Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 59

Russell Poole

notes

[2] heiðar stjǫrnur ‘the bright stars’: De Vries (1964-7, II, 75 n. 179) compares Vsp 57/4.

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stjǫrnur ‘stars’

(not checked:)
stjarna (noun f.; °*-u; *-ur): star

notes

[2] heiðar stjǫrnur ‘the bright stars’: De Vries (1964-7, II, 75 n. 179) compares Vsp 57/4.

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má ‘it will not be possible’

(not checked:)
mega (verb): may, might

notes

[3-4] má marka ... hvergi moldar ‘it will not be possible anywhere on earth to distinguish’: An impersonal construction, lit. ‘one can distinguish nowhere of earth’. The sense, in the context of ll. 5-8 and II 60/1-4, appears to be that the stars (and with them the sun and the moon, II 58/5-8), following perturbed courses, can no longer be identified or distinguished one from another, even if they are still visible. With that, human systems of time-keeping and navigation would collapse, an idea hinted at in II 57/6 tíðmǫrk himins ‘time-markers of heaven’. Cf. the admonition to the would-be merchant in Kgs (Holm-Olsen 1983, 130): Nemðu uandliga birting lopz oc gang himintvngla ‘Note carefully the illumination of the sky and the movement of the heavenly bodies’. Skj B translates marka af as tage mærke af ‘take notice of, recognise’, cf. Bret 1848-9 and Merl 2012.

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marka ‘to distinguish’

(not checked:)
marka (verb): to draw, mark, carve

notes

[3-4] má marka ... hvergi moldar ‘it will not be possible anywhere on earth to distinguish’: An impersonal construction, lit. ‘one can distinguish nowhere of earth’. The sense, in the context of ll. 5-8 and II 60/1-4, appears to be that the stars (and with them the sun and the moon, II 58/5-8), following perturbed courses, can no longer be identified or distinguished one from another, even if they are still visible. With that, human systems of time-keeping and navigation would collapse, an idea hinted at in II 57/6 tíðmǫrk himins ‘time-markers of heaven’. Cf. the admonition to the would-be merchant in Kgs (Holm-Olsen 1983, 130): Nemðu uandliga birting lopz oc gang himintvngla ‘Note carefully the illumination of the sky and the movement of the heavenly bodies’. Skj B translates marka af as tage mærke af ‘take notice of, recognise’, cf. Bret 1848-9 and Merl 2012.

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því ‘for that cause’

(not checked:)
því (adv.): therefore, because

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moldar ‘on earth’

(not checked:)
mold (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -u; -ir): earth, soil

notes

[3-4] má marka ... hvergi moldar ‘it will not be possible anywhere on earth to distinguish’: An impersonal construction, lit. ‘one can distinguish nowhere of earth’. The sense, in the context of ll. 5-8 and II 60/1-4, appears to be that the stars (and with them the sun and the moon, II 58/5-8), following perturbed courses, can no longer be identified or distinguished one from another, even if they are still visible. With that, human systems of time-keeping and navigation would collapse, an idea hinted at in II 57/6 tíðmǫrk himins ‘time-markers of heaven’. Cf. the admonition to the would-be merchant in Kgs (Holm-Olsen 1983, 130): Nemðu uandliga birting lopz oc gang himintvngla ‘Note carefully the illumination of the sky and the movement of the heavenly bodies’. Skj B translates marka af as tage mærke af ‘take notice of, recognise’, cf. Bret 1848-9 and Merl 2012. — [4] hvergi moldar ‘anywhere on earth’: Lit. ‘nowhere of earth’: A well attested usage, for the syntax of which see Fritzner: hvergi adv. 3; CVC, LP: hvergi. The line is so construed in Skj B. In Bret 1848-9, by contrast, hvergi moldar appears to be interpreted as ‘nowhere in the firmament’, but that is unlikely in view of the standard senses of mold ‘earth’. Merl 2012 takes a radically different approach, construing hvergi as equivalent to hverrgi ‘no one’, taken as subject of má ‘can’, but a phrase hver[r]gi moldar, translated as keiner auf der Erde ‘no one on Earth’, is not otherwise attested.

