Anon Lil 70^VII

Enn mun koma í öðru sinni
allsvaldandi kóngr að gjalda
seggja ferðum sínar gerðir
sómaörr á efsta dómi.
Svá geisar þá eldr og eisa
jörð og fjöll, að í heimi öllum
eigi finz hier upp ór skýjum
óbrunnið og niðr að grunnum.

Enn mun allsvaldandi kóngr koma, sómaörr, í öðru sinni á efsta dómi að gjalda ferðum seggja gerðir sínar. Þá geisar eldr og eisa svá jörð og fjöll, að í öllum heimi finz eigi óbrunnið hier upp ór skýjum og niðr að grunnum.

Again the all-ruling king will come, generous with honour, a second time, at the Last Judgement, to repay crowds of men for their deeds. Then fire and flames will so rage over earth and mountains, that in all the world there is nothing unburned there up above the clouds and down on the ground.

Mss: Bb(115vb), 99a(14r), 622(35-36), 713(12), Vb(253), 41 8°ˣ(128), 705ˣ(17v), 4892(36r)

Readings: [2] kóngr: so 99a, 713, 705ˣ, 4892, konungr Bb    [3] seggja: seggjum 713, Vb, 41 8°ˣ, 4892;    ferðum: so 99a, 705ˣ, fyrðum Bb, verð fyrir 713, Vb, 41 8°ˣ, 4892    [5] eisa: æstiz 99a, æsir 713, 705ˣ, 4892, æsiz Vb, 41 8°ˣ    [6] jörð: um jörð Vb, 41 8°ˣ, 4892;    að: om. 713, Vb, 41 8°ˣ, 4892    [7] eigi: hvergi Bb, að eigi 99a, Vb, 41 8°ˣ, ekki 622, 713, að ei 705ˣ, ‘eye’ 4892;    finz: finnur Vb, 41 8°ˣ;    hier: þá 99a, 622, 713, 705ˣ, 4892, om. Vb, 41 8°ˣ;    ór: að 99a, 705ˣ, úr Vb, 41 8°ˣ, 4892;    skýjum: so 99a, 622, 713, Vb, 41 8°ˣ, 705ˣ, 4892, skygjum Bb    [8] að: úr 4892;    grunnum: grunni 99a, 622, 713, Vb, 41 8°ˣ, 705ˣ, 4892

Editions: Skj AII, 385-6, Skj BII, 408, Skald II, 223, NN §§2631, 2995 C.

Notes: [All]: Cf. Has 31. — [3] ferðum (dat. pl.) ‘crowds’: The specific meaning of the word is a group of people on a journey or following a leader, a train or retinue. The poet may have in mind the image of centum quadraginta quattuor milia … hii qui sequuntur agnum quocumque abierit ‘the hundred forty-four thousand ... who follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth’ (Rev. XIV.1-4). — [5-8]: An allusion to 2 Pet. III.12, which describes Dei diei per quam caeli ardentes solventur et elementa ignis ardore tabescent ‘[the coming] of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat of fire’. Cf. the liturgical sequence Dies irae: Dies irae, dies illa / solvet saeclum in favilla ‘On the day of wrath, that day will the whole world be reduced to embers’ (AH 54, 269). — [5-6] Þá geisar eldr og eisa svá jörð og fjöll ‘Then fire and flames will so rage over earth and mountains’: Geisa is normally intransitive: here, jörð ok fjöll are acc. of place (see NS §96). — [7] eigi ‘not’: This form of the word is necessary for the rhyme eigi : ský-. — [7] hier ‘there’: The word commonly means ‘here’ or ‘hither’. Other mss have þá. If it is to have that meaning here, the syntax of the sentence must be finz eigi óbrunnið upp ór skýjum og hier niðr að grunnum ‘is found unburned up above the clouds and here below on the ground’. But when addressing someone from afar (e.g. in a letter), it can mean ‘there [where you are]’ (see Heggstad, Hødnebø and Simensen 1997: hér 4). The previous st. is addressed to Christ in heaven, and perhaps the image continues in this st. ‘neither up there [where you are] …’ — [8] að grunnum ‘on the ground’: The pl. form may be analogous to the idiom til grunna (gen. pl.), e.g. ‘[sink] to the bottom’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. AH = Dreves, G. M., C. Blume and H. M. Bannister, eds. 1886-1922. Analecta hymnica medii aeui. 55 vols. Leipzig: Reisland. Rpt. 1961. New York: Johnson.
5. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
6. Internal references
7. Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Gamli kanóki, Harmsól 31’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 99-100.