GunnLeif Merl I 17VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 85 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 17)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 59.
Forflótti vas fránn inn rauði;
bar inn ljósi hann liðr at bakka.
En hann hagliga hrøkkr at móti;
elti hann inn hvíta hugtrúr dreka.
Inn rauði fránn vas forflótti; inn ljósi liðr bar hann at bakka. En hann hrøkkr hagliga at móti; hugtrúr elti hann inn hvíta dreka.
The red serpent took flight, the white snake drove it to the bank. But it [the red snake] nimbly twists to resist; valiant, it pursued the white serpent.
Mss: Hb(51r) (Bret)
Editions: Skj AII, 24, Skj BII, 27, Skald II, 17; Bret 1848-9, II, 44 (Bret st. 85); Hb 1892-6, 278; Merl 2012, 141.
Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 111 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 145.28-30): Praeualebat autem albus draco rubeumque usque ad extremitatem lacus fugabat. At ille, cum se expulsum doluisset, impetum fecit in album ipsumque retro ire coegit ‘The white dragon began to get the upper hand and drove the red to the edge of the pool. But it was irked at being driven back and attacked the white, forcing it back in turn’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 144). — [2] fránn ‘serpent’: This rare heiti, attested solely in C12th or later religious poetry, derives from the adj. fránn ‘flashing’ (LP: fránn). — [4] liðr ‘the snake’: A variant form of the more common linnr m. ‘snake’ (cf. I 18/4 below and LP: 2. liðr m.)
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- 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 26 April 2024)
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