Note to GunnLeif Merl I 39VIII
[All]: Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.63; cf. Wright 1985, 75, prophecy 6): Exurget iterum albus draco et filiam Germaniae inuitabit ‘The white dragon will rise again and summon Germany’s daughter’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). The absence of this sentence from the text of the Prophecies in the First Variant Version of DGB (Wright 1988, 103) misled J. S. Eysteinsson (1953-7, 102) into supposing Gunnlaugr derived the motif of the Saxon woman from DGB XI. Geoffrey tells in DGB XI that the Saxons who survived the hardships summoned more immigrants from Germania (Reeve and Wright 2007, 278-9); the filia Germaniae is evidently a representation of these people. By contrast, Gunnlaugr’s rather specific-sounding phrase, snót saxneska, along with the second helmingr, suggests that he interpreted the representation as referring to a specific woman, perhaps prompted by Geoffrey’s account of the key role in the invasion played by Hengest’s daughter Ronwein in DGB VI (Reeve and Wright 2007, 128‑31).
References
- Bibliography
- Eysteinsson, J. S. 1953-7. ‘The Relationship of Merlínússpá and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia’. SBVS 14, 95-112.
- 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. 1985. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. I. Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS. 568. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
- Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.