GunnLeif Merl II 2^VIII

Sagðr ‘said’

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segja (verb): say, tell

[1] Sagðr: ‘Sagði’ refreshed from Sagðr Hb

notes

[1] sagðr vas ‘he was said’: Merl 2012 adopts the refreshed reading sagði ‘[he] said’, but this is to put too much faith in the refresher, when traces of earlier <r> are still visible. Instead of the ms.’s ‘var’ (normalised here to vas), Merl 2012 reads við, translated as im Hinblick auf ‘in respect of’. But the refresher’s abbreviation directly above ms. <v>, interpreted as ‘-ið’ by Merl 2012, is followed to the right by a clearly legible unrefreshed abbreviation for ‘-ar’, as is in fact conceded by Merl 2012.

vas ‘He was’

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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am

notes

[1] sagðr vas ‘he was said’: Merl 2012 adopts the refreshed reading sagði ‘[he] said’, but this is to put too much faith in the refresher, when traces of earlier <r> are still visible. Instead of the ms.’s ‘var’ (normalised here to vas), Merl 2012 reads við, translated as im Hinblick auf ‘in respect of’. But the refresher’s abbreviation directly above ms. <v>, interpreted as ‘-ið’ by Merl 2012, is followed to the right by a clearly legible unrefreshed abbreviation for ‘-ar’, as is in fact conceded by Merl 2012.

lýðum ‘the people’

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lýðr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -; -ir): one of the people

ok ‘and’

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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also

landrekum ‘rulers’

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landreki (noun m.): land-ruler

myrk* ‘obscure’

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2. myrkr (adj.; °-an/-jan/-van; compar. -(v)ari/-ri, superl. -(v)astr): dark, murky

[3] myrk*: myrkt Hb

notes

[3] myrk* ‘obscure’: Emended by Scheving (followed in Bret 1848-9 and Skj B) from ms. myrkt (refreshed). Kock (NN §90; Skald) treats myrkt and mǫrg rǫk as in apposition (Han sades spå … om dunkla ting, om mångt, som skulle ske ‘he was said to prophesy … about obscure matters, about many things that were destined to occur’), but, while this construal is not impossible, Kock (as often: cf. Note to ll. 5-6 below) assumes that apposition is a more prevalent stylistic feature in skaldic poetry than in fact is the case; also, the sense and syntax yielded by Scheving’s emendation are clearly superior. Conceivable, with Merl 2012, would be retention of myrkt in the sense ‘darkly’, taken with the verb, thus at ráða myrkt mǫrg rǫk ‘to interpret darkly many signs’. But this would seem an odd disparagement of the popular prophet who is being praised in this very context and, once again, relies overmuch on the accuracy of the refresher. Cf I 9/1-4 and I 100/9-10.

at ‘to’

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5. at (nota): to (with infinitive)

ráða ‘interpret’

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ráða (verb): advise, rule, interpret, decide

mǫrg ‘many’

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2. margr (adj.; °-an): many

rǫk ‘signs’

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2. rak (noun n.; °; *-): omen, lore

fyrir ‘before’

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fyrir (prep.): for, before, because of

Kærr ‘dear’

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kærr (adj.; °superl. kǽrstr/kǽrastr): dear

vas ‘was’

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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am

hann ‘He’

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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...

kristnu ‘to the Christian’

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1. kyn (noun n.; °-s; -): kin

[5, 6] kristnu kynni: kristin kyni Hb

notes

[5-6]: These lines emphasise that Merlin is beloved of Christians, probably a point it would have been important for Gunnlaugr to establish, when contemporary commentators were apt to fret about Merlin’s diabolic pedigree (Crick 2011, 77). The ms. reading kristin (refreshed) is emended to kristnu by Scheving, followed in Bret 1848-9, Skj B, Merl 2012 and this edn. In this edn the ms.’s ‘kyni’ is emended to kynni, dat. sg. of the n. noun kynni in the sense ‘family, stock, lineage’ (Fritzner: kynni 2); geminate <n> is not necessarily shown in Haukr’s orthography (Hb 1892-6, xiii). These minor adjustments produce two metrical A-lines. Skj B on the other hand, presumably to improve the metre of l. 5,  transposes kristnu and kyni, followed by Merl 2012, but this leaves l. 6 metrically deficient. Kock (NN §91) instead proposes to read kristni, í kyni, interpreting ll. 5-6 as han var de kristne kär, var omtyckt ibland folket ‘he was dear to the Christians, was well-regarded amongst the people’. But the double construction, mixing uses of dat. case with and without prepositions, militates against this solution.

kynni ‘family’

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kristinn (adj.; °superl. kristnastr): Christian

[5, 6] kristnu kynni: kristin kyni Hb

notes

[5-6]: These lines emphasise that Merlin is beloved of Christians, probably a point it would have been important for Gunnlaugr to establish, when contemporary commentators were apt to fret about Merlin’s diabolic pedigree (Crick 2011, 77). The ms. reading kristin (refreshed) is emended to kristnu by Scheving, followed in Bret 1848-9, Skj B, Merl 2012 and this edn. In this edn the ms.’s ‘kyni’ is emended to kynni, dat. sg. of the n. noun kynni in the sense ‘family, stock, lineage’ (Fritzner: kynni 2); geminate <n> is not necessarily shown in Haukr’s orthography (Hb 1892-6, xiii). These minor adjustments produce two metrical A-lines. Skj B on the other hand, presumably to improve the metre of l. 5,  transposes kristnu and kyni, followed by Merl 2012, but this leaves l. 6 metrically deficient. Kock (NN §91) instead proposes to read kristni, í kyni, interpreting ll. 5-6 as han var de kristne kär, var omtyckt ibland folket ‘he was dear to the Christians, was well-regarded amongst the people’. But the double construction, mixing uses of dat. case with and without prepositions, militates against this solution.

þjóðar ‘of people’

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þjóð (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -/-u; -ir): people

notes

[5-6]: These lines emphasise that Merlin is beloved of Christians, probably a point it would have been important for Gunnlaugr to establish, when contemporary commentators were apt to fret about Merlin’s diabolic pedigree (Crick 2011, 77). The ms. reading kristin (refreshed) is emended to kristnu by Scheving, followed in Bret 1848-9, Skj B, Merl 2012 and this edn. In this edn the ms.’s ‘kyni’ is emended to kynni, dat. sg. of the n. noun kynni in the sense ‘family, stock, lineage’ (Fritzner: kynni 2); geminate <n> is not necessarily shown in Haukr’s orthography (Hb 1892-6, xiii). These minor adjustments produce two metrical A-lines. Skj B on the other hand, presumably to improve the metre of l. 5,  transposes kristnu and kyni, followed by Merl 2012, but this leaves l. 6 metrically deficient. Kock (NN §91) instead proposes to read kristni, í kyni, interpreting ll. 5-6 as han var de kristne kär, var omtyckt ibland folket ‘he was dear to the Christians, was well-regarded amongst the people’. But the double construction, mixing uses of dat. case with and without prepositions, militates against this solution.

vasat ‘there was not’

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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am

á ‘on’

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3. á (prep.): on, at

moldu ‘earth’

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mold (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -u; -ir): earth, soil

maðr ‘man’

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maðr (noun m.): man, person

vitrari ‘a wiser’

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vitr (adj.): wise