Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 148 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 80)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 116.
‘Kømr kaupskapar kappgóðr þinig
villigalti virðum samna,
þeims af fróni flýðu áðan.
Lætr hann byggva þá brezkar jarðir,
borgir eyddar, ból góligust.
‘Kappgóðr villigalti kaupskapar kømr þinig samna virðum, þeims flýðu áðan af fróni. Hann lætr þá byggva brezkar jarðir, eyddar borgir, góligust ból.
‘‘The wild boar of commerce, exceedingly good, will come there to gather men who had previously fled from the land. He causes them to settle the British lands, the devastated cities, the choicest estates. ’
Cf. DGB 115 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 151.128-9; cf. Wright 1988, 106, prophecy 26): Superueniet aper commercii, qui dispersos greges ad amissam pascuam reuocabit ‘The boar of commerce will arrive and call the scattered flocks back to their lost pasture’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 150). This is a third salvific boar-king in Geoffrey’s series. Gunnlaugr rationalises the allegory by replacing ‘flocks’ with ‘men’ and expanding ‘pasture’ to include the concept of ‘cities’.
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.
‘Kømr kaupskapar
kappgóðr þinig
villigalti
virðum samna,
þeims af fróni
flýði áðan.
Lætr hann byggva þá
brezkar jarðir,
borgir eyddar,
ból góligust.
Kemr kavpskapar | kappgodr þinig villigallti virðvm samna þeim er af froni flyði aðan lætr hann byɢia þa | brezkar iarðir borgir eyddar bol goligvz
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