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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon Lil 90VII

Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 90’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 663-5.

Anonymous PoemsLilja
899091

Þú ert elskandi ein af sprundum,
ágætust fyrir lítillæti,
um bætandi bragna syndir;
blessuð mær, þú ert drotni kærust.
Þú ert hitnandi heilags anda
höll og prýdd með dáðum öllum,
ei kennandi, kvitt af syndum,
krafta þraung en löstinn aungvan.

Þú ert ein elskandi af sprundum, ágætust fyrir lítillæti, um bætandi syndir bragna; blessuð mær, þú ert kærust drotni. Þú ert hitnandi höll heilags anda og prýdd með öllum dáðum, ei kennandi þraung krafta, kvitt af syndum en aungvan löstinn.

You alone are to be loved among women, most famous for your humility, ameliorating the sins of men; blessed maid, you are most dear to the Lord. You are the warm hall of the Holy Spirit and ornamented with all virtuous deeds, not knowing oppression of powers, free from sins and [having] no fault.

Mss: Bb(116va), 99a(18r), 622(39), 713(14), Vb(255), 41 8°ˣ(133) (ll. 1-4), 41 8°ˣ(420) (ll. 6-8), 705ˣ(22r), 4892(39r-v)

Readings: [1] elskandi: so 99a, 622, 713, Vb, 41 8°ˣ, 705ˣ, 4892, elskan Bb;    ein: á Vb, 41 8°ˣ;    af: allar Vb, 41 8°ˣ;    sprundum: lundir Vb, 41 8°ˣ    [2] ágætust: ágætr Vb, 41 8°ˣ    [4] blessuð: býtir Vb, 41 8°ˣ;    mær þú ert: gæða Vb, 41 8°ˣ;    drotni: einglum 99a, hverjum Vb, 41 8°ˣ, ‘ein[...]lom’ 4892;    kærust: hæri 99a, 4892, æðri Vb, 41 8°ˣ    [5] ert: út Vb;    hitnandi: hittandi 713, 4892, sendi Vb;    heilags: heilagan 713, 4892, sannleiks Vb    [6] höll og prýdd með dáðum öllum: sáð Abrahams prýddur dáðum Vb;    höll: so 99a, 705ˣ, ‘ho᷎lld’ Bb, höldinn 622, höllinn 713, 4892;    og: om. 622, 713, 4892;    með: af 622    [7] ei: eigi 99a, 713, æ 622;    kvitt: kvittar Vb

Editions: Skj AII, 392, Skj BII, 413-14, Skald II, 227, NN §3315.

Notes: [All]: The order of sts 89 and 90 is reversed in 622, Vb, 41 8°ˣ (134), and 41 8°ˣ (420). The order of the helmingar of st. 90 is reversed in 4892. — [1] elskandi ‘to be loved’: The pres. part. is used as a gerundive. See NS §239b for a discussion of this phenomenon in learned style. — [2] lítillæti ‘humility’: cf. 25/5. — [3] um bætandi ‘ameliorating’: According to ONP, the idiom bœta [bǿta] um means ‘revise, improve, change for the better, put to rights’. Without the prep., bœta is the word used in religious literature for ‘make amends, atone, do penance (for one’s sins), expiate’. — [5-6] þú ert hitnandi höll heilags anda ‘you are the warm hall of the Holy Spirit’: The kenning-like phrase hitnandi höll heilags anda has been interpreted variously. Translations include tu es Spiritu sancto incalescens aula ‘you are the warming hall for the Holy Spirit’ (Finnur Jónsson 1772-8, II, 441), ‘the warm Holy Spirit’s hall’ (Eiríkur Magnússon 1870, 91), Prunkpalast des heil’gen Geistes ‘magnificent palace of the Holy Spirit’ (Baumgartner 1884, 68), aandens glødende bolig ‘the glowing dwelling of the Spirit’ (Paasche 1915, 90), den hellig [sic] ånds varme hal ‘the warm hall of the Holy Spirit’ (Skj B), Du bist die warme Wohnung des Heiligen Geistes ‘you are the warm dwelling of the Holy Spirit’ (Lange 1958b, 71) and du er heten i Heilagandens hal ‘you are the warmth in the hall of the Holy Spirit’ (Ødegård 1980, 87). Meissner’s translation (1922, 33), im heiligen Geiste du erglühende, Halle des Herrn, so reich geschmückte ‘you are glowing with the Holy Spirit, dwelling of the Lord, so richly ornamented’, reflects the construction þú ert hitnandi heilags anda, höll og prýdd með dáðum öllum. Meissner apparently did not regard hitnandi heilags anda höll as a kenning: it does not appear in Die Kennningar der Skalden, although he cites examples of analogous kennings of the type ‘hall of God’ (Meissner 424). These circumlocutions are based on the image of Mary as the Theotokos who bore Jesus in her womb (Die Jungfrau, in der der Erlöser beschlossen liegt, is Gottes Haus, Halle, sein Münster, Schrein oder Hochsitz). Meissner cites one example of Mary as the dwelling of the Holy Spirit: she is called sæti heilags anda ‘seat of the Holy Spirit’ in Mgr 2/4 (Meissner 424), and cf. the poem Heilags anda ho᷎llin glæst (ÍM II, 70-2). — [5] hitnandi ‘warm’: Hitna means ‘to be warmed, to become warm, to be enkindled’, and is used both literally (e.g. of a house that becomes warm) and metaphorically. See Fritzner: hitna, and cf. e.g. Árni Gd 10/1-4IV: Unni heitt, sem verkin vátta, | víngarðs eflir drotni sínum, | boðorða hald ok blessuð mildi | bera hitnandi elsku vitni ‘the supporter of the vineyard warmly loved his God, as his deeds attest, his keeping of the commandments and blessed gentleness bear witness to his burning love’. — [8] þraung ‘oppression’: The base meanings of the word include ‘throng, oppressive crowd, narrow straits’, which led to the metaphorical meanings ‘hindrance, suffering’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) translates indskrænkning i kraft (jærtegn) ‘reduction in power (miracles)’. JH notes that this meaning is otherwise unattested and suggests two possible alternative interpretations: 1) Mary is humbly unaware of the great throng of her own powers; or 2) she is not oppressed by the powers and burden of sin. The word occurs elsewhere in Lil with positive as well as negative connotations: þraungum þyrni ‘tightly-wound [crown of] thorns’ 49/5, þraungdr og kvaldr ‘oppressed and tormented’ 79/6, and þraungskorðaðra ‘tightly-set [words of poetry]’ 96/6.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  5. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
  6. Baumgartner, Alexander, trans. 1884. Die Lilie: Isländische Mariendichtung aus dem 14. Jahrhundert. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder.
  7. Ødegård, Knut, trans. 1980. Lilja. Oslo: Tiden.
  8. Finnur Jónsson [Finnus Iohannaeus]. 1772-8. Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiae. 4 vols. Copenhagen.
  9. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
  10. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
  11. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
  12. ÍM = Jón Helgason, ed. 1936-8. Íslenzk miðaldarkvæði: Islandske digte fra senmiddelalderen. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
  13. Lange, Wolfgang. 1958b. Christliche Skaldendichtung. Kleine Vandenhoeck-Reihe 54. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
  14. Internal references
  15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Drápa af Máríugrát 2’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 760-1.
  16. Martin Chase 2007, ‘ Anonymous, Lilja’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 544-677. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1185> (accessed 28 March 2024)
  17. Not published: do not cite (Árni Gd 10IV)
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