Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 136 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 68)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 104.
‘Hrapa hræva gǫr, hátt gjalla spjǫr,
es malmþrima mest á hjarli.
Verðr einn við einn valkǫstr hlaðinn;
munu blóðgar ár af bjǫðum falla,
en vígroða verpr á hlýrni.
‘Gǫr hræva hrapa, spjǫr gjalla hátt, {malmþrima} es mest á hjarli. Einn valkǫstr verðr hlaðinn við einn; blóðgar ár munu falla af bjǫðum, en vígroða verpr á hlýrni.
‘‘Heaps of corpses tumble, spears scream loudly, the weapon-tumult [BATTLE] is greatest on the earth. One pile of slain is built up beside another; bloody rivers will fall from the lands, and the redness of battle is cast up into heaven. ’
Cf. DGB 115 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 149.111-12; cf. Wright 1988, 105, prophecy 20): tunc flumina sanguine manabunt ‘then the rivers will flow with blood’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 148). Gunnlaugr reverses the order of this and the following clause from DGB (see I 69 Note to [All]). The rest of the material represents battle commonplaces in skaldic style. — [1-2]: The end-rhyme is reminiscent of runhent but, aside from I 69/5-6, Gunnlaugr does not maintain the treatment consistently; a more thorough-going attempt is seen in II 36.
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Rapa ræfa gior hatt gialla spior er malm þrima merst a hialli verðr ein við ein val | kostr hlaðin mvnv bloðgar ár af bioðvm falla en vigroða verpr a lyrní
(VEÞ)
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.