Anon (TGT) 17^III

Krossfestum sé Kristi
kunnr vegr ok lof unnit
megn ok máttr sem tígnar
mest vald, þats fersk aldri.

Kunnr vegr ok lof, megn ok máttr, sem mest tígnarvald, þats aldri fersk, sé unnit krossfestum Kristi.

May famous honour and praise, power and might, as well as the greatest strength of honour that will never perish, be granted to the crucified Christ.

Mss: A(6r), W(106) (TGT)

Readings: [3] tígnar: tígnir W    [4] fersk (‘fers’): fremst W

Editions: Skj AI, 627, Skj BI, 634, Skald I, 308, NN §2547; SnE 1818, 322-3, SnE 1848, 191, SnE 1848-87, II, 142-3, 417, III, 146, TGT 1884, 23, 93, 204, TGT 1927, 66, 102.

Context: The stanza appears under the section of schemata lexeos (‘scemalexeos’, ‘figures of words’; TGT 1927, 66): er scema lexeos nefnd sem skrúð máls eða ræðu ‘schemata lexeos means the ornamentation of language or speech’. This is an example of zeugma (‘zeuma’), i.e. where a word or phrase belongs to more than one part of the sentence.

Notes: [All]: The zeugma here occurs because one verb governs several nouns (TGT 1927, 67): Þetta orð, sé, styrir ǫllum þessum nǫfnum, vegr lof megn máttr vald ‘This word “may ... be” governs all these nouns: “honour,” “praise,” “power,” “might,” “strength”’. — [All]: This stanza is referred to as Anon (TGT) 21 in Note to Anon Lil 96/1^VII in SkP VII. — [All]: The helmingr is strongly reminiscent of the doxology to Matt VI.13 (King James text): ‘For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever’. The doxology is not in the Vulgate, nor is it found, for example, in the text and commentary to the Pater noster in Holm perg 15 4° (HómÍsl 1993, 16r). It is, however, found in later mss of the gospel of Matthew, and there were several versions in oral tradition. A similar formula is recorded in the C2nd Didache (Lohse 2009, 89). — [3-4] sem mest tígnarvald ‘as well as the greatest strength of honour’: This interpretation is from Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884) and is adopted in Skj B. Kock (NN §2547) argues that sem is used in parallel with the two instances of ok and should not be taken with mest. He prefers W’s tígnir and reads sem tígnir, | mest vald ‘and honours, the greatest strength …’. It is rare, however, for tígn to be used in the pl., and the citations in ONP only have the pl. form from the C14th onwards. The cpd tígnarvald (and the related tígnarveldi) are uncommon in prose and poetry. Both have only two citations in ONP. Tígnarveldi occurs in Anon Líkn 24/7^VII and tígnarvald is used only here in poetry.

References

1. Bibliography
2. TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
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. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
5. SnE 1848 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
6. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
7. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
8. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
9. HómÍsl 1993 = de Leeuw van Weenen, Andrea, ed. 1993. The Icelandic Homily Book: Perg. 15 4° in the Royal Library, Stockholm. Íslensk handrit/Icelandic Manuscripts Series in quarto 3. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi.
10. TGT 1927 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1927b. Óláfr Þórðarson: Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit. Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling. Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 13, 2. Copenhagen: Høst.
11. SkP VII = Poetry on Christian Subjects. Ed. Margaret Clunies Ross. 2007.
12. SnE 1818 = Rask, Rasmus Kristian, ed. 1818a. Snorra Edda ásamt Skáldu og þarmeð fylgjandi ritgjörðum. Stockholm: Elmen.
13. Lohse, Eduard. 2009. Vater unser: Das Gebet der Christen. Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchges.
14. Internal references
15. George S. Tate (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Líknarbraut 24’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 254-5.
16. Tarrin Wills (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Third Grammatical Treatise 17’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 549.
17. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 96’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 671.