Note to GunnLeif Merl II 4VIII
[5] jǫfurr ‘the leader’: There is nothing in DGB to justify reference to Merlin as jǫfurr, a heiti whose attestations relate specifically to leaders and rulers (LP: jǫfurr), but possibly the use of this heiti reflects influence from Geoffrey’s later Vita Merlini, which narrates the life of Merlin Caledonius (also known as Silvestris) (Poole 2014, 23-4). Crick (2011, 70-1) comments that often medieval commentators failed to discriminate between Merlin Caledonius and Merlin Ambrosius, and Merlinian prophecy circulated without precise attribution. For a probable instance of this confusion see Curley (1982, 220); Gunnlaugr might have drawn upon such a commentary. For references to Merlin Caledonius as king see Clarke’s edn of Vita Merlini (1973, 52-3).
References
- Bibliography
- 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.
- Crick, Julia C. 2011. ‘Geoffrey and the Prophetic Tradition’. In Echard 2011, 67-82.
- Curley, Michael J. 1982. ‘A New Edition of John of Cornwall’s Prophetia Merlini’. Speculum, 217-49.
- Poole, Russell. 2014. ‘Gunnlaugr Leifsson’s Uses in Merlínússpá of Twelfth-century English Sources Additional to the De gestis Britonum of Geoffrey of Monmouth’. In Chase 2014, 16-30.