Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Anon Hsv 28VII/6 — sem ‘what’

Öll tíðindi,        þau er upp koma,
        ræð þú eigi fyrstr með firum;
betra er at þegja        en þat at segja,
        sem lýðum reyniz at lygi.

Ræð þú eigi fyrstr með firum öll tíðindi, þau er upp koma; betra er at þegja en at segja þat, sem reyniz lýðum at lygi.

Do not be the first to discuss with men all the news that comes up; it is better to keep silent than to say what proves in public to be a lie.

readings

[6] sem lýðum reyniz: sem lýðum 723aˣ, ‘[...]zt kyind at lygi’ 696XV, er reyniz lýðum 401ˣ, sem síðan reyniz 624

notes

[6]: This l. might have been influenced by Sigrdr 25 (NK, 195): Alt er vant, | ef þú við þegir; | þá þiccir þú með bleyði borinn | eða sǫnno sagðr; | ... Annars dags | láttu hans ǫndo farit | oc launa svá lýðom lygi! ‘Everything is lost if you are silent in response; then you seem to be born a coward or else it is spoken truly; ... on another day let his spirit pass on and thus repay his lies in public’ (Larrington 1996, 170).

grammar

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Word in text

This view shows information about an instance of a word in a text.