GunnLeif Merl II 14^VIII

‘Hjǫrtr drepr hana,         hinns tvenna fimm
hvassa hausi         hornkvistu berr.
En hafa kórónu         kvistir fjórir,
en sex aðrir         sjalfir verða
at vísundar         verstum hornum.

‘Hjǫrtr drepr hana, hinns berr tvenna fimm hvassa hornkvistu hausi. En fjórir kvistir hafa kórónu, en sex aðrir verða sjalfir at verstum hornum vísundar.

‘A hart will slay her, he who bears twice five sharp antler-branches on his head. And four branches will have a crown while the other six for their part will turn into the worst horns of a bison.

Mss: Hb(49v) (Bret)

Readings: [1] Hjǫrtr: ‘hrottr’ Hb    [3] hvassa: ‘kræsa’ or ‘hræsa’ Hb    [4] ‑kvistu: ‘‑kvstu’ Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 12-13, Skj BII, 13, Skald II, 8, NN §§96, 2992A, 3004; Bret 1848-9, II, 19 (Bret st. 14); Hb 1892-6, 273; Merl 2012, 79-80.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 153.162-4; cf. Wright 1988, 108, prophecy 34): Interficiet eam ceruus decem ramorum, quorum quatuor aurea diademata gestabunt, sex uero residui in cornua bubalorum uertentur ‘She will be killed by a stag with ten branches, four of which will wear golden crowns, while the remaining six will become the horns of buffaloes’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 152). — [1] hjǫrtr ‘a hart’: Emended from ms. ‘hrottr’ (refreshed) in Bret 1848-9 (followed by Skj B), with reference to DGB. — [3] hvassa ‘sharp’: Emended in this edn from the refreshed and uncertain ms. reading ‘kræsa’ or ‘hræsa’. This adj. yields good sense and is rather a favourite with Gunnlaugr. Use of hausi without a prep. would be consistent with Gunnlaugr’s use of the bare dat./instr.: see Note to I 47/3-4. Bret 1848-9 and Skj B emend to hræs á ‘of a corpse on’ (cf. LP: hræ), but this makes little sense in context. Kock (NN §96; Skald; cf. NN §2992A and §3004, followed by Merl 2012) posits an adj. *hrœrr ‘quick’, qualifying hjǫrtr, inferred from West Germanic (putatively cognate with ModGer. rühren ‘move’), but this, even if sustainable philologically, would give inferior sense. — [4] hornkvistu ‘antler-branches’: Cf. Kock (NN §96), correcting Skj B’s horngrene ‘horn-branches’ (cf. LP: hornkvistr). — [4] -kvistu ‘-branches’: The emendation was first suggested by Bret 1848-9 and adopted by subsequent eds. — [5] en ‘and’: Omitted in Bret 1848-9, Skj B and Skald, presumably because en occurs again at the head of l. 7. Merl 2012 prints the second en as enn (properly ‘again, once more’) but translates aber ‘but’, without comment. — [7]: The quantity of the <i> in vísundr appears to have been variable. In its present metrical position it is required to be long, although Skj B and Skald give this example as short. The vowel is short in Sigv ErfÓl 3/8^I and Arn Magndr 6/4^II. LP, AEW: visundr both give the vowel as short, perhaps in view of the word’s West Germanic cognates, while ONP and most other dictionaries of medieval and modern Icelandic have it as long. — [10] verstum ‘worst’: This adj. is introduced by Gunnlaugr and is perhaps mostly determined by metrical and alliterative requirements, since the horns of European bison are not specially long, though certainly sharp and capable of use as weapons (Stöcker and Dietrich 1996, 182).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
6. 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.
7. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
8. Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
9. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
10. 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.
11. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
12. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
13. Internal references
14. 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)
15. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Magnússdrápa 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 215-16.
16. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Erfidrápa Óláfs helga 3’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 668.