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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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GunnLeif Merl II 36VIII

Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 36 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 36)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 166.

Gunnlaugr LeifssonMerlínusspá II
353637

Sék ‘I see’

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2. sjá (verb): see

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‘the standards’

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2. vé (noun n.; °; -): banner, standard

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vaða ‘advance’

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vaða (verb): advance, wade

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verðr ‘will’

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1. verða (verb): become, be

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mitt ‘…’

notes

[2] mitt: Scheving conjectured flýtt ‘speedily, hastily’ from ms. ‘mitt’ (refreshed) and this suggestion was adopted in Bret 1848-9 and Skj B. Hb 1892-6 notes, however, that flýtt cannot have been the original reading of Hb. Kock (NN §2163D; Skald) suggests, without reference to the ms., mœtt (spelt mætt in Skald), apparently in the sense ‘met’, and also notes an OE mittan ‘meet’. Merl 2012 follows in reading mætt, translated as angetroffen ‘encountered’. But this proposal leaves the syntax problematic: the nom. forms mættr and skaði would be expected.

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skaða ‘harm’

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skaði (noun m.; °-a; -ar): harm, damage

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syngr ‘sings’

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syngja (verb): sing

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sára ‘of wounds’

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2. sár (noun n.; °-s; -): wound

kennings

klungr sára
‘the thorn of wounds ’
   = SWORD

the thorn of wounds → SWORD

notes

[3] klungr sára ‘the thorn of wounds [SWORD]’: Treated in Merl 2012 as an emendation but it is in fact the unrefreshed reading in Hb, first recognised by Bret 1848-9 and adopted by subsequent eds.

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klungr ‘the thorn’

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klungr (noun m.; °klungrs, dat. klungri; klungrar): thorn, bramble

kennings

klungr sára
‘the thorn of wounds ’
   = SWORD

the thorn of wounds → SWORD

notes

[3] klungr sára ‘the thorn of wounds [SWORD]’: Treated in Merl 2012 as an emendation but it is in fact the unrefreshed reading in Hb, first recognised by Bret 1848-9 and adopted by subsequent eds.

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snyrtidrengjum ‘to brave men’

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snyrtidrengr (noun m.)

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En ‘And’

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2. en (conj.): but, and

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á ‘on’

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3. á (prep.): on, at

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lægjǫrn ‘the treacherous’

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lægjarn (adj.): [malicious]

notes

[6] lægjǫrn ‘treacherous’: De Vries (1964-7, II, 75 n. 179) compares Vsp 35/3.

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ara ‘of the eagle’

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1. ari (noun m.; °-a; -ar): eagle

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jóð ‘children’

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jóð (noun n.): child, offspring

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ok ‘and’

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

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ylgjar ‘the she-wolf’

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ylgr (noun f.; °acc. -i): she-wolf

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enn ‘once more’

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2. enn (adv.): still, yet, again

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til ‘to’

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til (prep.): to

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sylgjar ‘the drinking’

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sylgr (noun m.; °dat. -): drink, draught

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hrapa ‘will tumble down’

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hrapa (verb): [tumble down, rush]

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hernumin ‘taken in battle’

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hræfíkinn (adj./verb p.p.)

notes

[9] hernumin ‘taken in battle’: Ms. hernumin (refreshed) ‘taken in battle’ raises the difficulty that ‘the children of the eagle and the wolf’ are otherwise presented in the stanza as benefiting from the battle (by drinking blood), not actively fighting in it or suffering as a result of it, activities that would hardly constitute an expected element in the ‘beasts-of-battle’ type scene widely used in skaldic poetry. In the absence of a Latin analogue at this point a secure emendation has not so far been suggested. Scheving proposed hræmunin, explained as ‘eager for corpses’ (reported but not adopted in Bret 1848-9). Skj B emends to hræfíkin ‘corpse-greedy’, which is suitable in terms of both metre and sense. Kock suggests hrapa á hræ numin, translated as störta sig över de gripna liken ‘collapse over the captured bodies’ (NN §2163E; Skald; followed by Merl 2012), but this fails for metrical reasons.

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hvártveggja ‘of both’

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hvárrtveggi (pron.): both

[10] hvártveggja: hvártveggi Hb

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Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses

See II 31 Note to [All]. Note the end-rhymes (ll. 1-2, 5-8) in this stanza, possibly imitated from such poems as Egill HflV(Eg). As elsewhere in his battle descriptions, Gunnlaugr reaches for special stylistic devices associated with traditional skaldic poetry.

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