[7] nauðr ‘adversity’: Emended, so as to supply alliteration, from ms. auðn (not refreshed) to nauð by Scheving (reported in and followed by Bret 1848-9, from which it is subsequently accepted by Skj B and Skald); nauð, however, is a later form for nauðr (LP: nauðr), which is adopted in this edn. Merl 2012 retains the reading of the ms., auðn ‘wilderness, desert, devastation’, which fits well for sense within a context of failures of harvest (cf. the cognate eyddar ‘devastated’ in I 80/9), but auðn is used elsewhere in relation to land, not people, and does not provide an alliterating line, as alliteration cannot fall on mikil in l. 7.
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.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
- Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.