Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 7 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 140.
‘Illr es annarr; allir svelta,
þeirs af bekki bergja drekku.
Þós inn þriðja þyngst at reyna;
deyja þeir allir, es þar drekka af;
né hræ guma hyljask foldu.
‘Annarr es illr; allir svelta, þeirs bergja drekku af bekki. Þós inn þriðja þyngst at reyna; allir deyja, þeir es þar drekka af; né hyljask hræ guma foldu.
‘The second is bad; all those who taste a drink from the stream will die. Yet the third is most grievous to try; all those who drink from it will die; nor will men’s corpses be covered with earth.
Mss: Hb(49r) (Bret)
Readings: [3] bekki: bekkjar Hb
Editions: Skj AII, 11, Skj BII, 11, Skald II, 7; Bret 1848-9, II, 16 (Bret st. 7); Hb 1892-6, 272; Merl 2012, 71-2.
Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 151.149-51; cf. Wright 1988, 107, prophecy 31): Qui bibet de altero indeficienti fame peribit, et in facie ipsius pallor et horror sedebit. Qui bibet de tercio subita morte periclitabitur, nec corpus ipsius subire poterit sepulchrum ‘Whoever drinks from the second will die of a thirst that cannot be quenched, and a ghastly pallor will appear on his face. Whoever drinks from the third will die a sudden death, and no one will be able to bury his body’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 150). The notion of pallor et horror is not represented in Merl. — [3-4] bergja drekku af bekki ‘taste a drink from the stream’: The refreshed reading bekkjar is emended to bekki ‘stream’ (dat. sg.) in this edn. Bret, Skj B, Skald and Merl 2012 have bergja af drekku bekkjar ‘taste a drink of the stream’, lit. ‘taste from a drink of the stream’. But the emendation provides a better fit with the attestations of bergja in ONP: bergja 1, where the prep. af represents the source of the thing tasted rather than the thing itself. — [9] guma (gen. pl.) ‘men’s’: This form is not uncommon, beside gumna; cf. ANG §401. 3. Gen. pl. guma also occurs at II 16/10 and II 35/5.
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