GunnLeif Merl II 46^VIII

‘Es á hans dǫgum         hǫggormr alinn,
sás fyrðum vill         fjǫrspell gera.
Svá es hann langr,         at of Lundúnir
heiðar hvalr         hring of mælir
ok svá óðr,         at urðar sigðr
umlíðendr         alla gleypir.

‘Hǫggormr es alinn á dǫgum hans, sás vill gera fyrðum fjǫrspell. Hann es svá langr, at {hvalr heiðar} of mælir hring of Lundúnir, ok svá óðr, at {sigðr urðar} gleypir alla umlíðendr.

‘In his days a serpent will be born who will bring about an end to life for men. It is so long that {the whale of the heath} [SNAKE] will measure a circle around London and so ferocious that {the sickle of the cairn} [SNAKE] will devour all passers-by.

Mss: Hb(50r) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 18, Skj BII, 19, Skald II, 12, NN §§2163B, 2820; Bret 1848-9, II, 32 (Bret st. 46); Hb 1892-6, 275-6; Merl 2012, 109-10.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 155.204-6; cf. Wright 1988, 110, prophecy 45): In diebus eius nascetur serpens, quae neci mortalium imminebit. Longitudine sua circuibit Lundoniam et quosque pretereuntes deuorabit ‘In its time will be born a snake which will threaten men with death. It will coil itself around London and devour all who pass by’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 154). — [7]: A trisyllabic line, like ll. 9 and 11. Kock suggests (NN §§2163B; Skald) filling out l. 7 with initial at, shifted from the previous line, to yield regular fornyrðislag metre. But this unnecessarily complicates the word order and obscures the sense. He further suggests filling out l. 9 with es hann, on the analogy of l. 5 and would regularise l. 11 into fornyrðislag by reading umlíðanda. But the occurrence of three short lines in the one stanza militates against emendation, and it may be that Gunnlaugr is foreshadowing the sequence of kviðuháttr stanzas from II 62 onwards that concludes Merl II. — [10] sigðr urðar ‘the sickle of the cairn [SNAKE]’: A snake-kenning employing urð ‘cairn, pile of stones’ as an alternative to more common determinants such as words for ‘earth’ and ‘ground’; cf. Meissner 113-14.

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. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
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. 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.
8. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
9. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
10. Internal references
11. 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 16 April 2024)
12. Russell Poole 2017, ‘ Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 134. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1222> (accessed 16 April 2024)