GunnLeif Merl II 38^VIII

‘En galti þat         gengr at reyna;
blæss hann í andlit         ok í augu gram.
En refr við þat         ræðr á galta;
fær hann af hánum         fót inn vinstra
hlust ina hœgri         ok hryggjar nes.

‘En galti gengr at reyna þat; hann blæss í andlit ok í augu gram. En refr ræðr á galta við þat; hann fær inn vinstra fót af hánum, ina hœgri hlust ok {nes hryggjar}.

‘And the boar will go to test that; he will blow in the face and eyes of the ruler. But thereupon the fox will attack the boar; he will take from him the left foot, the right ear, and {the headland of the back} [TAIL].

Mss: Hb(50r) (Bret)

Readings: [2] gengr: ‘egiar’(?) apparently corrected from gengr during the process of refreshing Hb    [10] ok: firi Hb;    hryggjar: ‘hrydiar’ Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 17, Skj BII, 18, Skald II, 11, NN §2163F; Bret 1848-9, II, 29 (Bret st. 38); Hb 1892-6, 275; Merl 2012, 102-3.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 155.193-6; cf. Wright 1988, 109, prophecy 42): Mox adibit ipse cadauer et dum superstabit anhelabit in oculos eius et faciem. At ipsa, non oblita præteriti doli, mordebit sinistrum pedem ipsius totumque ex corpore euellet. Saltu quoque facto, eripiet ei dexteram aurem et caudam ‘It will at once approach the fox’s body and, standing over it, will breathe into its eyes and face. But the fox, not forgetting its old cunning, will bite the boar’s left foot and tear it from its body. Then, leaping up, it will bite off its right ear and tail’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 154). — [2] gengr ‘will go’: The refreshed reading in Hb has previously been taken as ‘eggiar’ (Hb 1892-6, 275; read as eggjar by Bret 1848-9 and Merl 2012) or emended variously to girnisk (Skj B) and getr (NN §2163F; Skald). But as refreshed the ms. seems to read ‘egiar’, with minuscule <g> and a contraction mark running above the three letters ‘egi’, rather than ‘eggiar’. On this basis, emendation to (or more precisely restoration of) gengr is proposed in the present edn. The word gengr written with a mark of contraction above the second <g> is seen in the ms. text of II 25/8 and II 31/6. This solution is more economical than those of Skj B and Skald and gives good sense in context, corresponding to DGB’s adibit ‘will approach’, as contrasted with eggjar, which Bret 1848-9 is obliged to translate freely as önsker ‘wishes’, not otherwise an attested meaning of the verb (ONP: eggja ‘sharpen, urge on, goad, incite’); Merl 2012 presupposes an otherwise undocumented intransitive use of eggja. — [3] hann ‘he’: Omitted in Skald. — [10] ok ‘and’: Emended in Bret 1848-9, followed by subsequent eds, from ms. firi (refreshed). — [10] hryggjar ‘of the back’: Emended in Bret 1848-9, followed by subsequent eds, from ms. ‘hrydiar’ (refreshed). — [10] nes hryggjar ‘the headland of the back [TAIL]’: This unusual kenning is clarified in II 40/7.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
6. 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.
7. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
8. 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.
9. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
10. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
11. Internal references
12. 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)