GunnLeif Merl II 23^VIII

‘Þá munu ór moldu         mæla steinar
ok verþjóðar         vél upp koma.
Ey mun víðask,         en Valir skjalfa,
ok sær saman         sœkja fíkjum,
svát millim landa         mál of heyri.

‘Þá munu steinar mæla ór moldu ok vél verþjóðar koma upp. Ey mun víðask, en Valir skjalfa, ok sær sœkja saman fíkjum, svát mál of heyri millim landa.

‘Then stones will speak from the earth and the machinations of the sea-people be revealed. The island will be widened, and the French will tremble, and the sea will come together greatly so that speech can be heard between the lands.

Mss: Hb(49v) (Bret)

Readings: [1] munu: mun Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 14, Skj BII, 15, Skald II, 9; Bret 1848-9, II, 23 (Bret st. 23); Hb 1892-6, 273; Merl 2012, 88-9.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 153.177-81; cf. Wright 1988, 109, prophecy 38): In tempore illo loquentur lapides et mare quo ad Galliam nauigatur infra breue spacium contrahetur. In utraque ripa audietur homo ab homine, et solidum insulae dilatabitur. Reuelabuntur occulta submarinorum, et Gallia prae timore tremebit ‘At that time stones will speak and the sea where one sails to France will become a narrow strait. Men on opposite shores will be within earshot and the island’s surface will grow larger. The secrets of the people beneath the sea will be revealed, and France will tremble in fear’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 152). Gunnlaugr appears to alter the sequence of ideas in DGB by associating the revelations concerning the submarini ‘people beneath the sea’ with the capacity of stones to speak rather than with the drying up of the English Channel. Through his re-use of the heiti verþjóð, Gunnlaugr clearly identifies Geoffrey’s submarini with the sea-people mentioned in II 12/8; they are presumably the Ruteni ‘Flemings’, who were frequently accused of machinations in respect of both trade and mercenary service. — [1] munu ‘will’: Emended in Skald, followed by Merl 2012 and the present edn; Bret 1848-9 and Skj B retain the ms. reading mun ‘will’ (sg.). The sg. form is possible, when a composite subject (including both sg. and pl.) follows, but is less likely here. — [5] víðask ‘be widened’: A hap leg. in poetry. Bret 1848-9 notes the rarity of this verb; both the other two attestations are from texts concerned with Bishop Þorlákr (ONP: víða). — [7-8] ok sær sœkja saman fíkjum ‘and the sea will come together greatly’: I.e. ‘the sea will shrink considerably’. These lines seem to refer to the narrowing of the English Channel, as mentioned in DGB’s mare ... breue spacium contrahetur (see Note to [All] above), translated lit. ‘the sea ... will be drawn together in a small space’.

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. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
5. 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.
6. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
7. 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.
8. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
9. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
10. Internal references
11. 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)