SnSt Frag 1III
Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Fragment from a religious poem 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 375.
Byskup, heyr á bæran
bragþátt gǫfugs máttar.
Byskup, heyr á bæran bragþátt gǫfugs máttar.
Bishop, listen to the appropriate strand of praise of glorious power.
Mss: A(4v), W(103) (TGT)
Editions: Skj AII, 77, Skj BII, 88, Skald II, 48; SnE 1848-87, II, 116-17, 410, III, 141, TGT 1884, 17, 76, TGT 1927, 52, 95.
Context: The couplet is cited as an example of soloecismus, which is caused here by the use of the common noun byskup ‘bishop’ instead of the personal name of the bishop.
Notes: [1] byskup ‘bishop’: The prose commentary supplies the name of the bishop, Guðmundr, i.e. Bishop Guðmundr Arason of Hólar (d. 16 March 1237). — [1] bæran ‘appropriate’: The adj. bærr lit. means ‘suitable to be spread around’ or ‘suitable, well-deserved’, etymologically derived from the strong verb bera ‘carry’ (so TGT 1884, 184, following Jón Þorkelsson, pers. comm.). See ESk Run 3/3II and Note there. — [2] gǫfugs máttar ‘of glorious power’: This epithet could qualify byskup ‘bishop’ (l. 1) (so SnE 1848-87), but Snorri could have used the phrase to extol the qualities of his own poetry rather than the power of Guðmundr (so Skj B and, apparently, Skald), whose grip on the see of Hólar was tenuous. Finnur Jónsson (TGT 1927, 95, following Björn Magnússon Ólsen in TGT 1884, 184) later believed that the phrase qualified something mentioned in the next two, now lost lines, which is also possible.
References
- Bibliography
- 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.
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- 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.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- 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.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Runhenda 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 553.
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