Carolyne Larrington and Peter Robinson (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Sólarljóð 19’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 308.
Óvinum þínum trú þú aldrigi,
þótt fagrt mæli fyr þér;
góðu þú heit; gótt er annars
víti hafa at varnaði.
Trú þú aldrigi óvinum þínum, þótt mæli fagrt fyr þér; heit þú góðu; gótt er hafa annars víti at varnaði.
Never trust your enemies, though they speak fair words to you; promise good things; it is good to have another’s punishment as a warning.
Mss: 166bˣ(46r), papp15ˣ(2v), 738ˣ(80v), 167b 6ˣ(2v), 214ˣ(149v), 1441ˣ(582), 10575ˣ(3v), 2797ˣ(232)
Readings: [2] trú þú: ‘tr[...]’ 167b 6ˣ [3] þótt: om. 167b 6ˣ; fagrt mæli fyr þér: þeir fagrt mæli fyr þér papp15ˣ, 167b 6ˣ, 1441ˣ, 10575ˣ, þeir fagrt fyr þér mæli 738ˣ, fagrt mæli fyr 214ˣ, þeir fagrt mæli fyr 2797ˣ [6] víti hafa at varnaði: vit at hafa fyrir varnaði papp15ˣ, víti sér varnaðar vita corrected from ‘víti sér varnaðar vefia’ 738ˣ, víti at hafa fyr varnaði 167b 6ˣ, 1441ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 630, Skj BI, 638, Skald I, 310, NN §1921F; Bugge 1867, 360, Falk 1914, 10, Björn M. Ólsen 1915, 10, Fidjestøl 1979, 62, Njörður Njarðvík 1991, 57, Njörður Njarðvík 1993, 25, 104.
Notes: [All]: The exemplum of sts 19-24 recalls the admonitions in Sigrdr 23 and 35 against swearing oaths unless reconciliation has truly been achieved and against trusting those whose kin you have killed. Amory (1985, 16; 1990, 264-5) suggests a reference to Matt. X.16, warning against trusting one’s enemies. — [2] trú þú aldrigi ‘never trust’: Skj B, followed by Skald, normalises all mss’ aldri to aldrigi to give a metrical l. — [3] þótt fagrt mæli fyr þér ‘though they speak fair words to you’: The l. requires alliteration on <f>, not <þ>. Most eds regularise (so Skj B, Skald) by using the more archaic form of the prep. fyrir (which receives full stress) and deleting þér. For the sentiment, cf. Hsv 42/2-3: þótt fagrt mæli | þarftu eigi þeim at trúa ‘though they speak well, you need not trust in them’. — [4] góðu þú heit ‘promise good things’: Þú is omitted by both Skj B and Skald. Falk (1914a, 11) suggests, but does not incorporate into his text, the emendation góðu þó heiti ‘though they promise good things’, a suggestion followed by Björn M. Ólsen (1915, 34). This continues the admonition of the preceding ll. — [6] hafa annars víti at varnaði ‘have another’s punishment as a warning’: Cf. Hsv 98/4-5: annars manns víti | láti sér at varnaði ‘he should let the punishment of another [be] a warning to him’. Cf. also Hávm 45, 91, 124 and Hsv 42.
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