GunnLeif Merl I 32^VIII

‘Líðr nauðr yfir         naðr inn hvíta;
es hans kyn kvalit         ok konur ristnar.
Ræntr es hann borgum         ok búi mǫrgu,
fé hvers konar,         foldu grœnni;
eru grimmliga         gumnar drepnir.

‘Nauðr líðr yfir inn hvíta naðr; kyn hans es kvalit ok konur ristnar. Hann es ræntr borgum ok mǫrgu búi, fé hvers konar, grœnni foldu; gumnar eru grimmliga drepnir.

‘Hardship will overwhelm the white snake; his kindred will be tormented and his women lacerated. He will be robbed of cities and many an estate, property of every kind, the green land; men will be slaughtered savagely.

Mss: Hb(51v) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 26, Skj BII, 30, Skald II, 19; Bret 1848-9, II, 49 (Bret st. 100); Hb 1892-6, 279; Merl 2012, 151.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.51-5; cf. Wright 1988, 102, prophecy 4): Tunc infortunium albi festinabit et aedificia ortulorum eius diruentur … Ventres matrum secabuntur, et infantes abortiui erunt. Erit ingens supplicium hominum ut indigenae restituantur ‘Then the misfortune of the white will be hastened and the buildings in its gardens be destroyed … Mothers’ bellies will be cut open and infants aborted. People will suffer greatly in order that the natives be restored’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). The prophecy refers to the reconquest of the Britons led by King Caduallo recounted in DGB XI (Reeve and Wright 2007, 272-3). — [4] ok konur ristnar ‘and his women lacerated’: Gunnlaugr characteristically slightly tones down the reference to murderous abortion. — [5-8]: Gunnlaugr expands on the implications for land and property, as occasionally elsewhere: cf. I 41 Note to [All], I 42 Note to [All], I 62 Note to [All]. — [5] hann ‘he’: Omitted in Skald for metrical reasons.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. 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.
4. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
5. 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.
6. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
7. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
8. Internal references
9. 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 1 May 2024)