GunnLeif Merl I 57VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 125 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 57)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 95.
‘Sá bjartar brýtr borgir Íra
ok foldar til fellir skóga.
Gerir ræsir eitt ríki margra;
tekr léónis lávarðr hǫfuð.
‘Sá brýtr bjartar borgir Íra ok fellir skóga til foldar. Ræsir gerir eitt ríki margra; lávarðr tekr hǫfuð léónis.
‘He will destroy the splendid cities of the Irish and fell the forests to the ground. The leader will create one kingdom out of many; the lord will take on the head of a lion.
Mss: Hb(52r) (Bret)
Readings: [8] lávarðr: lávarð Hb
Editions: Skj AII, 30, Skj BII, 35, Skald II, 22, NN §3143B; Bret 1848-9, II, 59 (Bret st. 125); Hb 1892-6, 280; Merl 2012, 171.
Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 114 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 149.99-100; cf. Wright 1988, 105, prophecy 17): Sextus Hiberniae moenia subuertet et nemora in planiciem mutabit. Diuersas portiones in unum reducet et capite leonis coronabitur ‘The sixth will overthrow the city walls of Ireland and turn its forests into a plain. He will reduce various shares to one and be crowned with the lion’s head’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 148). This prophecy relates to the strong Norman king referred to in st. 56. Henry II did indeed successfully invade Ireland in 1171, lending credence to Geoffrey’s prophecy. — [7] léónis ‘of a lion’: Realised trisyllabically (cf. NN §3143). Printed as leónis in Skj B, but LP: léó tacitly adjusts to léónis. See Note to I 52/7 on vowel quantities in this word. Gunnlaugr uses the Latin form of the gen., as sporadically elsewhere; cf. I 30/6. — [8] lávarðr ‘lord’: Emended from ms. lávarð (unrefreshed) by Bret 1848-9 and subsequent eds.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- 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.
- Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
- Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
- Reeve, Michael D., and Neil Wright. 2007. Geoffrey of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of Britain. An Edition and Translation of De gestis Britonum [Historia regum Britanniae]. Woodbridge: Boydell.
- Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
- Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
- Internal references
- 2017, ‘ Unattributed, Breta saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 38. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=125> (accessed 13 May 2024)
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