GunnLeif Merl II 4^VIII

Ljós mun lýðum         ljóðbók vesa;
þós í frœði         flest at ráða,
þats fyrir jǫfurr         ǫldum sagði
brezkri þjóðu;         nú skal brag kveða.

Ljóðbók mun vesa ljós lýðum; þós flest at ráða í frœði, þats jǫfurr sagði brezkri þjóðu fyrir ǫldum; nú skal kveða brag.

The song-book will be clear to men; yet most [of it] is to be interpreted by means of wisdom that ages ago the leader imparted to the British people; now the poem shall be recited.

Mss: Hb(49r) (Bret)

Readings: [2] ljóðbók: ljóðborg Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 11, Skj BII, 11, Skald II, 7, NN §93; Bret 1848-9, II, 15 (Bret st. 4); Hb 1892-6, 272; Merl 2012, 68-70.

Notes: [All]: Here Gunnlaugr concludes his introduction. — [2] ljóðbók ‘song-book’: Emended in this edn from ms. ljóðborg ‘city of song’ (refreshed). Such a cpd would normally be construed as a kenning meaning ‘mouth, chest’ and similar, but the sense required by context is ‘poem’, as posited in Bret 1848-9 and Skj B. Gunnlaugr refers elsewhere to the parts of this poem as bók (I 95/2, II 63/3) or bœkr, the latter collocated with adj. bjartar ‘bright’ (I 96/3-4), corresponding to ljós ‘clear’ here. Cf. ljóðabók ‘book of lays’ (CVC, ONP: ljóðabók). Possibly Latin titles such as Herbert of Bosham’s well-known Liber melorum ‘Book of songs/harmonies’, written shortly after 1186 (cf. Smalley 1973, 79), suggested this expression. — [5, 6] fyrir ǫldum ‘ages ago’: This interpretation follows Skj B. Kock, followed by Merl 2012, objects to the complicated word order and instead proposes, with parallels from West Germanic poetry, that ǫldum and brezkri þjóðu (l. 6) should be read as in apposition (NN §93): vad fursten forutsagt för människorna, för det bretonska folket ‘what the leader prophesied before men, before the British people’. But Gunnlaugr occasionally uses complex word orders (cf. I 13/5-10, I 54/9-12, I 63/5-8), whereas the typically West Germanic style of variation imputed to him by Kock is nowhere unmistakably exemplified. — [5] jǫfurr ‘the leader’: There is nothing in DGB to justify reference to Merlin as jǫfurr, a heiti whose attestations relate specifically to leaders and rulers (LP: jǫfurr), but possibly the use of this heiti reflects influence from Geoffrey’s later Vita Merlini, which narrates the life of Merlin Caledonius (also known as Silvestris) (Poole 2014, 23-4). Crick (2011, 70-1) comments that often medieval commentators failed to discriminate between Merlin Caledonius and Merlin Ambrosius, and Merlinian prophecy circulated without precise attribution. For a probable instance of this confusion see Curley (1982, 220); Gunnlaugr might have drawn upon such a commentary. For references to Merlin Caledonius as king see Clarke’s edn of Vita Merlini (1973, 52-3). — [8] skal ‘shall’: The verb is impersonal. Emendation to skalk ‘I shall’, with Merl 2012, is unnecessary.

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. 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.
6. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
7. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
8. 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.
9. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
10. Smalley, Beryl. 1973. The Becket Conflict and the Schools: A Study of Intellectuals in Politics. Oxford: Blackwell.
11. Crick, Julia C. 2011. ‘Geoffrey and the Prophetic Tradition’. In Echard 2011, 67-82.
12. Curley, Michael J. 1982. ‘A New Edition of John of Cornwall’s Prophetia Merlini’. Speculum, 217-49.
13. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
14. Poole, Russell. 2014. ‘Gunnlaugr Leifsson’s Uses in Merlínússpá of Twelfth-century English Sources Additional to the De gestis Britonum of Geoffrey of Monmouth’. In Chase 2014, 16-30.
15. Internal references
16. 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 6 May 2024)