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moldar ‘on earth’

(not checked:)
mold (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -u; -ir): earth, soil

notes

[3-4] má marka ... hvergi moldar ‘it will not be possible anywhere on earth to distinguish’: An impersonal construction, lit. ‘one can distinguish nowhere of earth’. The sense, in the context of ll. 5-8 and II 60/1-4, appears to be that the stars (and with them the sun and the moon, II 58/5-8), following perturbed courses, can no longer be identified or distinguished one from another, even if they are still visible. With that, human systems of time-keeping and navigation would collapse, an idea hinted at in II 57/6 tíðmǫrk himins ‘time-markers of heaven’. Cf. the admonition to the would-be merchant in Kgs (Holm-Olsen 1983, 130): Nemðu uandliga birting lopz oc gang himintvngla ‘Note carefully the illumination of the sky and the movement of the heavenly bodies’. Skj B translates marka af as tage mærke af ‘take notice of, recognise’, cf. Bret 1848-9 and Merl 2012. — [4] hvergi moldar ‘anywhere on earth’: Lit. ‘nowhere of earth’: A well attested usage, for the syntax of which see Fritzner: hvergi adv. 3; CVC, LP: hvergi. The line is so construed in Skj B. In Bret 1848-9, by contrast, hvergi moldar appears to be interpreted as ‘nowhere in the firmament’, but that is unlikely in view of the standard senses of mold ‘earth’. Merl 2012 takes a radically different approach, construing hvergi as equivalent to hverrgi ‘no one’, taken as subject of má ‘can’, but a phrase hver[r]gi moldar, translated as keiner auf der Erde ‘no one on Earth’, is not otherwise attested.

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hvergi ‘anywhere’

(not checked:)
1. hvergi (adv.): nowhere

notes

[3-4] má marka ... hvergi moldar ‘it will not be possible anywhere on earth to distinguish’: An impersonal construction, lit. ‘one can distinguish nowhere of earth’. The sense, in the context of ll. 5-8 and II 60/1-4, appears to be that the stars (and with them the sun and the moon, II 58/5-8), following perturbed courses, can no longer be identified or distinguished one from another, even if they are still visible. With that, human systems of time-keeping and navigation would collapse, an idea hinted at in II 57/6 tíðmǫrk himins ‘time-markers of heaven’. Cf. the admonition to the would-be merchant in Kgs (Holm-Olsen 1983, 130): Nemðu uandliga birting lopz oc gang himintvngla ‘Note carefully the illumination of the sky and the movement of the heavenly bodies’. Skj B translates marka af as tage mærke af ‘take notice of, recognise’, cf. Bret 1848-9 and Merl 2012. — [4] hvergi moldar ‘anywhere on earth’: Lit. ‘nowhere of earth’: A well attested usage, for the syntax of which see Fritzner: hvergi adv. 3; CVC, LP: hvergi. The line is so construed in Skj B. In Bret 1848-9, by contrast, hvergi moldar appears to be interpreted as ‘nowhere in the firmament’, but that is unlikely in view of the standard senses of mold ‘earth’. Merl 2012 takes a radically different approach, construing hvergi as equivalent to hverrgi ‘no one’, taken as subject of má ‘can’, but a phrase hver[r]gi moldar, translated as keiner auf der Erde ‘no one on Earth’, is not otherwise attested.

Close

hvergi ‘anywhere’

(not checked:)
1. hvergi (adv.): nowhere

notes

[3-4] má marka ... hvergi moldar ‘it will not be possible anywhere on earth to distinguish’: An impersonal construction, lit. ‘one can distinguish nowhere of earth’. The sense, in the context of ll. 5-8 and II 60/1-4, appears to be that the stars (and with them the sun and the moon, II 58/5-8), following perturbed courses, can no longer be identified or distinguished one from another, even if they are still visible. With that, human systems of time-keeping and navigation would collapse, an idea hinted at in II 57/6 tíðmǫrk himins ‘time-markers of heaven’. Cf. the admonition to the would-be merchant in Kgs (Holm-Olsen 1983, 130): Nemðu uandliga birting lopz oc gang himintvngla ‘Note carefully the illumination of the sky and the movement of the heavenly bodies’. Skj B translates marka af as tage mærke af ‘take notice of, recognise’, cf. Bret 1848-9 and Merl 2012. — [4] hvergi moldar ‘anywhere on earth’: Lit. ‘nowhere of earth’: A well attested usage, for the syntax of which see Fritzner: hvergi adv. 3; CVC, LP: hvergi. The line is so construed in Skj B. In Bret 1848-9, by contrast, hvergi moldar appears to be interpreted as ‘nowhere in the firmament’, but that is unlikely in view of the standard senses of mold ‘earth’. Merl 2012 takes a radically different approach, construing hvergi as equivalent to hverrgi ‘no one’, taken as subject of má ‘can’, but a phrase hver[r]gi moldar, translated as keiner auf der Erde ‘no one on Earth’, is not otherwise attested.