GunnLeif Merl I 54VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 122 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 54)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 91.
Þá ‘Then’
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2. þá (adv.): then
munu ‘will’
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munu (verb): will, must
gumnar ‘men’
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gumi (noun m.; °-a; gumar/gumnar): man
gráta ‘weep’
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2. gráta (verb): weep
á ‘at’
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3. á (prep.): on, at
nóttum ‘night’
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nótt (noun f.): night
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
þjóð ‘people’
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þjóð (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -/-u; -ir): people
gera ‘will say’
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1. gera (verb): do, make
þægjar ‘acceptable’
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1. þægja (verb)
bœnir ‘prayers’
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bœn (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): request, prayer
notes
[4] bœnir ‘prayers’: This reading in Merl deviates markedly from omnia ‘all things’, the reading of all mss of DGB so far collated. Various possible explanations can be suggested. It may represent an innovation on Gunnlaugr’s part, either made freely in order to improve the sense or because he read omnia as some form of oratio ‘prayer’. Possibly too, however, the reading occurred in his source ms., whether through scribal emendation or even as a superior reading originating in the archetype. Universal prayer on the part of the nation was not unknown in English history. In 1009, a state of national emergency was declared by Archbishop Wulfstan, requiring that everyone go to church barefoot and make their confession, fast for three days and distribute the surplus food as alms – an initative with precedents in earlier Carolingian and Anglo-Saxon practice (Keynes 2008, 184-8; Cubitt 2013, 69). Gunnlaugr (or Geoffrey, if the reading was his) could have extrapolated from such an event. By contrast, the commentaries interpret omnia ‘all things’ as ‘all kinds of expedients to combat evil’ (cf. Hammer 1935, 16; Blacker 1996, 39-40, 2005, 61; Wille 2015, 160-1). — [4] þægjar bœnir ‘acceptable prayers’: The adj. þægr is characteristic of homiletic prose texts, used (sometimes in collocation with bœnir) to mean ‘acceptable to God’ (ONP: þǽgr) and this also appears to be the sense in which it is used in poetry (contrast LP: þægr); cf. I 59/8.
bœnir ‘prayers’
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bœn (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): request, prayer
notes
[4] bœnir ‘prayers’: This reading in Merl deviates markedly from omnia ‘all things’, the reading of all mss of DGB so far collated. Various possible explanations can be suggested. It may represent an innovation on Gunnlaugr’s part, either made freely in order to improve the sense or because he read omnia as some form of oratio ‘prayer’. Possibly too, however, the reading occurred in his source ms., whether through scribal emendation or even as a superior reading originating in the archetype. Universal prayer on the part of the nation was not unknown in English history. In 1009, a state of national emergency was declared by Archbishop Wulfstan, requiring that everyone go to church barefoot and make their confession, fast for three days and distribute the surplus food as alms – an initative with precedents in earlier Carolingian and Anglo-Saxon practice (Keynes 2008, 184-8; Cubitt 2013, 69). Gunnlaugr (or Geoffrey, if the reading was his) could have extrapolated from such an event. By contrast, the commentaries interpret omnia ‘all things’ as ‘all kinds of expedients to combat evil’ (cf. Hammer 1935, 16; Blacker 1996, 39-40, 2005, 61; Wille 2015, 160-1). — [4] þægjar bœnir ‘acceptable prayers’: The adj. þægr is characteristic of homiletic prose texts, used (sometimes in collocation with bœnir) to mean ‘acceptable to God’ (ONP: þǽgr) and this also appears to be the sense in which it is used in poetry (contrast LP: þægr); cf. I 59/8.
Þá ‘Then’
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2. þá (adv.): then
munu ‘will’
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munu (verb): will, must
hǫlðar ‘men’
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hǫlðr (noun m.; °-s; -ar): man
til ‘after’
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til (prep.): to
himins ‘heaven’
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himinn (noun m.; °himins, dat. himni; himnar): heaven, sky
kosta ‘strive’
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1. kosta (verb): try, strive
fá ‘will obtain’
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2. fá (verb; °fǽr; fekk, fengu; fenginn): get, receive
it ‘the’
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2. inn (art.): the
langa ‘long’
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langr (adj.; °compar. lengri, superl. lengstr): long
líf ‘life’
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líf (noun n.; °-s; -): life
lǫfðar ‘men’
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lofði (noun m.; °; -ar): man
nýtir ‘worthy’
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nýtr (adj.; °compar. -ri, superl. nýztr/nýtastr): useful, able
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Cf. DGB 113 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 149.87-9; cf. Wright 1988, 104, prophecies 12 and 13): Nocturnis lacrimis madebit insula, unde omnes ad omnia prouocabuntur. Nitentur posteri transuolare superna, sed fauor nouorum sublimabitur ‘The island shall be soaked in nightly tears, and so all men will be provoked to all things. Their progeny will try to fly beyond the heavens, but the favour of new men will be raised up’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 148). The prophecy describes the reaction of the British people to the atrocities described in the previous stanza. Following this, two paragraphs of prophecy in Geoffrey’s text (13, except for its first sentence, and 14) have no counterpart in Merl (cf. Bret 1848-9), possibly because of loss of stanzas in the transmission of Merl. There is likewise no counterpart in Merl to the added sentence Vae tibi Neustria, quia cerebrum leonis in te … a patrio solo eliminabitur ‘Woe to thee, Neustria [Normandy], … for the brain of the lion in thee … will be banished from its native soil’ found in mss Y and G, whose claims to authenticity remain unresolved (Reeve and Wright 2007, 149 n. to l. 88). — [7-8]: If nýtir ‘worthy’ is correct, Gunnlaugr appears to sidestep Geoffrey’s politically charged comment about ‘new men’ (see Note to I 51 [All]) in favour of a pious sentiment that ‘worthy men’ go on to the eternal (lit. ‘long’) life in heaven.
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