GunnLeif Merl I 1VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 69 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 48.
Nú skalk flotnum, þats forðum vas,
— hlýði fróðir mér fyrðar — segja,
at buðlungr sat Bretlandi at;
hét vellskati Vortígernus.
Hlýði mér fróðir fyrðar; nú skalk segja flotnum, þats vas forðum, at buðlungr sat at Bretlandi; vellskati hét Vortígernus.
Listen to me, wise men; now I shall tell men what once was, that a king resided in Britain; the generous man was called Vortigern.
Mss: Hb(50v) (Bret)
Editions: Skj AII, 22, Skj BII, 24, Skald II, 15; Bret 1848-9, II, 39 (Bret st. 69); Hb 1892-6, 277; Merl 2012, 129-30.
Notes: [All]: Vortigern was remembered in tradition, not necessarily accurately, as the C5th British leader who authorised the first settlement of the Saxon invaders in eastern Britain (Hunter Blair 1963, 161-4; Bromwich 1978, 386-7). Geoffrey’s much elaborated account of his rise to power occurs in DGB VI.
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- 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.
- Bromwich, Rachel, ed. 1978. Trioedd Ynys Prydein. 2nd edn. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
- Hunter Blair, Peter. 1963. Roman Britain and Early England 55 B.C. – A.D. 871. Edinburgh: Nelson.
- 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 7 May 2024)
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