Anon Lil 58VII/5 — fellr ‘grows slack’
Syni Máríu svartir færa
seggir blandið gall með dreggjum;
fulla smán og flestar pínur
fundu þeir, en heimrinn stundi.
Fölnar skinn en fellr að enni;
fættuz orð en þurru mættir;
öndin leið af Jésúm píndum,
yfirvaldanda himins og landa.
Svartir seggir færa syni Máríu gall blandið með dreggjum; þeir fundu fulla smán og flestar pínur, en heimrinn stundi. Skinn fölnar en fellr að enni; orð fættuz en mættir þurru; öndin leið af píndum Jésúm, yfirvaldanda himins og landa.
Black men bring the son of Mary gall mixed with dregs; they worked utter debasement and very many torments, and the world groaned. The skin pales and grows slack at the forehead; his words became fewer and his powers diminished; the soul departed from the tortured Jesus, supreme ruler of heaven and lands [= God (= Christ)].
notes
[4] fellr að enni ‘grows slack at the forehead’: The idiom falla að is used of water or moisture, but it requires a subject. If an impersonal use of the verb were possible (none is attested), the image here could be of moisture (blood or sweat) falling from Christ’s forehead. JH suggests ‘the skin grows slack at the forehead’ (slappes over panden). It is somewhat difficult to imagine the skin of the forehead slackening, but cf. Julian of Norwich, A Book of Showings (Colledge and Walsh 1978, II, 362). Other translators propose ‘became wrinkled or contracted’, i.e. ‘fell’ in wrinkles (Finnur Jónsson 1772-8, II, 427; Baumgartner 1884, 58; Skj B; Paasche 1915, 75). Meissner (1922, 22) translates Die Stirn verfällt ‘the forehead slackens’.