GunnLeif Merl II 53VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 53 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 53)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 179.
‘Hagr gerisk hǫlða hættr í mǫrgu;
munat fyrða ráð fagrt at reyna.
Dyljask drjúgum draums ívaðendr;
við sjalfa sik sjásk ekki at.
‘Hagr hǫlða gerisk hættr í mǫrgu; munat fagrt at reyna ráð fyrða. Ívaðendr draums dyljask drjúgum; sjásk ekki at við sik sjalfa.
‘The state of men will become perilous in many ways; it will not be good to test the conduct of men. Wanderers in a dream, they will be massively deluded; they will not take heed about themselves.
Mss: Hb(50v) (Bret)
Readings: [4] fagrt: fagr Hb [6] draums: ‘dráms’ Hb
Editions: Skj AII, 19, Skj BII, 21, Skald II, 13; Bret 1848-9, II, 34 (Bret st. 53); Hb 1892-6, 276; Merl 2012, 115.
Notes: [4] fagrt ‘good’: Emended in Bret 1848-9, followed by all subsequent eds, from ms. fagr (refreshed). — [4] reyna ‘test’: This verb is attested in relation to God’s testing of Job and Abraham in HómÍsl (HómÍsl 1993, 29, 43; cf. ONP: reyna), and the sense is probably similar here. — [6] draums ‘in a dream’: Lit. ‘of a dream’. Emended in Bret 1848-9, followed by all subsequent eds, from ms. ‘dráms’ (refreshed). — [6] ívaðendr ‘wanderers’: A hap. leg.
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
- HómÍsl 1993 = de Leeuw van Weenen, Andrea, ed. 1993. The Icelandic Homily Book: Perg. 15 4° in the Royal Library, Stockholm. Íslensk handrit/Icelandic Manuscripts Series in quarto 3. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi.
- HómÍsl = Íslensk hómilíubók (The Icelandic Homily Book).
- 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.
- Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
- Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
- Internal references
- 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 11 May 2024)
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