GunnLeif Merl I 56^VIII

Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 124 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 56)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 93.

text and translation

notes and context

This stanza may represent a rationalisation of and extrapolation from Geoffrey’s prophecy 16 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 149.97-9; cf. Wright 1988, 105): Exin de primo in quartum, de quarto in tercium, de tercio in secundum rotabitur pollex in oleo ‘Then from the first to the fourth, from the fourth to the third, from the third to the second, the thumb shall roll in oil’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 148). This enigmatic passage presumably refers to the anointing of successive Norman kings, as recognised in some of the commentaries (Hammer 1935, 30). But other commentators were bewildered by this passage, as emerges e.g. from the explication pollex in oleo, hoc est non difficultate, sed gratia quasi (Hammer 1940, 418) ‘thumb in oil, i.e. not with difficulty but as if with pleasure’, and Gunnlaugr could well have shared their bewilderment. Instead Gunnlaugr, or more probably his source ms., appears to extrapolate from the passage so as to praise Henry II (r. 1133-89); this interpretation may have been assisted by annotation or commentary of the kind we find in John of Cornwall’s version of the Prophetiae Merlini. John speaks of quartum seu quintum ‘the fourth or the fifth’ in the sequence of kings (Curley 1982, 234), where Gunnlaugr speaks of ‘five or more’, and this shared vagueness as to the exact number of Norman kings (down to John’s and Gunnlaugr’s source’s respective times of writing?) may reflect the fact that Henry I’s son and designated successor William Adelin, who perished in the White Ship (see I 52 Note to [All]) but had been crowned previously, was sometimes counted as the fourth, with Stephen then taken to be the fifth (Curley 1982, 244; cf. Faletra 2012, 333) and Henry II the sixth; the list could be stretched to a seventh after the advanced coronation of Henry II’s son (also Henry) in 1170 (Poole 1955, 212-13).

readings

• [5] ’ro: om. Hb

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.

• AM 544 4° (Hb) — 52r/8 - 52r/10

  ‘Einn sitr nýtastr
  Néústríe
  Englandi at
  auðar skelfir.
  Þó siklingar
  sunnan komnir
  fimm eða fleiri
  foldu at ráða.

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