Note to GunnLeif Merl II 27VIII
[All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 153.188-9; cf. Wright 1988, 109, prophecy 41): Tria oua procreabuntur in nido, ex quibus uulpes et lupus et ursus egredientur ‘In the nest it will lay three eggs, from which will hatch a fox, a wolf and a bear’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 152). Gunnlaugr does not show awareness of the variant quattuor ‘four’ found in some mss (Reeve and Wright 2007, 153): see Introduction. In the ensuing stanzas Gunnlaugr somewhat amplifies Geoffrey’s story of the fox; some details of Gunnlaugr’s characterisation and kenning diction are very similar to those in Skaufhala bálkr (Svart Skauf); see further II 28/8, 9 and Notes there.
References
- Bibliography
- 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.
- Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Svartr á Hofstöðum, Skaufhala bálkr’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 948. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3349> (accessed 26 April 2024)