Christi pína, the oldest* Swedish poem

Discussion, Old Swedish normalization and English translation

Abbreviations: ON — Old Norse, OSwe — Old Swedish

Note: the OSwe normalization used in this article is my own; its foremost goal is to represent consonants and vowels shared with ON (i.e. Old Norwegian-Icelandic) with the same letters as those used in ON normalization.

Oldest?

Before presenting the poem itself, I must explain the asterix in the title. While Christi pína is the oldest continuous poem preserved in a Swedish manuscript, it is preceded by earlier attested works. These may be divided into two categories, namely poetry written with runes, and poetry in the provincial laws (Swedish landskapslagar). I will present two examples from the former, and one from the latter.

Runic poetry

To my knowledge, the oldest preserved poetry from the area that made up medieval Sweden¹ is found on the Noleby stone (Vg 63), from Fyrunga parish, West Geatland. It consists of what looks like a half-stanza in a meter ancestral to later galdralag, but the two supposed c-verses are partly damaged and very difficult to translate; as the focus of this post is not on this inscription, I have left them untranslated.

Rūnō fāhi · raginakundō tōjē’ka
unaþou suhurah susi
h--a-tin hakuþo

‘A rune I paint/a fitting rune,² one born of the Powers I make. unaþou suhurah susi; hwaitin hakuþo’

Difficulties of interpretation aside, the alliterative poetic quality is doubtless. The formula rūnu raginakundu ‘rune born of the Powers’ (-u being the nom.fem.sg. ending whereas -ō is acc.fem.sg.) is also found in the self-standing stray stanza 80 of the roughly C9th Speeches of the High One (ON Hávamǫ́l):

Þat es þá ręynt, · es þú at rúnum spyrr · hinum ręginkunnum,
þęim’s gęrðu ginnręgin
ok fáði fimbulþulr.
þá hęfr hann bazt, ef hann þęgir.

Then it is proven, that of which thou inquirest the runes, the ones born of the Powers, those which the sacred Powers made, and the Fimblethyle ⟨= Weden⟩ painted. (Then he has it best, if he shuts up.)

This oldest alliterative verse then also attests the divine (Heathen) origin of the runes. If we move forward a few centuries, we have the famous “Theoderic stanza” on the C9th Rök stone (Ög 136) from East Geatland (the whole inscription is far longer, and so difficult that numerous studies could—as they have—be written about it). This stanza is in common Germanic alliterative meter or fornyrðislag, and strikingly similar to heroic Eddic poetry preserved on Iceland both in vocabulary and style. It would not stand out in a legendary saw or an Eddic poem—if it did, it were only for its beauty and elegance.

Ręið Þiaurikʀ · hinn þormóði
stilliʀ flotna · strǫndu Hręiðmaraʀ;
sitiʀ nú garvʀ · ȧ gota sínum
skealdi of fatlaðʀ · skati mę́ringa.

‘Rode Thedric the daring-minded steerer of seafarers on the shore of the Rethmere. He sits now ready on his steed, strapped with shield, the prince of Meerings.’

As the goal with these examples is only to provide historical context, I leave the interpretation of this stanza for another time.

Legal poetry

The two stanzas above are by no means the only ones preserved in runes (indeed there are surprisingly many from Viking age Sweden). If we go into the medieval period, we have our second category of poetry, namely verses preserved in the provincial laws. These are often surrounded and interwoven into prose, but they reveal the oral origin of the laws. Whether they should be called poetry is questionable, but since they follow traditional alliterative metrical style I designate them as such. I will only give one example, from the Elder Law of the West Geats (Äldre västgötalagen, FB 7:1), regarding the hunting of wild animals:

Þęn á harę er hęndir
þęn á ręf er rêsir.
þęn á varg er vindr
þęn á bjorn er bêtir
þęn á ęlg er fęllir.³
þęn á otr er ór á takr.

‘He owns the hare who catches it; he owns the fox who raises it (out of its hole); he owns the wolf who defeats it; he owns the bear who chases it; he owns the elk who fells it; he owns the otter who takes it out of the river.’

For further examples from the laws, see Erik Henrik Lind (1881), Om rim och verslemningar i de svenska landskapslagarne.

