Anon Sól 25^VII

Dísir bið þú þér        dróttins mála
        vera hollar í hugum;
viku eptir        mun þér vilja þíns
        alt at óskum gá.

Bið þú mála-dísir dróttins vera þér hollar í hugum; viku eptir mun alt gá þér at óskum vilja þíns.

Ask the confidential-dísir of the Lord to be gracious to you in their thoughts; one week later everything will go according to the desires of your will.

Mss: 166bˣ(46v), papp15ˣ(3r), 738ˣ(81r), 167b 6ˣ(2v), 214ˣ(150r), 1441ˣ(583), 10575ˣ(4r), 2797ˣ(232-233)

Readings: [1] Dísir: so papp15ˣ, 738ˣ, 1441ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ, ‘dysi’ 166bˣ, 167b 6ˣ, 214ˣ;    bið þú: þú bið 1441ˣ    [5] mun: man 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ    [6] alt: so papp15ˣ, 738ˣ, 167b 6ˣ, 214ˣ, 1441ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ, at 166bˣ;    óskum: ‘audnu’ papp15ˣ, 167b 6ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ, ‘audnu’ corrected from ‘óskum’ 738ˣ, öðru 1441ˣ;    gá: ganga 738ˣ, 167b 6ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 631, Skj BI, 639, Skald I, 311; Bugge 1867, 361, Falk 1914, 13, Björn M. Ólsen 1915, 11, Fidjestøl 1979, 63, Njörður Njarðvík 1991, 61, Njörður Njarðvík 1993, 31, 108-9.

Notes: [1] dísir ‘dísir, female spirits’: Not in 166bˣ, but in many other mss. The distribution of ‘dysi’ however is wide enough to suggest an archetype error. In pre-Christian belief, dísir were female tutelary spirits of the family or of an individual (Turville-Petre 1964, 221-6). Here they seem to have been transferred syncretically to a Christian context. — [1-2] mála-dísir dróttins ‘the confidential-dísir of the Lord’: It is not clear whether mála should be regarded as part of a cpd noun, or as a simplex. If the latter (see below), emendation is required. Falk (1914a, 15), Björn M. Ólsen (1915, 36), and Fidejstøl (1979, 42-3) understand mála-dísir as de diser sem taler med Gud ‘the dísir who talk with God’, that is, God’s confidantes; Falk compares málvinr ‘a friend one habitually talks to, a close friend, confidant’ (LP: málvina, málvinr). Skj B, followed by Skald, emends mála to málur acc. pl. (LP: mála ‘confidential female friend’), and construes bið þér dísir, dróttins málur ‘pray to the dísir, the Lord’s confidantes’. The mála-dísir or dróttins málur may be, Falk and Björn M. Ólsen suggest, virgin saints who have an intercessory role. Falk notes that they appear in Visio Tnugdali (Cahill 1983, 104-5), Visio Alberici (Mirra 1932, 99) and Visio Thurkilli (Schmidt 1978, 36), near the throne of God. For Fidjestøl’s and Amory’s views of the syncretic tendencies of Sól, particularly in this st., see Introduction. — [6] alt at óskum gá ‘go according to your desires’: gá ‘go’ is the form found in 166bˣ and a number of other mss. This form is normally thought to be post-1400 (ANG §504 n. 4); ganga may well have stood in the original text, but not in final position, as it would be unmetrical there. Gering (1902, 454-5) proposed adopting ganga and reversing its position with that of alt to give a regular l., thus: at óskum ganga alt. This suggestion was adopted by Skj B and Skald. The l. is paralleled in Hsv 78/3: þótt gangi at óskum alt ‘although everything goes as wished’.

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. 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.
5. Fidjestøl, Bjarne, ed. 1979a. Sólarljóð: Tydning og Tolkningsgrunnlag. Nordisk Instituts skrifteserie 4. Bergen, Oslo and Tromsø: Universitetsforlaget.
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. Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1915a. Sólarljóð: gefin út með skíringum og athugasemdum. Safn til sögu Íslands og íslenzkra bókmenta 5.1. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja Gutenberg.
8. Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1867. Norrœn fornkvæði. Islandsk samling af folkelige oldtidsdigte om nordens guder og heroer. Almindelig kaldet Sæmundar Edda hins frøda. Christiania (Oslo): Malling. Rpt. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 1965.
9. Cahill, Peter, ed. and trans. 1983. Duggals leiðsla. RSÁM A 25. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar.
10. Schmidt, Paul Gerhard, ed. 1978. Visio Thurkilli, relatore, ut videtur, Radulpho de Coggeshall. Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana. Leipzig: Teubner.
11. Turville-Petre, Gabriel. 1964. Myth and Religion of the North. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
12. Falk, Hjalmar, ed. 1914a. Sólarljóð. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter II. Hist.-filos. kl. 7. 2 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
13. Gering, Hugo. 1902. ‘Die Rhythmik des Ljóðaháttr’. ZDP, 162-234.
14. Njörður P. Njarðvik, ed. 1991. Sólarljóð. Útgáfa og umfjöllun. Íslensk Rit 10. Reykjavík: Bókmenntafræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands og Menningarsjóður.
15. Njörður P. Njarðvik. 1993. Solsången. Akademisk avhandling för filosofiedoktorsexamen i nordiska språk. Göteborgs universitet: Institutionen för svensk språket.
16. Mirra, Antonio D., ed. 1932. ‘La visione di Alberico’. In Inguanez et al. 1932, 33-79.
17. Internal references
18. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Sǫrla þáttr’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 785. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=41> (accessed 25 April 2024)
19. Tarrin Wills and Stefanie Gropper (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Hugsvinnsmál 78’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 407-8.
20. Carolyne Larrington and Peter Robinson 2007, ‘ Anonymous, Sólarljóð’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 287-357. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1041> (accessed 25 April 2024)