GunnLeif Merl II 26^VIII

‘En fogl ept þat         ferr vestr í dal,
þanns Gálábes         gumnar kalla.
Hann mun hefjask         í it hæsta fjall,
ok þar uppi         í eikr limum
hreiðrask hegri;         hann es fogla verstr.

‘En fogl ferr vestr í dal ept þat, þanns gumnar kalla Gálábes. Hann mun hefjask í it hæsta fjall, ok hegri hreiðrask þar uppi í limum eikr; hann es verstr fogla.

‘But after that the bird will go westwards into the valley that people call Galabes. It [the valley] will raise itself into the highest mountain and up there the heron will nest on the branches of an oak; it is the worst of birds.

Mss: Hb(49v) (Bret)

Readings: [6] í it: ‘[…]’ Hb, í it HbJS    [8] limum: ‘‑limv’ Hb    [9] hreiðrask: ‘treiðr[…]’ Hb;    hegri: ‘[…]’ Hb, hegri HbJS    [10] es: ‘a’ Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 15, Skj BII, 15, Skald II, 9-10; Bret 1848-9, II, 24-5 (Bret st. 26); Hb 1892-6, 274; Merl 2012, 90-1.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 153.185-3; cf. Wright 1988, 109, prophecy 40): At cum calamitas tanta cessauerit, adibit detestabilis ales uallem Galahes atque eam in excelsum montem leuabit. In cacumine quoque ipsius plantabit quercum atque infra ramos nidificabit ‘When this great calamity is over, the accursed bird will visit the valley of Galahes and raise it into a lofty mountain. At the summit the heron will plant an oak and nest in its branches’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 152). In Merl the heron is not credited with planting the oak, merely with nesting in it. — [3] Gálábes: This is the reading of some mss of Geoffrey, against majority Galahes (Wright 1988, 109, cf. 111), and therefore presumably stood in Gunnlaugr’s source. — [6, 9]: See Introduction for readings no longer visible in Hb that could be read by earlier eds. — [8] limum ‘the branches’: Emended in this edn from ms. ‘limv’ (refreshed). Use of the pl. form is suggested by Geoffrey’s ramos ‘branches’. Skj B (followed by Skald) emends to limi ‘branch’, perhaps in view of actual nesting behaviour on the part of herons, but LP: eikrlim notes limum as a possible alternative. Bret 1848-9 retains limu, apparently as an acc. pl., translating as kviste ‘branches’, but dat. would be required syntactically, since the context requires a point of rest, not motion towards. Merl 2012 would also retain, interpreting limu ‘branch’ as sg. for pl.; this dat. sg. form is however not attested. — [9] hreiðrask ‘will nest’: Emended in Skj B (followed by Skald and Merl 2012) from ms. ‘treiðr[...]’ (partially refreshed); cf. hreiðri ‘nest’ in II 27/2. Bret 1848-9 takes the ms. reading to be ‘treiðr’ and explains as a form of treðr ‘treads’, the 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of treðja ‘tread’. — [10] es ‘is’: Emended from ms. ‘a’ (refreshed) in Bret 1848-9, followed by subsequent eds.

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. 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.
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 26 April 2024)