Notes on the poem

Having dealt with its predecessors, I will now shortly discuss the work at hand. Christi pína ‘Christ’s Torment’ is found in the C14th Codex Bureanus (signum A 34 in the Swedish Royal Library⁴), but it is likely older. The edition I use as a base text is that of Gustaf Klemming (1882), Svenska medeltids dikter och rim, pp. 3–6. I accept all of his transparent and easily understandable emendations apart from that of line 91 (where he changes ms. þa to þu), and further make a few more. These are marked with italics.⁵

The orthography of the manuscript is not very unusual, apart from the consistent representation of syllabic -r as -ar; the usual OSwe. representation of this sound is -ær, in some manuscripts even -r (like in standard ON). I have here represented it as -r, but it was certainly syllabic, this is needed by the meter in a few places. Many lines begin with the symbol ¶ and end with a colon : , I have removed these markers. In lines 12–13, 74–77 periods or colons mark a cæsura (see below). Stanzas are generally not marked (stanza 3 or ll. 8–11 is), but they are certainly present.

The language is archaic by OSwe. standards, having good observance of the classical case system. Klemming (p. 519) dates the poem to the late C13th, and this seems reasonable. A good proof of the grammatical decay is seen in line 68: the ms. uses the nominative form iorðen all (norm.), but we are forced by the meter to emend this to the old accusative form iorðena alla, as the final word must rhyme with galla. This example illustrates that the decay had progressed further by the time the manuscript was written than when the poem itself was composed.

The poem itself consists of 99 lines, coming in couplets conneced by end-rhyme. It is preceded by a short prose passage, which seems to have originally been part of the poem itself, having later been interpolated with spurious text.⁶ It cannot be incorporated into the poem without excessive emendation.

The meter shows a close kinship with traditional Nordic fornyrðislag (a variant of the common Germanic meter) as attested in manuscripts in the West Nordic sphere meter and in Runic inscriptions in the East (as discussed above). This kinship is seen by the following inherited traits present in the poem:

• The splitting of each line into two halves by a cæsura (here marked with an interpunct · ). The cæsura is not just metrically apparent, but also written out in a few lines; see above.

• The length of the half-lines, which generally contain four positions and may still be scansed according to Siever’s line types.

• The frequent, but not regular, observance of alliteration. It is best in lines 6–7, where the third and fourth lines perfectly follow the common Germanic structure, with the first strongly stressed position (6 þína, 7 hięrta) in the second half-line alliterating with one (7 hug) or both (6 þęnkia, þakkom) stressed positions in the first half-line.

And yet the untrained eye would likely miss these fine details. The most apparent part of the meter is a trait which will lead to a break with the old Nordic metrical tradition: end-rhyme. While end-rhyme did occur as early as the 10th century in runhent meter in the West, and eventually came to be neccessary in the later meters of the rímur and medieval ballads, alliteration was still the defining token of meter and poetry. It is likened by the Icelandic scholar Anlaf ‘white Scold’ Thurfrithson (Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson) in his Third Grammatical Treatise (§15.17) to the “nails [which] hold a ship together”, without which “each disjointed plank would spring from the other”⁷—end-rhyme is given no such honour.

In the present poem, on the other hand, the situation is reversed. Alliteration is certainly more common here than in younger Swedish poetry, but it is by no means systematic or metrically needful. It is unlikely that the first generation of poets to introduce end rhyme would treat the millenia-old alliterative tradition in such a cruel way, and we may thus assume that they originally co-existed, as is indeed still the case in much Icelandic poetry. After a few generations under continental and especially German influence, however, the poets gradually dropped the alliteration completely (as the Germans themselves had done a few centuries prior), leading to the dominance of the medieval, originally German, end-rhymed Knittel verse. The poet finds himself in the middle of this change, but it is not quite completed in his time. It may be that he was three or four generations removed from the introduction of end rhyme?

Regarding the content of the poem, it is thoroughly Catholic and medieval, dealing with the crucifixion of Christ at the hands of the Jews. It is not particulary interesting or unique on its own, and were the poem a typical prose text I should probably not be writing about it. Yet it is not, for it is the oldest Swedish manuscript poem, and should, with its still carrying native stylistic elements, be of some interest for a study of the reception and adaptation of continental Catholicism by the medieval poets of a barbarian people on the fringes of Europe. (I might also add that it is of surprisingly high quality by the low standards of OSwe. manuscript poetry.⁸)

Lastly, the translation aims to be literal while not obscuring the sense. To make it easier to follow the original text the translation runs after each stanza, rather than coming in a block at the end. When I have needed to insert words for the English to be understandable, I have placed these within square brackets [ ].

