Anon (FoGT) 30^III

Sveit lifir ill til átu
annlaust þokumanna,
en klaustrs búi kristinn
kalds, að lífið haldiz.

Ill sveit þokumanna lifir annlaust til átu, en kristinn búi kalds klaustrs [etr], að lífið haldiz.

The evil company of ‘fog-men’ lives trouble-free for eating, but the Christian inhabitant of the cold cloister [eats] to stay alive.

Mss: W(116) (FoGT)

Editions: Skj AII, 164, Skj BII, 181, Skald II, 94; SnE 1848-87, II, 228-9, III, 160, FoGT 1884, 140, 280, FoGT 2004, 48, 73, 139-40, FoGT 2014, 32-3, 117.

Context: This dróttkvætt helmingr illustrates the rhetorical figure that the Doctrinale calls antimetabola, but FoGT refers to as ansimehisa.  FoGT says of the figure that it occurs ef maðr snyr sva sem með orðum myrkrar skilningar ‘if one changes [the sense] with words of obscure signification’. Immediately after the citation of the stanza there is a long explanation of the meaning of the nonce word þokumenn ‘fog-men’ (see Note to [All] below).

Notes: [All]: This stanza is present in both the X (ms. papp10ˣ(36v); LaufE 1979, 252) and the Y (mss 2368ˣ(106), 743ˣ(82r); LaufE 1979, 363-4) versions of LaufE, together with a version of the prose commentary in FoGT that follows the stanza, in each case slightly differently worded. The verse text is the same in each, except that in l. 3 mss 2368ˣ and 743ˣ have klaustrs (as in FoGT), while papp10ˣ has klaustr. Neither the stanza nor the prose commentary are in RE 1665, unlike the other two anonymous stanzas in FoGT (sts 4 and 6) and two by known skalds, Þskúm Lv 1^I (FoGT 27) and ESk Lv 13 (FoGT 56), which are in both sources. In papp10ˣ the extract from FoGT about þokumenn is included after Epilogus partis prioris, possibly as a later addition, while in 2368ˣ and 743ˣ it comes at the end of the section entitled Upprune nóckurra konga heita ‘The origin of some kings’ heiti’; for a discussion of the significance of these locations, see Faulkes (LaufE 1979, 179). — [All]: It is obvious from the elaborate prose explanation of the meaning of the hap. leg. þokumenn ‘fog-men’ in l. 2 (probably a calque on Lat. nebulo ‘a worthless person, wretch’) that the author of FoGT considered the use of this word to illustrate the figure he called ansimehisa. He states that the term refers to people who waste all their money on food and drink, and whose folly prevents them from seeing the light of true morality, just like people incarcerated in a dark prison. His use of þokumenn does not really illustrate the standard sense of the figure antimetabola, which the Doctrinale (Reichling 1893, 176, ll. 2610-11), following earlier authorities like Isidore of Seville, defines as cum verbis vertit antimetabola sensum: / non, ut edas, vivas, sed edas ut vivere possis ‘antimetabola changes meaning with words: you do not live so that you may eat, but you eat so that you may live’. Thus a rearrangement of the same words in two clauses can bring about a change of meaning. This is not what FoGT’s use of þokumenn does, but it is notable that the stanza as a whole is influenced by the Lat. adage non ut edas vivas, sed edas ut vivere possis. — [3] en ‘but’: FoGT 1884, 280 emends en to etr ‘eats’ in order both to supply a main verb in ll. 3-4 and to bring the Icelandic closer to the Latin source, but it makes sense without emendation. — [4] að lífið haldiz ‘to stay alive’: Lit. ‘so that life is kept’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. 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.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
5. FoGT 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.
6. FoGT 2004 = Longo, Michele, ed. [2004]. ‘Il Quarto Trattato Grammaticale Islandese: Testo, Traduzione e Commento’. Dottorato di Ricerca in ‘Linguistica Sincronica e Diacronica’ (XV Ciclo). Palermo: Università degli Studi di Palermo, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia.
7. Reichling, Dietrich, ed. 1893. Das Doctrinale des Alexander de Villa-Dei. Monumenta Germaniae paedagogica 12. Berlin: A. Hofmann & Comp. Rpt. 1974. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series, Studies in the History of Education 11. New York: Burt Franklin.
8. FoGT 2014 = Clunies Ross, Margaret and Jonas Wellendorf, eds. 2014. The Fourth Grammatical Treatise. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. Internal references
10. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=34> (accessed 2 May 2024)
11. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Lausavísur 13’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 176.
12. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Þorleifr skúma Þorkelsson, Lausavísa 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 360.
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=10928> (accessed 2 May 2024)