Note to GunnLeif Merl I 2^VIII

[7] ósama breks ‘[who were] averse to the extortion of land’: I.e. the Britons did not authorise the Angles’ seizure of land. Rather, they were tricked by false assurances from the new arrivals. The adj. ósamr occurs only once elsewhere (ONP: ósamr), and is explained as ‘unwilling, disinclined’ or similar (LP, Fritzner: ósamr; CVC: úsamr). The word brek seems to have had a specialised sense, in relation to land claims, of ‘strenuous insistence, exorbitance, rapacity or fraudulence in claiming’ (cf. CVC, Fritzner, ONP: brek) and this probably pertains in the present context.  Bret translates as haardföre ‘resistant, intransigent’, but this seems to be a purely ad hoc explanation. Finnur Jónsson explains as ‘living peacefully’ (Skj B, LP: brek), but this does not capture the specific meaning of brek and is belied by subsequent characterisations of the Britons as given to faction-fighting (see especially I 35). Merl 2012 renders brek as Begehren ‘desire’ (noun), which seems too mild and, once again, does not reflect the specialised sense of brek.

References

1. Bibliography
2. 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.
3. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
4. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
5. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
6. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
7. Internal references
8. 2017, ‘ Unattributed, Breta saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 38. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=125> (accessed 25 April 2024)