Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 36 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 36)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 166.
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2. sjá (verb): see
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2. vé (noun n.; °; -): banner, standard
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vaða (verb): advance, wade
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1. verða (verb): become, be
[2] †mitt†: Scheving conjectured flýtt ‘speedily, hastily’ from ms. ‘mitt’ (refreshed) and this suggestion was adopted in Bret 1848-9 and Skj B. Hb 1892-6 notes, however, that flýtt cannot have been the original reading of Hb. Kock (NN §2163D; Skald) suggests, without reference to the ms., mœtt (spelt mætt in Skald), apparently in the sense ‘met’, and also notes an OE mittan ‘meet’. Merl 2012 follows in reading mætt, translated as angetroffen ‘encountered’. But this proposal leaves the syntax problematic: the nom. forms mættr and skaði would be expected.
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skaði (noun m.; °-a; -ar): harm, damage
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syngja (verb): sing
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2. sár (noun n.; °-s; -): wound
[3] klungr sára ‘the thorn of wounds [SWORD]’: Treated in Merl 2012 as an emendation but it is in fact the unrefreshed reading in Hb, first recognised by Bret 1848-9 and adopted by subsequent eds.
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klungr (noun m.; °klungrs, dat. klungri; klungrar): thorn, bramble
[3] klungr sára ‘the thorn of wounds [SWORD]’: Treated in Merl 2012 as an emendation but it is in fact the unrefreshed reading in Hb, first recognised by Bret 1848-9 and adopted by subsequent eds.
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snyrtidrengr (noun m.)
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2. en (conj.): but, and
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3. á (prep.): on, at
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leið (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -u/-; -ir/-ar): path, way
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fara (verb; ferr, fór, fóru, farinn): go, travel
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lægjarn (adj.): [malicious]
[6] lægjǫrn ‘treacherous’: De Vries (1964-7, II, 75 n. 179) compares Vsp 35/3.
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1. ari (noun m.; °-a; -ar): eagle
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jóð (noun n.): child, offspring
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
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ylgr (noun f.; °acc. -i): she-wolf
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2. enn (adv.): still, yet, again
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til (prep.): to
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sylgr (noun m.; °dat. -): drink, draught
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hrapa (verb): [tumble down, rush]
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hræfíkinn (adj./verb p.p.)
[9] hernumin ‘taken in battle’: Ms. hernumin (refreshed) ‘taken in battle’ raises the difficulty that ‘the children of the eagle and the wolf’ are otherwise presented in the stanza as benefiting from the battle (by drinking blood), not actively fighting in it or suffering as a result of it, activities that would hardly constitute an expected element in the ‘beasts-of-battle’ type scene widely used in skaldic poetry. In the absence of a Latin analogue at this point a secure emendation has not so far been suggested. Scheving proposed hræmunin, explained as ‘eager for corpses’ (reported but not adopted in Bret 1848-9). Skj B emends to hræfíkin ‘corpse-greedy’, which is suitable in terms of both metre and sense. Kock suggests hrapa á hræ numin, translated as störta sig över de gripna liken ‘collapse over the captured bodies’ (NN §2163E; Skald; followed by Merl 2012), but this fails for metrical reasons.
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barn (noun n.; °-s; bǫrn/barn(JKr 345³), dat. bǫrnum/barnum): child
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
See II 31 Note to [All]. Note the end-rhymes (ll. 1-2, 5-8) in this stanza, possibly imitated from such poems as Egill HflV(Eg). As elsewhere in his battle descriptions, Gunnlaugr reaches for special stylistic devices associated with traditional skaldic poetry.
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