Note to GunnLeif Merl II 2^VIII

[5-6]: These lines emphasise that Merlin is beloved of Christians, probably a point it would have been important for Gunnlaugr to establish, when contemporary commentators were apt to fret about Merlin’s diabolic pedigree (Crick 2011, 77). The ms. reading kristin (refreshed) is emended to kristnu by Scheving, followed in Bret 1848-9, Skj B, Merl 2012 and this edn. In this edn the ms.’s ‘kyni’ is emended to kynni, dat. sg. of the n. noun kynni in the sense ‘family, stock, lineage’ (Fritzner: kynni 2); geminate <n> is not necessarily shown in Haukr’s orthography (Hb 1892-6, xiii). These minor adjustments produce two metrical A-lines. Skj B on the other hand, presumably to improve the metre of l. 5,  transposes kristnu and kyni, followed by Merl 2012, but this leaves l. 6 metrically deficient. Kock (NN §91) instead proposes to read kristni, í kyni, interpreting ll. 5-6 as han var de kristne kär, var omtyckt ibland folket ‘he was dear to the Christians, was well-regarded amongst the people’. But the double construction, mixing uses of dat. case with and without prepositions, militates against this solution.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
5. 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.
6. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
7. Crick, Julia C. 2011. ‘Geoffrey and the Prophetic Tradition’. In Echard 2011, 67-82.
8. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.