GunnLeif Merl I 21VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 89 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 21)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 62.
‘Táknar inn rauði rás fagrsili,’
kvað bjóðr bragar, ‘brezka lýði,
en inn hvíti naðr ina heiðnu þjóð,
es byggja mun brezkar jarðir.
‘{Inn rauði fagrsili rás},’ kvað {bjóðr bragar}, ‘táknar brezka lýði, en inn hvíti naðr ina heiðnu þjóð, es mun byggja brezkar jarðir.
‘{The red fine rope of the earth} [SNAKE],’ said {the offerer of poetry} [POET = Merlin], ‘stands for the British people, and the white snake for the heathen folk who will settle the British lands.
Mss: Hb(51r) (Bret)
Readings: [5] naðr: maðr Hb [6] heiðnu: heiðna Hb
Editions: Skj AII, 24-5, Skj BII, 28, Skald II, 17; Bret 1848-9, II, 46 (Bret st. 89); Hb 1892-6, 278; Merl 2012, 143-4.
Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 145.34-6; cf. Wright 1988, 102, prophecy 1): Cauernas ipsius occupabit albus draco, qui Saxones quos inuitasti significat. Rubeus uero gentem designat Britanniae, quae ab albo opprimetur ‘Its caves will be taken by the white dragon, which symbolises the Saxons whom you have summoned. The red represents the people of Britain, whom the white will oppress’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 144). Gunnlaugr rationalises the ‘caves’ as ‘lands’. — [2] fagrsili rás ‘the fine rope of the earth [SNAKE]’: See Note to I 12/8. The cpd fagrsili is a hap. leg. — [5] naðr ‘snake’: Emended by Bret 1848-9, followed by all subsequent eds, from ms. maðr ‘man’ (not refreshed). Cf. I 32/2.
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.
- 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.
- Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
- 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 18 April 2024)
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