Anon Mv III 21VII/6 — kantil ‘a song’
‘Munni hans,’ kvað mekt sönn,
‘mart lúkiz upp bjart;
tungan endi sinn saung,
og sjái fyst, hvað það má.’
Skýja laus skör ló;
skilja má, að kantil
Áve Máría upphaf
á var þar skráð þá.
‘Munni hans,’ kvað sönn mekt, ‘lúkiz mart upp bjart; tungan endi saung sinn, og sjái fyst, hvað það má.’ Laus skör skýja ló; má skilja, að kantil, Áve Máría upphaf, var þá skráð þar á.
‘Through his mouth,’ said the True Power, ‘much may be revealed brightly; the tongue ended its song, and let us first see, what that can do.’ The deceitful crowd of clouds [DEVILS] lied; one can discern that a song, Hail Mary, the beginning, was then written on it.
readings
[6] kantil: ‘k̄. til’ 721, ‘k̄i til’ 1032ˣ, ‘konung til’(?) 721FJ
notes
[6] kantil ‘song’: This reading is conjectural. The ON word for Lat. cantilena ‘song’ is kantilia, but kantil could be a colloquial form or shortened because of metrical requirements. Kantil ‘song’ mirrors saung ‘song’ (l. 3), and could have been used because it introduced the Lat. Áve Máría ‘Hail Mary’ (l. 7). Ms. 721 has ‘k̄. til’, a possible abbreviation for konung (m. acc. sg.) ‘king’ plus til (prep. or adv.) ‘to’, which makes no sense in the present context. Konung ‘king’ is otherwise not abbreviated as ‘k̄’ in 721. 1032ˣ has ‘k̄i’ i.e. konungi (m. dat. sg.) ‘king’. Sperber and Kock (NN §1704) resolve the abbreviation as kom (3rd pers. sg. pret. ind.) ‘came’, which is also an unprecedented abbreviation in 721. It looks as though the scribe failed to understand what he was copying.