The Jilted Fiancée: the old Icelandic Miracle Poem Vitnisvísur af Maríu and its Modern English Translation

The Jilted Fiancee: the old Icelandic Miracle Poem Vitnisvisur af Mariu and its Modern English Translation Kellinde Wrightson Like m a n y medieval stories documenting the miracles of the Virgin Mary, the Old Icelandic Vitnisvisur af Mariu1 presents an entertaining, and at the same time didactic, tale which must have served both to please its listeners and to instruct them on the virtues of venerating the mother of God. The account of a young woman's efforts to get back her m a n , w h o has left her for a better match,2 was perhaps just as engaging for medieval audiences as it is still for those in the twentieth century accustomed to similar scenarios in, for instance, popular literature and television soap-operas.3 In the Middle Ages such a story could have been as interesting as, say, the popular legend k n o w n as 1 For editions of Vitnisvisur af Mariu see Islandische geistliche Dichtun ausgehenden Mittelalters, ed. by Bernhard Kahle, (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1898); Sechs islandische Gedichte legendarischen Inhalts, ed. by Hans Spe (Uppsala: Akademische Buchdruckerei, 1911); Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning, Vols. 1A-2A (tekst efter handskrifterne), 1B-2B (rettet tekst), ed. by Finnur Jonsson, (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1908-15); and Den norsk-islandska skaldediktningen, ed. by Ernst. A. Kock, 2 vols., (Lund Gleerup, 1923-44). All quotations, which are from Finnur Jonsson's edition, are accompanied by stanza and line numbers, unless the reference is to a whole stanza in which case only the stanza number is provided. 2 For the full story, see the translation below. P A R E R G O N ns 15.1 (luly 1997) 120 Kellinde Wrightson there appears to be no conclusive evidence for a more precise date. Its provenance is undoubtedly Iceland, but again it is difficult to be more precise in locating exactly where in that country it was composed. Similarly there are virtually no clues regarding the identity of the poet (see footnote 21 below). The p o e m is preserved in two vellum manuscripts containing compilations of religious verse held at Stofnun Arna Magnussonar, Reykjavik. They are A M 7 2 1 4to (dated to the beginning of the sixteenth century) and A M 7 1 3 4to (dated to the o middle of the same century), hi addition, Vitnisvisur afMariu is found in an eighteenth-century paper manuscript, A M 7 1 1 a 4to, also held at Stofnun Arna Magnussonar. The scribe of this paper manuscript probably copied the p o e m from A M 7 1 3 4to (rather than A M 7 2 1 4to) since these two versions agree almost completely. hi the present century, the Danish scholar Ole Widding examined Vitnisvisur af Mariu as part of a project, which is yet to be pubtished, on the Icelandic miracles of the Virgin and labelled the story presented in it Utro Elsker, or 'Unfaithful Lover' (see footnote 5). Widding's title focuses on the fiance and his infidelity, however, which, in terms of gender, is a shift away from the narrative's central concern. It can be argued that this story is essentiaUy female-oriented. It focuses not only on the main female character, the fiancee, but also on its other female characters. The narrative itself is told from a woman's perspective, it deals with matters relating particularly to w o m e n , and it is possible that it was especially appealing to medieval w o m e n . The story, then, can alternatively be caUed 'Jilted Fiancee' since it is mostly about the woman's ordeal as a jilted fiancee, rather than about her partner's unfaithfulness, and since such a title reflects the narrative focus. 7 Most scholars place the date of composition or adaptation at around 1 (see, for instance, Jon Torkelsson, Om digtningen pi Island i dei 15. og drhundrede, (Copenhagen: Fred. Host & Sons, 1888) 41; Kahle, Islandisch geistliche Dichtungen, 3; and Finnur Jonsson, Den oldnorske og oldisla litteraturs historie, vol. 3,16). 8 See further KSlund, P. E. K., Katalog over den Arnamagnxanske hdndskriftsamling. (2 vols., Copenhagen: Glydendalske Boghandel, 188894 ). Note, however, that AM713 4to also contains four poems...