Anon Pét 40^VII

Vildi hlýðni halda
háleitr trúar veitir
enn og mála minniz
meistara síns í freistni.
Gietrað sieð við sútum,
— svá unni lífs brunni
heitt — á sár, þau er settu
sárleitir guði várum.

{Háleitr veitir trúar} vildi enn halda hlýðni og minniz í freistni mála meistara síns. Gietrað sieð við sútum, á sár, þau er sárleitir settu várum guði; svá heitt unni brunni lífs.

{The sublime dispenser of faith} [APOSTLE] still wished to practise obedience and in temptation remembers the words of his master. He is not able to guard against sorrows, to look upon those wounds which the cruel ones inflicted on our God; so ardently did he love the well of life.

Mss: 621(59r)

Readings: [5] Gietrað: Getr eigi 621

Editions: Skj AII, 506, Skj BII, 554, Skald II, 304, NN §§1741, 2881, 2882; Kahle 1898, 87.

Notes: [3-4] minniz mála meistara síns ‘remembers the words of his master’: Cf. Pétr 14/23-4: Hann mintiz þa fyrr sagðra orða drottins um sina neiting ok gret beiskliga ‘He then remembered the previously uttered words of the Lord about his denial and wept bitterly’; Luke XXII.61-2 et recordatus est Petrus verbi Domini ... et egressus foras Petrus flevit amare ‘and Peter remembered the word of the Lord ... and Peter going out, wept bitterly’ (cf. Matt. XXVI.75). This st. should logically follow st. 42 (see Introduction and Notes to 42/5-6, 7). — [5] gietrað ‘He is not able’: Ms. ‘Getr eigi’. Kock proposes this emendation, or to gat eigi, to improve the scansion (NN §2881). In a C14th text, a reading Gietr ei might also be possible. See Fritzner: ei adv. 2 ikke ‘not’; LP: ei. — [6] brunni lífs ‘the well of life’: A common epithet of Christ. Cf., e.g., Mess²15, 124/30: brunnr (Mess²625, 49/13: bruþr) lífs; Anon Heildr 2/3-4 af mætum ... lífsins brunni ‘from the worthy spring of life’ (but here probably of the Holy Spirit); Manz 1941, no. 371 (Ps. XXXV.10) fons vitae ‘fountain of life’, no. 733 Fons vite peremnis Ihesu ‘Jesus, the fount of eternal life’; S. Columbanus, Sermones, col. 254: Jesus Christus est Fons vitae ‘Jesus Christ is the fount of life’. — [7-8] heitt ... sárleitir ‘ardently ... the cruel ones’: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) retains ms. ‘heitt’ as here, but emends ms. ‘sarleitir’ (l. 8) to sár leit and translates: han så de bitre sår, som de tilföjede vor gud ‘he saw the painful wounds which they inflicted on our God’. Kock (NN §1741) objects to the redundancy of sár ... sár in Finnur’s text, and instead retains sárleitir and emends heitt to leit. He reads (ll. 5-8): Getr eigi sét við sútum | – svá unni lífs brunni – : | leit á sár, þau er settu | sárleitir Guði várum ‘He cannot avoid sorrows – he so loved the well of life – he looked upon the wounds which the cruel ones (de bittre) had given to our God’. He then proposes a further emendation of settu (l. 7) to sættu to improve the skothending (NN §2882). Conjectural emendation can, however, be avoided altogether if one assumes an apo koinou construction in ll. 5-7: Gietrað sieð við sútum ... á sár þau ‘he is not able to guard against sorrows ... to look upon those wounds’ (cf. Fritzner: sjá, v. – Med Præp.: á 3 sjá á e-t : se paa, betragte noget; – við 2 vogte sig for noget). Sárleitr ‘of fierce demeanour?, bloodthirsty?, cruel?’ would appear to be a nonce-formation, echoing háleitr ‘sublime’ in l. 2. St. 38 looks as though it should come directly after 40/7-8 (see Notes to st. 38).

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. 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.
6. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. Manz, Georg. 1941. Ausdrucksformen der lateinischen Liturgiesprache bis ins elfte Jahrhundert. Texte und Arbeiten herausgegeben durch die Erzabtei Beuron. Abteilung I, Beiheft I. Beiträge zur Ergründung des älteren lateinischen christlichen Schrifttums und Gottesdienstes 1. Beuron in Hohenzollern: Beuroner Kunstverlag.
8. Internal references
9. Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilags anda drápa 2’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 452-3.