GunnLeif Merl I 29VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 97 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 29)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 67.
Honum ‘it’
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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
notes
[1] honum ‘it’: The antecedent is orms ins hvíta ‘of the white snake’ (I 28/6).
fulltingir ‘will help’
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fulltingja (verb)
Fenrir ‘The Fenrir <mythical wolf>’
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Fenrir (noun m.): Fenrir
sjóvar ‘of the sea’
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sjór (noun m.): sea
Affríkar ‘Africans’
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Afríkr (noun m.): African person
útan ‘from overseas’
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útan (prep.): outside, without
fylgja ‘follow’
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2. fylgja (verb): follow, accompany
Verðr ‘There will be’
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1. verða (verb): become, be
kristnibrot ‘a breakdown of Christianity’
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kristnibrot (noun n.)
of ‘among’
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3. of (prep.): around, from; too
kyni ‘the kindred’
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1. kyn (noun n.; °-s; -): kin
þjóðar ‘of the people’
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þjóð (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -/-u; -ir): people
þó ‘yet’
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þó (adv.): though
munu ‘will’
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munu (verb): will, must
sjalfir ‘themselves’
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sjalfr (adj.): self
síðar ‘later’
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síðarr (adv.): later
nøkkvi ‘somewhat’
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2. nǫkkvi (adv.): somewhat, a little
enskir ‘the English’
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enskr (adj.): English
lýðir ‘people’
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lýðr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -; -ir): one of the people
allir ‘all’
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allr (adj.): all
skírask ‘be baptised’
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skíra (verb): baptise, purify
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 145.45-6; cf. Wright 1988, 102, prophecy 3): Sublimabit illum aequoreus lupus, quem Affricana nemora comitabuntur. Delebitur iterum religio ‘It [the Germanic worm] will be raised by a wolf from the sea, who will be accompanied by the forests of Africa. Religion will be destroyed again’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 144). The events prophesied here are narrated in DGB XI: the Saxons call for assistance from Gormundus, the king of the Africans, who has just subdued Ireland and therefore can be called the ‘wolf from the sea’; he brings an army composed of 160,000 Africans (J. S. Eysteinsson 1953-7, 100; for text see Reeve and Wright 2007, 256-7; on Geoffrey’s sources for the story of Gormundus see Tatlock 1950, 135-8). The first sentence is absent from some mss of DGB (Reeve and Wright 2007, 145) but must have been available to Gunnlaugr. Gunnlaugr rationalises the figurative ‘the forests of Africa’ and adds the idea that despite the breakdown of religion the English will in due course be baptised, as foreshadowed in DGB XI (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 258-9; J. S. Eysteinsson 1953-7, 100) and fully narrated in Bede HE I, 23-6 and Henry of Huntingdon HA Book III.
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