GunnLeif Merl II 18VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 18 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 18)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 152.
Borg ‘The city’
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borg (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -; -ir): city, stronghold
mun ‘will’
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munu (verb): will, must
falla ‘fall’
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falla (verb): fall
veitk ‘I know’
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1. vita (verb): know
notes
[2] veitk ‘I know’: Gunnlaugr’s addition.
bana ‘of death’
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bani (noun m.; °-a; -ar): death, killer
[2] bana: bana corrected from ‘kana’ Hb
þjóðum ‘for the people’
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þjóð (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -/-u; -ir): people
þvíat ‘because’
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þvíat (conj.): because
eiðrofa ‘itself’
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1. eiðrofi (noun m.; °-a; -ar): °oath-breaker, perjurer
áðr ‘had previously’
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áðr (adv.; °//): before
of ‘’
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4. of (particle): (before verb)
gerðisk ‘perjured’
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1. gera (verb): do, make
Munu ‘will’
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munu (verb): will, must
griðbítar ‘The breakers of the truce’
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griðbítr (noun m.)
gǫrla ‘comprehensively’
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gǫrla (adv.): quite, fully
drepnir ‘put to death’
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drepa (verb; °drepr; drap, drápu; drepinn): kill, strike
geldr ‘will pay’
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2. gelda (verb): [he pays]
Vintóna ‘Winchester’
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Vintónía (noun f.)
notes
[7] Vintóna ‘Winchester’: This is the reading of the ms. (not refreshed). It would be tempting to emend to Vintónía, by analogy with II 5/2 and forms in Geoffrey’s text, as is done in Merl 2012, but such a form would produce an unmetrical line and there are parallels elsewhere for Gunnlaugr’s use of variant forms, e.g. Kónan (I 64/1) vs. Kónánus (gen.) (I 72/2).
vándra ‘for the wicked’
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vándr (adj.): wicked
manna ‘men’
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maðr (noun m.): man, person
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 153.168-9; cf. Wright 1988, 108, prophecy 35): ‘“festinat namque dies qua ciues ob scelera periurii peribunt’” ‘“The day is at hand when your citizens will perish because of their crimes of betrayal”’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 152). This concludes the speech from the Forest of Dean in DGB. In Merl motifs from prophecies 35 and 36 are intermixed here and in II 19; it is not clear where the Forest’s speech is regarded as ending, but since Gunnlaugr’s use of 2nd pers. sg. forms is confined to II 16 the placement of quotation marks in this edn follows Skald and Merl 2012, which treat only II 16 as direct speech. Bret 1848-9 and Skj B do not use quotation marks in this passage. — [7-8]: The verb gjalda with gen. denotes the cause for which payment is made or suffering incurred (CVC: gjalda 2; Fritzner: gjalda 6). The English idiom ‘pay for’ covers both of these senses.
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