Gamlkan Has 53VII/7 — glaðr ‘the glad’
Slík styrkja mik merki,
minn guð, … þinna,
þótt atferðin yrði
ór herfilig stórum,
leiptra hróts at láta
láðvaldr muni aldri
glaðr, ef glœpa iðrumk,
glóða mik fyr róða.
Slík merki þinna … styrkja mik, minn guð, þótt ór atferðin yrði stórum herfilig, at glaðr láðvaldr glóða hróts leiptra muni aldri láta mik fyr róða, ef iðrumk glœpa.
Such tokens of your … strengthen me, my God, even though our [my] behaviour were to become very shameful, that the glad ruler of the land of the fires of the roof of lightnings [(lit. ‘land-ruler of the fires of the roof of lightnings’) SKY/HEAVEN > HEAVENLY BODIES > SKY/HEAVEN > = God] will never cast me to the winds, if I repent of my sins.
readings
[7] glaðr: ‘[...]dr’ B, ‘g̣ḷạðr’ 399a‑bˣ, ‘[...]dr’ BRydberg, ‘(gla)dr’(?) BFJ
notes
[7] glaðr ‘glad’: The beginning of this word is lost, though the two final letters are quite clear. The alliteration requires initial <g>. Previous eds have tended to agree that glaðr is the most acceptable reconstruction. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) construes this as part of the conditional cl. ef iðrumk glaðr glœpa ‘if I repent of my sins gladly’. Jón Helgason (1935-6, 260) objects that ‘it hardly accords with the sincerity of the penitent soul that the sinner should be glad’. He suggests that greiðr ‘willing’ would be a more appropriate adj. here. Kock (NN §2934) is not altogether convinced by this suggestion, but accepts that, if glaðr is understood to refer to the speaker-sinner, it strikes a wrong note. As Black (1971, 272) points out, there is some appropriateness in the suggestion that sinners should repent cheerfully, in the expectation of mercy. Kock suggests that glaðr be retained, but that it be construed as part of the main cl., rather than the conditional one. In this, he is anticipated by Sveinbjörn Egilsson’s prose arrangement in 444ˣ, which is adopted here.
kennings
- glaðr láðvaldr glóða hróts leiptra — the glad ruler of the land of the fires of the roof of lightnings [= God]