Note to GunnLeif Merl I 55^VIII

[9-10]: The syntax and meaning here are not entirely certain. Both treystask and telja can be finite (3rd pers. pl. pres. indic.) or inf. Adopted in this edn is the interpretation by Bret 1848-9, which treats treystask as the finite verb and telja as the inf. (treystask telja at móti þeim), translating faae kun ville vove mod dem at före Ordet ‘only a few will venture to bring the word against them’. For telja in this sense see CVC: telja III; Fritzner: telja 3. Finnur Jónsson wavers in his interpretation: Skj B translates det vil være få som vover at imødegå dem ‘there will be few that venture to oppose them’ (cf. Merl 2012), leaving the meaning of telja unclear, whereas LP: telja 4 gives telja treystask at móti as som siger at de trøster sig til modstand ‘who say that they have confidence to resist [them]’ and LP: treysta 3 has treystask telja móti e-m (the latter in agreement with Bret 1848-9). Gunnlaugr seems not to reproduce DGB with his customary closeness in this passage but Geoffrey’s mention of severed tongues might have prompted this evocation of fears of outspokenness.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
4. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
5. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
6. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
7. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.