GunnLeif Merl I 102VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 170 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 102)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 133.
Varð ‘had’
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1. verða (verb): become, be
in ‘The’
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2. inn (art.): the
enska ‘English’
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enskr (adj.): English
ætt ‘people’
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1. ætt (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): family
fyr ‘some time’
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fyr (prep.): for, over, because of, etc.
stundu ‘ago’
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stund (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -u/-; -ir): time, hour
veldis ‘their dominion’
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veldi (noun n.): realm
missa ‘to lose’
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2. missa (verb): lose, lack
nús ‘now’
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nú (adv.): now
notes
[4] nú es valskr konungr ‘now there is a French king’: As noted in Merl 2012, the reference is to the Plantagenet dynasty of the House of Anjou, though which of the Angevin kings, Henry II (r. 1154-89), Richard I (r. 1189-99) and John (r. 1199-1216), Gunnlaugr had in mind is uncertain.
‘there is’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
notes
[4] nú es valskr konungr ‘now there is a French king’: As noted in Merl 2012, the reference is to the Plantagenet dynasty of the House of Anjou, though which of the Angevin kings, Henry II (r. 1154-89), Richard I (r. 1189-99) and John (r. 1199-1216), Gunnlaugr had in mind is uncertain.
valskr ‘a French’
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valskr (adj.): foreign, French
notes
[4] nú es valskr konungr ‘now there is a French king’: As noted in Merl 2012, the reference is to the Plantagenet dynasty of the House of Anjou, though which of the Angevin kings, Henry II (r. 1154-89), Richard I (r. 1189-99) and John (r. 1199-1216), Gunnlaugr had in mind is uncertain.
konungr ‘king’
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konungr (noun m.; °dat. -i, -s; -ar): king
notes
[4] nú es valskr konungr ‘now there is a French king’: As noted in Merl 2012, the reference is to the Plantagenet dynasty of the House of Anjou, though which of the Angevin kings, Henry II (r. 1154-89), Richard I (r. 1189-99) and John (r. 1199-1216), Gunnlaugr had in mind is uncertain.
Þós ‘Yet’
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þó (adv.): though
þeygi ‘in no way’
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þeygi (adv.): not at all
enn ‘has still’
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2. enn (adv.): still, yet, again
þeira ‘their’
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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
hætti ‘character’
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1. háttr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. hætti; hættir, acc. háttu): behaviour, measure, verse-form
liðit ‘vanished’
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liða (verb): travel
af ‘from’
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af (prep.): from
láði ‘the land’
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2. láð (noun n.): earth, land
né ‘neither has’
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né (conj.): nor
lýðs ‘of the people’
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lýðr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -; -ir): one of the people
Breta ‘of the British’
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Breti (noun m.; °; -ar): Briton
hvǫssum ‘sword’
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hvass (adj.; °-an; -ari, -astr): keen, sharp
mæki ‘by the sharp’
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mækir (noun m.): sword
hjarl ‘the land’
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hjarl (noun n.): land
eignaðisk ‘been taken over’
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eigna (verb; °-að-): acquire
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Gunnlaugr appears to refer to two developments that might be seen as prophesied by Merlin and due for fulfilment: 1) the obliteration of the English race and culture from Britain, 2) the conquest of Wales by the descendants of the Norman dynasty. Although a full conquest of Wales did not occur until some decades after the turn of the thirteenth century, i.e. after the probable date of composition of Merl, such a development must have seemed inevitable and indeed imminent from much earlier (Thomas 2008, 62-3).
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