Anon Lil 11VII/7 — kunnandi ‘knowing’
Breytti guð og brá til hætti
blóð og hold af vatni og moldu,
liettan blástr af lofti næsta,
lífs heitleika af sólar reitum,
önd og þar til síðan sendi;
sú er skiljandi drottins vilja;
leið kunnandi um líkams æðar,
líf skínanda af helgum anda.
Guð breytti og brá hætti til, blóð og hold af vatni og moldu, liettan blástr af lofti næsta, heitleika lífs af reitum sólar, og sendi síðan þar til önd; sú er skiljandi vilja drottins, kunnandi leið um æðar líkams, skínanda líf af helgum anda.
God transformed and changed his behaviour, blood and flesh from water and soil, the light breath from the nearest air, the warmth [lit. warmths] of life from the paths of the sun [SKY/HEAVEN], and then he sent a soul there; it is discerning the Lord’s will, knowing the path through the body’s blood vessels, the shining life from the Holy Spirit.
notes
[7]: As its actuating substantial form, the soul pervades and suffuses the body. Cf. Stjórn (Unger 1862, 20): sua sem gud er hueruetna allr medr sinn almatt i hinum meira heima. sua er aundin in sinum minna heimi þat er i ollum likamsins limum medr huerium sem einum ueralldligum manni ‘just as God with his omnipotence is everywhere in the macrocosmos, so is the soul in its microcosmos, that is, in all the limbs of the body of each and every earthly man’. Blood, as the life principle of the body, has traditionally been associated with the soul. Cf. Lev. XVII.11: quia anima carnis in sanguine est et ego dedi illum vobis ut super altare in eo expietis pro animabus vestris et sanguis pro animae piaculo sit ‘Because the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you, that you may make atonement with it upon the altar for your souls, and the blood may be for an expiation of the soul’ and Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica (col. 1071) on Gen. II: sedes animae est in sanguine ‘the seat of the soul is in the blood’.