‘Ér meguð undir stórar
yðars græðis sjá blæða;
þær eru sýnt, þó at sárar,
saklausum mér vaktar,
mín því at mildi raunar
mest ok yðrir lestir
veldr því, at verða skyldi
vísi lýðs fyr píslum.
‘Ér meguð sjá yðars græðis stórar undir blæða; þær eru, þó at sárar, sýnt vaktar mér saklausum, því at raunar veldr mest mín mildi ok yðrir lestir því, at vísi lýðs skyldi verða fyr píslum.
‘You may see your healer’s great wounds bleed; they are, though grievous, clearly dealt me guiltless, for in reality my mercy and your sins most cause it, that the prince of the people should be subjected to torments.
[7-8] vísi lýðs skyldi ‘the prince of the people should’: 399a-bˣ, Sveinbjörn Egilsson, Skj, and Skald all read víst ‘certainly’ for vísi ‘prince’; the scribe of B appears first to have begun to write ‘vist’ then to have corrected it to ‘visí’ with a heavy accent. Skyldi ‘should’ is 3rd pers. subj., whose subject Skj takes to be an understood hann; this, however, agrees awkwardly with mín (l. 5), hence Skj B translates at han (jeg) skulde ‘that he (I) should’. NN §2332 attempts to improve agreement by arguing that ms. ‘skullde’ simply reflects the later 1st pers. sg. (Icel. skyldi) and should be ‘normalised’ to skylda. Both the awkwardness and emendation are avoided with the reading vísi ‘prince’.
Verbs: Preterite-present verbs
The present tense of these verbs is like the past tense of strong verbs, and their past tense is weak.
eiga | mega | kunna | skulu | munu | muna | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
indic. pres. | sing. pl. | 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd | á átt á eigum eiguð eigu | má mátt má megum meguð megu | kann kannt kann kunnum kunnuð kunnu | skal skalt skal skulum skuluð skulu | mun munt mun munum munuð munu | man mant man munum munið muna |
indic. past stem subj. pres. stem subj. past stem | átt- eig- ætt- | mátt- meg- mætt- | kunn- kunn- kynn- | skyld- skyl- skyld- | mund- myn- mynd- | mund- mun- mynd- |