Normalized text with translation

Adamas er ênn stênn svá harðr, hann gitr ęngenn brutit útan með bukka blóð ok með angom androm slagum:
(1) adamas er · míns hięrta móð
í guz þięnist · hart ok þørt
iak gitr þęt eig · vekt ęlla styrt

‘Adamas is a stone so hard, that no man may break it, save for with the blood of bucks—and with no other things. (1) Adamas is the strength of my heart, in the service of God hard and dry; I cannot it soften or ply.’

(4) ihesu guz sonn · ihesu góðe
blø̂t mitt hięrta · með þíno blóðe
at þęnkia með þakkom · þína píno
af allom hug · ok hięrta míno

‘Jesus, God’s son, Jesus the good; soften my heart with thy blood, [that I be able] to contemplate with thanks thy suffering, with all [my] mind and with my heart.’

(8) Símon sagðe · tel maríam
þęssa samu · profecíam:
»þitt líf som hans sverð · skal ginum ganga»
þęt sannaðes hęnne · frédagenn langa.

‘Simon told Mary this same prophecy: “Thy womb which his sword shall pierce through⁹”, that was proven to her on Long Friday.¹⁰’

(12) ihesu góðe · meðan þín pína
var mín skuld · for ęnga þína
gif at þinna · píno-sára sverð
þín blá síða · ok blóðog hęrð

‘Good Jesus, while thy torment was my fault—in no way thine—give that the sword of the wounds of thy torment, thy blue-black ribs and bloody black,’

(16) naglar ginum · hęndr ok fǿtr
gróe ginum · mína hiarta rǿtr
Svá gár annars · mên hanom nę́r
som hann er hanom · liuvr ok kę́r

‘the nails through hands and feet, may grow through the roots of my heart—thus another man’s injury goes Him near, as He is to him beloved and dear.’

(20) Guð biuðr oss hava hann · ivi alt mę́ran
ivi faðor ok móðor · liuvan ok kę́ran
Váre þęt aldre buðit · ví skuldom þó hváro
hava hann kę́rare · líve váro

‘God asks us to hold him above all renown, above father and mother, beloved and dear; were that never commanded, we must yet still hold him dearer than our life.’

(24) handen takr · gen hovoð-sáre
svá som þęt hęnna · êget váre
Gør hęnde mên · þęt hovoðet liutr
þý at handenna líf · af hofðeno flytr

‘The hand fights against the head’s wound like were it its own; if the hand causes injury it hurts the head, for the hand’s life flows from the head.’

(28) ví havum líf · af várom hęrra
hans líf ęn várt · skal oss vara kę́rra.
Við móðor dø̂ð · gat iak fast grátet
sukkat ok syrkt · ok illa látet—

‘We have life from our Lord; his life shall be for us dearer than ours. Upon my mother’s death I did fastly weep, moan and sob and sound ill—’

(32) Mêr skulde iak þínom · dø̂ð varkunna
ęn iak hafðe eig · dygð for þunna
Mindre var minna · móðor mǿða
þá hon skulde mik · tel dø̂zens fǿða

‘More would I grieve for thy death, if I did not have too weak virtue. Lesser was my mother’s labour, when she unto death must birth me,’

(36) ęn þíns hęlga · líkama nø̂ð
þá þú kø̂pte mik líf · með þínom dø̂ð
helso ok líf · som aldre fá ęnda
slíkt mátte guð líkan · ęlskoga tęnda

‘than thy holy body’s need, when thou boughtst me life with thy death; health and life which never may end, suchwise was God able to kindle a just lover [= me].’

(40) þú est blómstr · hvít ok rø̂ð
þú liktr liust · ok riukr sǿtt
hvít ok rø̂ð · for útan last
Rø̂ð for þý · þú blø̂ðe fast

‘Thou art a flower, white and red; thou shinest brightly, and scentest sweetly. White and red without vice; red because thou firmly bledst.’

(44) Minn hęrra þín pína · er sênt tald
hóro sár hon var · ok mang-fald
Minn hęrra þín pína · er miok lang
aldr þinn aldr · var mǿða ok þrang

‘My Lord, thy torment is lately told, how sore it was, and how manifold. My Lord, thy pain is very long; all thy lifetime was labour and strife.’

(48) þú fø̂ddes førsta · á gatum úte
svêptr ok vafðr · í fatøkom klúte
himi-ríkiz fryg · ok ęngla glęði
þú grést ný-komenn · í vár klę́ðe

‘Thou wast first born on the streets outside, swaddled and wrapped in poor rags. Over the love of heaven and joy of angels thou weptst, newly arrived in our [human/earthly?] clothes.’

