Kálf Kátr 36^VII

‘Öllum hlutum er æðri og sælli
Jésús Kristr, en fie og listir
umgeypnandi allrar skepnu
er veitandi manni hverjum.
Hirðir blessar himna dýrðar
hljómraddaðr á efsta dómi
— sunnudagr er þá — sínum mönnum;’
svá greinir það mærin hreina.

‘Jésús Kristr er æðri og sælli öllum hlutum, en {umgeypnandi allrar skepnu} er veitandi hverjum manni fie og listir. {Hirðir dýrðar himna} blessar hljómraddaðr sínum mönnum á efsta dómi; sunnudagr er þá’; svá greinir hreina mærin það.

‘Jesus Christ is higher and more blessed than anything else, and {the holder [in his hands] of all creation} [= God] grants each man wealth and skills. {The shepherd of the glory of the heavens} [= God] blesses in a loud voice his men at the Last Judgement; it is then Sunday’; thus the pure maiden explains it.

Mss: 713(132), 399a-bˣ(20), 920ˣ(217r-v)

Readings: [5] blessar: blessaðr all

Editions: Skj AII, 523, Skj BII, 578, Skald II, 318, NN §§2963, Anm., 3397M, Kahle 1898, 74, 108, Sperber 1911, 51, 81-2.

Notes: [3] umgeypnandi allrar skepnu ‘the holder [in his hands] of all creation’: A kenning for God as pantocrator; cf. ESk Geisl 16/7-8 umgeypnandi alls heims ‘holder in his hands of all the world’. — [7] sunnudagr er þá ‘it is then Sunday’: The idea that the Last Judgement, along with many other milestones in Christian history, fell on a Sunday was part of the popular medieval ‘Sunday letter’ tradition, the subject of Anon Leið; see Leið 35 and Note.

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. Sperber, Hans, ed. 1911. Sechs isländische Gedichte legendarischen Inhalts. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, filosofi, språkvetenskap och historiska vetenskaper 2. Uppsala: Akademische Buchdruckerei Edv. Berling.
5. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.
6. Internal references
7. Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Leiðarvísan 35’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 171.
8. Katrina Attwood 2007, ‘ Anonymous, Leiðarvísan’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 137-78. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1022> (accessed 24 April 2024)
9. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Geisli 16’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 20-1.