GunnLeif Merl I 16VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 84 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 16)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 59.
Gerisk ‘commences between’
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1. gera (verb): do, make
sókn ‘fight’
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sókn (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): attack, fight
mikil ‘A great’
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mikill (adj.; °mikinn): great, large
snáka ‘snakes’
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snákr (noun m.): snake
tveggja ‘the two’
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tveir (num. cardinal): two
gapa ‘gape’
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2. gapa (verb): gapa
grimmliga ‘savagely’
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grimmliga (adv.): fiercely
grundar ‘of the ground’
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grund (noun f.): earth, land
kennings
belti grundar‘the belts of the ground ’
= SNAKES
the belts of the ground → SNAKES
belti ‘the belts’
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belti (noun n.; °-s; -): belt
kennings
belti grundar‘the belts of the ground ’
= SNAKES
the belts of the ground → SNAKES
Hǫggvask ‘strike each other’
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hǫggva (verb): to strike, put to death, cut, hew
hœknir ‘The vicious’
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hœkinn (adj.): [vicious]
kennings
Hœknir gyrðingar hauðrs‘The vicious girdles of the earth ’
= SNAKES
The vicious girdles of the earth → SNAKES
notes
[5] hœknir ‘vicious’: A hap. leg., whose meaning and origin are uncertain but whose core sense has been stated as ‘greedy’ (LP: hœkinn; cf. CVC: hækinn). Finnur Jónsson translates with a query as kraftig ‘powerfully’ in Skj B; Merl 2012 has heftig ‘violently’. But if the etymological connection with hákr conjectured in LP is correct, the meaning might rather be ‘vicious, relentless’; cf. the ONP citation (ÍF 12, 303): Var hann því kallaðr Þorkell hákr, at hann eirði hvárki í orðum né verkum, við hvern sem hann átti ‘He was called Þorkell hákr because he never spared anyone in words or deeds with whom he had dealings’. The word hákr is attested only in nicknames; for (inconclusive) conjectures as to its core meaning and etymology see AEW: hákr.
hauðrs ‘of the earth’
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hauðr (noun n.): earth, ground
kennings
Hœknir gyrðingar hauðrs‘The vicious girdles of the earth ’
= SNAKES
The vicious girdles of the earth → SNAKES
gyrðingar ‘girdles’
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gyrðingr (noun m.): [girdles]
kennings
Hœknir gyrðingar hauðrs‘The vicious girdles of the earth ’
= SNAKES
The vicious girdles of the earth → SNAKES
blásask ‘blow’
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2. blása (verb; °blǽss; blés, blésu; blásinn): blow
eitri ‘venom’
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eitr (noun n.; °; dat. -um): poison
á ‘on’
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3. á (prep.): on, at
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
blôm ‘blue’
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blár (adj.): black
notes
[8] blôm eldi ‘blue fire’: The reference is probably to the blue flame emitted on combustion of sulphur. In a fragment of Barth extant in the mid-C13th Norwegian ms. AM 237 b fol (Loth 1969, 233), the phrase blár loge ‘blue flame’ is used to translate Lat. flamma sulphurea ‘sulphurous flame’ (cf. ONP: blár 3; Loth 1969, 221).
eldi ‘fire’
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eldr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i/-(HómÍsl¹(1993) 24v²⁴); -ar): fire
notes
[8] blôm eldi ‘blue fire’: The reference is probably to the blue flame emitted on combustion of sulphur. In a fragment of Barth extant in the mid-C13th Norwegian ms. AM 237 b fol (Loth 1969, 233), the phrase blár loge ‘blue flame’ is used to translate Lat. flamma sulphurea ‘sulphurous flame’ (cf. ONP: blár 3; Loth 1969, 221).
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Cf. DGB 111 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 145.27-8): commiserunt diram pugnam et ignem anhelitu procreabant ‘they fought a terrible battle and created fire with their breath’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 144). Gunnlaugr goes beyond DGB in specifying the emission of venom and the colour of the flame (on the latter see Note to l. 8 below).
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