GunnLeif Merl II 34^VIII

‘Dregr él yfir         ógnar ljóma;
gerir drjúgan dyn         dýrra malma.
Gnýr es á glæstum         Gǫndlar himni
ok í hǫrðum hlam         Hlakkar tjǫldum.
Erut skjólsamar         Skǫglar kápur;
hrýtr hagl boga         hlíf í gegnum.

‘{Él {ljóma ógnar}} dregr yfir; gerir drjúgan dyn dýrra malma. Gnýr es á {glæstum himni Gǫndlar} ok hlam í {hǫrðum tjǫldum Hlakkar}. {Kápur Skǫglar} erut skjólsamar; {hagl boga} hrýtr í gegnum hlíf.

‘{A blizzard {of the light of terror}} [SWORD > BATTLE] is blowing; it causes a mighty din of precious weapons. There is a clashing on {the shining heaven of Gǫndul <valkyrie>} [SHIELD] and a thudding against {the tough awnings of Hlǫkk <valkyrie>} [SHIELDS]. {The capes of Skǫgul <valkyrie>} [MAIL-SHIRTS] are not protective; {the hail of bows} [ARROWS] pierces through armour.

Mss: Hb(50r) (Bret)

Readings: [9] Erut: erat Hb    [12] hlíf í: ‘hlift’ refreshed from ‘hlif i’ Hb;    gegnum: ‘gegnari’ Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 16, Skj BII, 17, Skald II, 10-11, NN §2567A; Bret 1848-9, II, 27-8 (Bret st. 34); Hb 1892-6, 274; Merl 2012, 97-9.

Notes: [All]: See Note to II 31 [All]. — [2] ógnar ljóma ‘of the light of terror [SWORD]’: De Vries (1964-7, II, 75 n. 180) compares HHund I 21/6. — [3-4] drjúgan dyn dýrra malma ‘a mighty din of precious weapons’: This phrase could be construed as a battle-kenning but is here taken as a literal description of the noise of battle, dependent on the metaphorical battle-kenning él ljóma ógnar ‘a blizzard of the light of terror [SWORD > BATTLE]’ (ll. 1-2), in which the base-word él ‘blizzard’ is said to blow and cause the din of weapons. — [9] erut ‘are not’: Emended by Kock (NN §2567A; Skald; cf. NN §2741), followed by Merl 2012, from ms. erað (refreshed) to agree with pl. kápur. See Note to II 28/3. — [10] kápur ‘capes’: This noun appears rarely in skaldic poetry, but note the similar mail-shirt-kenning kápa Sköglar ‘the cloak of Skǫgul <valkyrie>’ in Anon Krm 18/9. — [12] hlíf í gegnum ‘through armour’: The original reading of Hb, apparently hlíf í, is here assumed to be correct, following Merl 2012. The use of the sg. noun to denote armour in general is similar to sg. himni in the shield-kenning in l. 6. Previous eds, following Bret 1848-9, unnecessarily generate a pl. noun by emending to hlífar ‘armour’ (lit. ‘items of armour’), where hlífar would be acc. pl. The emendation of ms. ‘gegnari’ to gegnum was made by Bret 1848-9 and has been adopted by all subsequent eds.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Vries, Jan de. 1964-7. Altnordische Literaturgeschichte. 2 vols. 2nd edn. Grundriss der germanischen Philologie 15-16. Berlin: de Gruyter.
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. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
8. Internal references
9. 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 2 May 2024)
10. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Krákumál 18’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 753.