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| − | | {{Comment|'''Nec manes ridere videns:''' This is a puzzling phrase. Is it possible that “manes” is metonymically used for “death” and is here used with “ridere” to personify death? This would seem likely, because of the similar phrase in Hagan’s speech in 849-850: “Aspice mortem, / Qualiter arridet!” (“Look at Death, / How it is grinning!”) | + | | {{Comment|'''Nec manes ridere videns:''' This is a puzzling phrase. Is it possible that “manes” is metonymically used for “death” and is here used with “ridere” to personify death? This would seem likely, because of the similar phrase in Hagan’s speech in 849-850: “Aspice mortem, / Qualiter arridet!” (“Look at Death, / How it is grinning!”) Althof (1905, ad loc.) compares this passage to “Dominus Blitero” in the Ysengrimus / Reinardus Vulpes (5.1100): “Hanc tibi dono gigam, pagana est utpote porrum / Osseaque ut dominus Blitero, sume, vide!” (“I give you this fiddle, as common as a leek / and as bony as lord Blitero – see, take it!”). According to J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, Göttingen: Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, 1844, vol. 2, pp. 849-850, the name “Blitero” could be etymologically related either to the German word for “pale” (“bleich”) or “grinning” (“bleckend”), but is, in any case, a representation of Death as a skeleton. J. Mann, however, explains the remark as referring to a canon of Bruges, presumably of “rather skeletal appearance.” See Ysengrimus, ed. J. Mann, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1987, ad loc. and note. If this is true, the relation between a “laughing/mocking Death” on the one hand and the reference to a “bony/skeletal person” on the other hand becomes rather tenuous. Moreover, even if, as J. Grimm asseverates, “dominus Blitero” is a personification of death, and even if, as Althof claims, the “laughing Death” of the Waltharius somehow uses the same imagery, it should be noted that in medieval iconography the personification of death as a skeletal figure does not occur until the thirteenth century – for which see L.E. Jordan, The iconography of death in western medieval art to 1350. Dissertation, Notre Dame University, Indiana, 1980, p. 97. |
It is also possible that “ridere” is here used in a different sense. “ridere” can be used with gods or personifications to mean “smile favorably,” as in Ovid, Tristia 1.5.27: “dum iuvat et vultu ridet Fortuna sereno” (“while Fortune aids and smiles with a peaceful countenance”) or Silius Italicus, Punica 5.227: “laeto Victoria vultu arridens” (“Victory, smiling with a cheerful expression”). “ridere” would then be used ironically in this context, meaning that when Death smiles upon you, it is anything but favorable. Cf. Statius, Thebaid 4.213: “grave Tisiphone risit gavisa futuris” (“Tisiphone smiled gravely, enjoying what was about to come”). The absence in the passages of the Waltharius of an adverbial accusative, however, rather strains the sense of “ridere,” if it is indeed to be taken in this way. | It is also possible that “ridere” is here used in a different sense. “ridere” can be used with gods or personifications to mean “smile favorably,” as in Ovid, Tristia 1.5.27: “dum iuvat et vultu ridet Fortuna sereno” (“while Fortune aids and smiles with a peaceful countenance”) or Silius Italicus, Punica 5.227: “laeto Victoria vultu arridens” (“Victory, smiling with a cheerful expression”). “ridere” would then be used ironically in this context, meaning that when Death smiles upon you, it is anything but favorable. Cf. Statius, Thebaid 4.213: “grave Tisiphone risit gavisa futuris” (“Tisiphone smiled gravely, enjoying what was about to come”). The absence in the passages of the Waltharius of an adverbial accusative, however, rather strains the sense of “ridere,” if it is indeed to be taken in this way. | ||