(52) þagar ny-fǿddr · áttunda dag
þolde þú sak-lø̂ss · moysi lag
þolde sár · ok sára vęrk
burte giva blóð · firi vár verk

‘Shortly newborn on the eigth day, thou sufferedst guiltless Moses’ Law [circumcision]; suffered wounds, and the aches of wounds; had to give blood for [the sake of] our deeds.’

(56) dag-leka síðan · þú fǿddes først
þolde hungr · ok mykenn þørst
dag-leka vast þú · í lífsens váða
firi þęt męst nutum ví · þína náðe

‘Daily since thou first wast born, thou sufferedst hunger and great thirst. Daily wast thou in the peril of life; for that we benefit most from thy grace.’

(60) firi þom þú frę́lste · af þrę́l-dóm
som farao kunung · þøm í kom
firi þøm þú lêdde · ivi þørt haf
ok sęnkte farao · kunung í kvaf

‘For those thou freedst from slavery, which king Pharaoh [had] brought them into; for those thou ledst over dry sea, and madest king Pharaoh sink to the deep.’

(64) firi þøm þú fǿdde · við himna brø̂ð
fiyri-tigi ár · þá iorðen var snø̂ð
firi þøm þú valde · þik tel folk
ok gaf þøm land · með hunag ok miolk

‘For those thou fedst with the bread of the heavens for fourty years, when the earth was stripped; for those thou chosest as thy folk, and gave them land with honey and milk.’

(68) vęldr ok flytr · iorðena alla
þê skękkto þik þęr-firi · ętikio ok galla
þê þú kęnde · góð siði ok ráð
þe giorðo męst af þik · spott ok háð

‘[Thou] wieldest and movest all the earth; in return they poured for thee vinegar and bile. Those which thou taught good custom and counsel, they made of thee great scoffing and sport.¹¹’

(72) þe góvo þik fúl · ok smę́-lêk orð
firi mangt gótt · iar-tigne giort
þe sagðo þik vara galinn · ok dięvuls mann
ivi alt þitt følge · lýsto þê bann

‘They gave thee ugly and wicked words for many a good miracle worked; they said thee to be mad, and a devil’s man; over all thy followers they issued a ban.’

(76) ę́ þá þú giorðe · aldra bęst
þe talaðo um þik · aldra vęrst
þe sagðo þik brýta · moysi lag
þá þú bǿte siukom · um hęlgan dag

‘Ever when thou didst best of all, they spoke of thee worst of all: they said that thou broke Moses’ Law, when thou curedst the sick on a holy day.’

(80) Svá var iúðenn · galinn ok vildr
þê vitu þik at þú · vast syndogom mildr
at þú for-gaf þøm · synda brut
ok vrakt ú folke · dięvulinn út

‘So was the Jew mad and wild; they blamed thee, that thou wast toward sinners mild; that thou forgavest them for sinful crimes, and drovest the devil out from the folk.’

(84) Slíkt var þín skuld · ok ęngen annur
for slík þolde þú · snymbo ok bannor
þê callaðo þik vara · timbre-manz son
sę́l sé þín móðer · mø̂ er hon

‘Such was thy guilt, and none other; for such thou sufferedst chiding and bans. They claimed that thou wert carpenter’s son—blessed be thy mother, a maiden is she.’

(88) êna-lund sannas · iúðans lygð
all vęruld er · af þínom fęðr bygd
Þęt var ęig minst · í þína þranga
þá sátt þína · móðor ganga

‘In one way is made true the Jew’s lie; all the world is by thy father built.—This was not the least of thy strifes, when thou sawest thy mother walking’

(92) váðe-leka · þunga ok langa
þá Heródes · vilde þik fanga
fǿrðe þik lítenn · męllan landa
ok hafðe mø̂-barnet · mangen vanda

‘painfully, pregnant and for long, when Herodes would catch thee. She brought thee, small, between the lands, and the maiden-child many a struggle had;’

(96) báðe dag ok nátt · um þitt líf rę́dd
mǿð ok hungrog · ok þunn-lika klę́dd
Svá lítenn þú vast · þú viste þęt vęl
(99) þú hafðe í móðor · líve full skęl.

‘both day and night fearing for thy life, tired and hungry and thinly clad. As small as thou wast, thou didst feel it well: thou hadst full reason in thy mother’s womb.’

