[3] skýrum ‘wise’: So Bret 1848-9 and Skj B. Kock (NN §3142, followed by Merl 2012) sees it as awkward to attribute wisdom to Vortigern, who has expressed himself baffled by the portent, and proposes that skýrum instead be taken adverbially, meaning ‘clearly’. But the adj. may allude to Vortigern’s reputation for wisdom as he assumes power (cf. DGB VI: Reeve and Wright 2007, 120-1); cf. the similar application of the adj. spǫkum ‘sagacious’ to him in I 11/8.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
- 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.
- Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.