GunnLeif Merl I 23VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 91 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 23)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 63.
‘Farask mun krístni, kirkjur falla;
sás harmr hǫfugr; herr es í landi.
Þá mun enn eflask in auma þjóð;
áðr es harðla hnekt hennar kosti.
‘Krístni mun farask, kirkjur falla; sás hǫfugr harmr; herr es í landi. Þá mun in auma þjóð enn eflask; kosti hennar es áðr harðla hnekt.
‘Christianity will vanish, churches collapse; that is a grievous sorrow; the [invading] army is in the land. Then the miserable people will gain strength once more; prior to that their welfare is sorely checked.
Mss: Hb(51r) (Bret)
Editions: Skj AII, 25, Skj BII, 28, Skald II, 18; Bret 1848-9, II, 46 (Bret st. 91); Hb 1892-6, 278; Merl 2012, 144-5.
Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 145.38-9; cf. Wright 1988, 102, prophecies 1 and 2): Cultus religionis delebitur, et ruina ecclesiarum patebit. Praeualebit tandem oppressa et saeuiciae exterorum resistet ‘Religious observance will be destroyed and churches stand in ruins. At last the oppressed will rise up and resist the foreigners’ fury’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 144).
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 24 April 2024)
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