Note to GunnLeif Merl II 2VIII
[3] myrk* ‘obscure’: Emended by Scheving (followed in Bret 1848-9 and Skj B) from ms. myrkt (refreshed). Kock (NN §90; Skald) treats myrkt and mǫrg rǫk as in apposition (Han sades spå … om dunkla ting, om mångt, som skulle ske ‘he was said to prophesy … about obscure matters, about many things that were destined to occur’), but, while this construal is not impossible, Kock (as often: cf. Note to ll. 5-6 below) assumes that apposition is a more prevalent stylistic feature in skaldic poetry than in fact is the case; also, the sense and syntax yielded by Scheving’s emendation are clearly superior. Conceivable, with Merl 2012, would be retention of myrkt in the sense ‘darkly’, taken with the verb, thus at ráða myrkt mǫrg rǫk ‘to interpret darkly many signs’. But this would seem an odd disparagement of the popular prophet who is being praised in this very context and, once again, relies overmuch on the accuracy of the refresher. Cf I 9/1-4 and I 100/9-10.
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.
- 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.
- Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.