): En smærtefuld kummer sårer herrens hyrdes sjæl ‘A painful anguish afflicts the soul of the Lord’s shepherd’. Kock (NN §1745A) retains the ms. reading in -inn and takes sárfeinginn with hug (m. acc. sg.) and this interpretation is also adopted here. — [3] *eldi ‘kindled’: Ms. ‘selldi’. Finnur Jónsson attempts to make sense of the ms. reading (Skj B: han gav glædestårer ‘he gave tears of joy’), but is then stumped by the ‘anvil’ image which follows (see Note below). Kock (NN §1745B) assumes dittography of -s s- in ms. ‘drottins selldi’ (ll. 2-3) (for dróttins eldi). — [3] í gegn ‘through and through’: On í gegn (= í gegnum) in this sense, see Kock, NN §§1745C and 2883A3b; Blöndal: 2 gegn II. — [4] steðja gleði tárkveiktan ‘anvil of joy, moved to tears’: Both Kahle (1898, 87, 111) and Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) read gleðitár ‘tears of joy’ as a cpd (cf. LP), but then have difficulty dealing with the words which follow. Finnur substitutes an ellipsis for kveiktan and reads glædestårer for den store ... ambolt ‘tears of joy for the great [=gildan (3)] anvil’, adding her er teksten forvansket ‘here the text is corrupt’. Kahle keeps kveiktan but admits, understandably, that he does not understand the phrase ‘the kindled anvil’. Kock (NN §1745E) is able to make sense of the passage as it stands by assuming a kenning gleði steði ‘anvil of joy, heart’, with which he compares both Egill’s hyggju staðr ‘the place of thought [MIND]’ (Egill St 2/4^V) and heart-kennings of the type hugsteinn ‘thought-stone’, geðsteinn ‘mind-stone’ (cf. Meissner, 138; on stone anvils see, e.g. Eg 2003, ch. 30; Þór Magnússon 1971, 268-9). One is tempted to compare the collocation of heart, stone, and anvil at Job XLI.15 cor eius indurabitur quasi lapis et stringetur quasi malleatoris incus (Douay-Rheims: ‘His heart shall be as hard as a stone, and as firm as a smith’s anvil’), though it is impossible to prove any direct connection with this passage. With tárkveiktan ‘moved to tears’, cf. Matt. XXVI.75; Mark XIV.72; Luke XXII.62. Cf. Notes to sts 44/2-3, 45/3 below. — [6] hjartrót*um ‘heart-roots’: Ms. ‘hiartrotnum’. Cf. st. 38/6 and Note. The usage is presumably a kind of locative dat. ‘in the heart-roots’ and the m.v. stangaz is presumably used in the sense ‘[grief] bores itself inside, pierces’ (cf. LP: stanga).

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. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
6. 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.
7. Eg 2003 = Bjarni Einarsson, ed. 2003. Egils saga. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.
9. Douay-Rheims = Challoner, Richard, trans. 1750. The Holy Bible Translated from the Latin Vulgat: Diligently compared with the Hebrew, Greek, and other Editions in divers Languages. And first published by the English College at Doway, Anno 1609. Newly revised, and corrected, according to the Clementin Edition of the Scriptures. With Annotations for clearing up the principal Difficulties of Holy Writ. 4 vols. 1752. The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Translated out of the Latin Vulgat: Diligently compared with the original Greek. And first published by the English College of Rhemes, Anno 1582. Newly revised, and corrected, according to the Clementin Edition of the Scriptures. With Annotations for clearing up the principal Difficulties of Holy Writ. 2 vols.
10. Internal references
11. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 73 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Sonatorrek 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 299.