Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 14 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 14)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 147.
‘Hjǫrtr drepr hana, hinns tvenna fimm
hvassa hausi hornkvistu berr.
En hafa kórónu kvistir fjórir,
en sex aðrir sjalfir verða
at vísundar verstum hornum.
‘Hjǫrtr drepr hana, hinns berr tvenna fimm hvassa hornkvistu hausi. En fjórir kvistir hafa kórónu, en sex aðrir verða sjalfir at verstum hornum vísundar.
‘A hart will slay her, he who bears twice five sharp antler-branches on his head. And four branches will have a crown while the other six for their part will turn into the worst horns of a bison.
Mss: Hb(49v) (Bret)
Readings: [1] Hjǫrtr: ‘hrottr’ Hb [3] hvassa: ‘kræsa’ or ‘hræsa’ Hb [4] ‑kvistu: ‘‑kvstu’ Hb
Editions: Skj AII, 12-13, Skj BII, 13, Skald II, 8, NN §§96, 2992A, 3004; Bret 1848-9, II, 19 (Bret st. 14); Hb 1892-6, 273; Merl 2012, 79-80.
Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 153.162-4; cf. Wright 1988, 108, prophecy 34): Interficiet eam ceruus decem ramorum, quorum quatuor aurea diademata gestabunt, sex uero residui in cornua bubalorum uertentur ‘She will be killed by a stag with ten branches, four of which will wear golden crowns, while the remaining six will become the horns of buffaloes’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 152). — [1] hjǫrtr ‘a hart’: Emended from ms. ‘hrottr’ (refreshed) in Bret 1848-9 (followed by Skj B), with reference to DGB. — [3] hvassa ‘sharp’: Emended in this edn from the refreshed and uncertain ms. reading ‘kræsa’ or ‘hræsa’. This adj. yields good sense and is rather a favourite with Gunnlaugr. Use of hausi without a prep. would be consistent with Gunnlaugr’s use of the bare dat./instr.: see Note to I 47/3-4. Bret 1848-9 and Skj B emend to hræs á ‘of a corpse on’ (cf. LP: hræ), but this makes little sense in context. Kock (NN §96; Skald; cf. NN §2992A and §3004, followed by Merl 2012) posits an adj. *hrœrr ‘quick’, qualifying hjǫrtr, inferred from West Germanic (putatively cognate with ModGer. rühren ‘move’), but this, even if sustainable philologically, would give inferior sense. — [4] hornkvistu ‘antler-branches’: Cf. Kock (NN §96), correcting Skj B’s horngrene ‘horn-branches’ (cf. LP: hornkvistr). — [4] -kvistu ‘-branches’: The emendation was first suggested by Bret 1848-9 and adopted by subsequent eds. — [5] en ‘and’: Omitted in Bret 1848-9, Skj B and Skald, presumably because en occurs again at the head of l. 7. Merl 2012 prints the second en as enn (properly ‘again, once more’) but translates aber ‘but’, without comment. — [7]: The quantity of the <i> in vísundr appears to have been variable. In its present metrical position it is required to be long, although Skj B and Skald give this example as short. The vowel is short in Sigv ErfÓl 3/8I and Arn Magndr 6/4II. LP, AEW: visundr both give the vowel as short, perhaps in view of the word’s West Germanic cognates, while ONP and most other dictionaries of medieval and modern Icelandic have it as long. — [10] verstum ‘worst’: This adj. is introduced by Gunnlaugr and is perhaps mostly determined by metrical and alliterative requirements, since the horns of European bison are not specially long, though certainly sharp and capable of use as weapons (Stöcker and Dietrich 1996, 182).
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.