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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to stanza

7. Anonymous Poems, Máríudrápa, 17 [Vol. 7, 492-4]

[3-4]: These ll. are difficult and the ms. readings uncertain in several places. However, they should correspond to the 2nd l. of the Lat. hymn, verbum verbo concepisti ‘you conceived the word from the word’. This can be achieved with a small number of emendations, viz., orð (l. 3) and orð again (l. 4), while accepting 399a-bˣ’s readings orði (l. 3) and forðum (l. 4). B’s ‘barth’ (l. 4) is understood as the 2nd pers. sg. pret. of bera ‘to bear’. Finnur Jónsson offers no interpretation of ll. 3-4, and reproduces only those words which are clearly legible in B. Kock (Skald) conjectures dýr gazt oss af ærnu | óð guðs ok bæn fróða ‘glorious, you have provided us amply with song and wise prayer to God’, which makes sense, but bears little relation to what of the text is preserved. It is clear from sts 19 and 20, which are concerned with the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and the Coronation of the Virgin, that st. 17 is the first part of an evocation of the five joys of Mary. This st. should therefore deal with the Annunciation and the Nativity.