1. Modern Sweden, parts of modern Finland, excluding Scania, Emtland, Harrierdale and Lapland.

2. The word fahi may be read either (1) as ‘(I) paint/carve’, ancestral to the ON verb fáa, and found in the past tense in Elder Futhark inscriptions as Einang (N KJ63) faihido faihidō ‘I painted’, Rö (Bo KJ73) fahido fāhidō ‘id.’, or (2, championed by Elmer Antonsen) as fāhī ‘fitting’.

In the former case, the verb tōje (1.sg.pres.ind. of the same verb as Gallehus (DR 12) tawido tawidō ‘I made’, ON tǿja, týja, tjá ‘to help, support, serve; reveal, bring’) may instead modify unaþou, perhaps deriving from the same root as ON unna ‘C-V: to grant, allow, bestow; to love’. More appealing is it to interpret that word as the ancestor of ON unaðr ‘delight, happiness’, but the loss of w before etymological u took place after the linguistically younger Blekinge inscriptions (Stentoften, Gummarp, Istaby; DR 357–359), which all attest the word wolfʀ ‘wolf’ with the w intact (in given names, nonetheless!).

3. One notes that the alliteration is missing here. The likely explanation for this is that fęlla ‘to fell’ has replaced an earlier verb, most likely ęlta ‘to chase’, frequently used wrt. hunting in other old Nordic literature.

4. https://www.manuscripta.se/ms/100219

5. I do not mark the resolution of the abbreviation mꝫ or mz into með as such, nor orthographical changes such as 89 al to all or 96, 97 ræd, klæd to rę́dd, klę́dd.

6. The first line’s final word móð has a suitable partner in blóð in the prose, which also has alliteration—brutit útan með bukka blóð—as seen in the poem, especially the first lines.

7. Þessi fígúra er mjǫk hǫfð í málssnildar-list, er rethorica heitir, ok er hon upphaf til kveðandi þeirar, er saman heldr nórænum skáldskap svá sem naglar halda skipi saman, er smiðr gerir ok ferr sundrlaust ella borð frá borði, svá heldr ok þessi fígúra saman kveðandi í skáldskap með stǫfum þeim, er stuðlar heita ok hǫfuðstafir. ‘This figure (namely paranomeon; alliteration) is greatly used in the art of clever speech which is called rethorica, and it is the origin of the way of speech which holds together northern scoldship (skáldskapr; Scoldic poetry) like the nails made by a smith hold the ship together, and otherwise each disjointed plank would spring from the other.—In such way does this figure hold together the speech in poetry with those staves (stafar; alliterating words) which are called props (stuðlar, those coming before the cæsura) and head-staves (hǫfuðstafir, the word coming directly after the cæsura).

8. Consider Klemming (1882:519)’s comment at the end of his collection of OSwe. poetry: Denna samlings plan är att i ett band sammanföra alla de fåtaliga minnesmärkena af vår rimmade, jag vågar ej säga poetiska, literatur från medeltiden före reformationen, med undantag af de redan förut i Fornskrift-Sällskapets samlingar sjelfständigt utgifna dikterna: Ivan Lejonriddaren, Hertig Fredrik af Normandie, Flores och Blanzeflor, Rim-Krönikorna samt Konung Alexander. Dermed är hela förrådet uttömdt och gjordt lätt tillgängligt för forskaren. ‘The plan of this collection is to in one volume bring together all the scarce monuments to our rhyming, I dare not say poetic, literature from the Middle Ages before the Reformation, excepting the poems already published on their own in the collections of the Old Writing Society: Ivan the Lion-Knight, Duke Fredric of Normandy, Flores and Blanzeflor, the Rhyming Chronicles and King Alexander. Thereby the whole store is emptied, and made easily available for the researcher.’

For further reading on the poverty of medieval Swedish poetry, I recommend Quak Arend (1996), Cur Suecia non cantat (in Dutch), TijdSchrift voor Skandinavistiek vol 17, nr. 2.

9. som ‘which’ is probably a later addition here; it is bad for the meter and makes the line much worse. The passage is in any case referring to Luke 2:25–35, where Simon predicts the crucifixion of the unborn Jesus, and the piercing of Mary’s own soul by a sword.

10. The Scandinavian name for Good Friday, named so because of its somber nature.

11. spott ok háð ‘scoffing and sport’ is an expression that also occurs in the Icelandic literature.