GunnLeif Merl II 47^VIII

‘Hann Kambríe         kallar sveitir
ok Norðhumru         nánar hjarðir.
Ok ótrautt         Tems at þurru
drengs dolgþorins         drekka lýðir.

‘Hann kallar sveitir Kambríe ok hjarðir nánar Norðhumru. Ok lýðir dolgþorins drengs drekka ótrautt Tems at þurru.

‘It will summon the bands of Cambria and the herds near Northumbria. And without reluctance the people of the battle-resolute warrior will drink the Thames dry.

Mss: Hb(50r) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 18, Skj BII, 19-20, Skald II, 12, NN §2163B; Bret 1848-9, II, 32 (Bret st. 47); Hb 1892-6, 276; Merl 2012, 110-11.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 155.208-9; cf. Wright 1988, 110, prophecy 46): Associabit sibi greges Albanorum et Kambriae, qui Tamensem potando siccabunt ‘It will ally itself to the flocks of Scotland and Wales, which will drink the Thames dry’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 154). The previous sentence in Geoffrey’s text is not represented in Merl. — [3-4] hjarðir nánar Norðhumru ‘the herds near Northumbria’: Presumably the Scots. Gunnlaugr does not use a name corresponding to Geoffrey’s Albania ‘Scotland’ (cf. I 64/4, where he translates Geoffrey’s Albania with Skotland). — [5] ótrautt ‘without reluctance’: Kock suggests (NN §§2163B; Skald) reading ótrauðla, adv. with similar meaning, so as to restore regular fornyrðislag, but see Note to II 46/11. — [6] at þurru ‘dry’: For this use of the prep. at with adj. to denote the result of an action, see CVC: at with dat. C VII; ONP: at I with dat. D 14. — [7] dolgþorins drengs ‘of the battle-resolute warrior’: Referring back to the serpent-king of II 46/1 (represented by hann ‘it’ in 47/1), with a characteristic rationalisation of the allegory on Gunnlaugr’s part; Merl 2012 unnecessarily posits some other antecedent.

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. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
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 19 April 2024)