Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 29 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 29)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 161.
‘Brœðr vill hann sína beita vélum;
tekr horshǫfuð hildingr á sik.
En hoddskata hræðask báðir;
flýja barmar brott ór landi.
‘Hann vill beita brœðr sína vélum; hildingr tekr horshǫfuð á sik. En báðir hræðask {hoddskata}; barmar flýja brott ór landi.
‘‘It will attack its brothers with tricks; the ruler will put on a horse’s head. And both [brothers] will fear the treasure-chieftain [MAN]; the brothers will flee from the land. ’
Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 153.189-91; cf. Wright 1988, 109, prophecy 41): et asininum caput gestabit. Monstro igitur assumpto, terrebit fratres suos ipsosque in Neustriam fugabit ‘and wear the head of an ass. Taking on the form of a monster, therefore, it will frighten its brothers and drive them off to Normandy’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 152). Gunnlaugr omits the mention of Neustria (Normandy) as the brothers’ place of refuge, perhaps because the wild boar whose aid they enlist in the following stanza is more to be associated with Cornwall. Cf. Note to II 31/7-8.
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Bræðr vill hann sina beita velvm tekr hors hofvð | hilldingr a sig enn hoddskata ræðaz baðir flyia barmar brott or landi ·
(VEÞ)
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.