GunnLeif Merl I 14VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 82 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 14)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 57.
Gerðu greppar, þats gumnum bauð;
varð vatni niðr veitt ór fjalli.
Ok seimgefendr snáka þekðu
tryggðarlausa, sem Týr firum
hafði Hristar hugspár sagat.
Greppar gerðu, þats bauð gumnum; varð vatni veitt niðr ór fjalli. Ok {seimgefendr} þekðu tryggðarlausa snáka, sem {hugspár Týr Hristar} hafði sagat firum.
Men did as he ordered them; the lake was drained down from the mountain. And {the givers of treasure} [GENEROUS MEN] could see the treacherous snakes, just as {the prophetic-minded Týr <god> of Hrist <valkyrie>} [WARRIOR = Merlin] had said to men.
Mss: Hb(51r) (Bret)
Editions: Skj AII, 24, Skj BII, 27, Skald II, 17; Bret 1848-9, II, 43 (Bret st. 82); Hb 1892-6, 278; Merl 2012, 139.
Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 108 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 141.575): Credidit rex uerbis eius quia uerum dixerat de stagno et iussit illud hauriri ‘Because he had been right about the pool, the king believed him and ordered it to be drained’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 140). — [2] gumnum ‘them’: Lit. ‘men’. — [8, 9] Týr Hristar ‘the Týr <god> of Hrist <valkyrie> [WARRIOR = Merlin]’: The name of the valkyrie, Hrist, functions, like the more common valkyrie-name Hildr, as a replacement for the concept ‘battle’, to create a warrior-kenning, with the base-word the name of the god Týr; cf. Meissner 273. — [10] sagat ‘said’: See Note to I 4/3.
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
- 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.
- Reeve, Michael D., and Neil Wright. 2007. Geoffrey of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of Britain. An Edition and Translation of De gestis Britonum [Historia regum Britanniae]. Woodbridge: Boydell.
- 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 25 April 2024)
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