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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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GunnLeif Merl I 39VIII

Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 107 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 39)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 76.

Gunnlaugr LeifssonMerlínusspá I
383940

text and translation

‘Þá mun inn hvíti         hjarlþvengr fara
snót saxneska         snarráðr laða.
Ok með miklum         mannfjǫlða kemr
fjarðbyggs Skǫgul         fold at byggja.

‘Þá mun {inn hvíti hjarlþvengr} fara snarráðr laða saxneska snót. Ok {Skǫgul {fjarðbyggs}} kemr með miklum mannfjǫlða at byggja fold.
 
‘‘Then the white thong of the earth [SNAKE] will travel, with swift resolution, to invite the Saxon woman. And the Skǫgul <valkyrie> of fjord-barley [JEWEL (steinn ‘stone’) > WOMAN] will come with a great multitude of men to settle the land.

notes and context

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).

sources

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.

editions and texts

Skj: Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínússpá II 39: AII, 27, BII, 32, Skald II, 20; Bret 1848-9, II, 52 (Bret st. 107); Hb 1892-6, 279; Merl 2012, 157.

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