GunnLeif Merl I 37^VIII

‘Láð munu láta         þeirs lifa eptir;
ferr in þingdjarfa         þjóð ór landi.
Býr blezaðr gramr         — sás brezkr jǫfurr —
skip sín á brott,         ok hann skjótla verðr
taliðr tírgǫfugr         í tolfta hǫll
sæll með sælum         settr guðs vinum.

‘Þeirs lifa eptir munu láta láð; in þingdjarfa þjóð ferr ór landi. Blezaðr gramr — sás brezkr jǫfurr — býr skip sín á brott, ok hann verðr skjótla taliðr tírgǫfugr settr í tolfta hǫll sæll með sælum vinum guðs.

‘Those who survive will abandon the land; the battle-daring people will go from the territory. A blessed king — he is the British leader — prepares his ships for departure and he will soon become reckoned glorious, seated in the twelfth hall, blessed among the blessed friends of God.

Mss: Hb(51v) (Bret)

Readings: [1] munu: mun Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 27, Skj BII, 31, Skald II, 19-20; Bret 1848-9, II, 51 (Bret st. 105); Hb 1892-6, 279; Merl 2012, 155.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.59-61; cf. Wright 1988, 103, prophecy 5): Residui natale solum deserent et exteras culturas seminabunt. Rex benedictus parabit nauigium et in aula duodecimi inter beatos annumerabitur ‘The survivors will leave their native soil and sow in foreign fields. A blessed king will prepare a fleet and will be numbered among the saints in the palace of the twelfth’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). This prophecy alludes to the exodus of the British people from their native land to settle in Armorica (Brittany). They are accompanied by King Cadualadrus, who after eleven years of exile contemplates a re-settlement of Britain but is summoned by an angelic voice to go to Rome to do penance in advance of eventual sanctification, as narrated in DGB XI (Reeve and Wright 2007, 276-81). — [1] munu ‘will’: Emended in Bret 1848-9, followed by all subsequent eds, from ms. mun. — [10] í tolfta ‘in the twelfth’: This apparently nonsensical expression must ultimately be due to an incorrect reading .xii. (expanded to duodecimi ‘of the twelfth’) in Geoffrey’s text, supplanting original *xri or *xti, i.e. Christi ‘of Christ’, in reference to the caelestis regni aula ‘palace of the heavenly kingdom’ mentioned in DGB XI (206.586: Reeve and Wright 2007, 281). The commentaries attempt to explain in ad hoc fashion, e.g. (Hammer 1940, 416): in aula duodecimi, id est in ecclesia beati Petri apostoli ‘in the hall of the twelfth, i.e. in the church of St Peter the apostle’ and ‘King Cadwaladre … was buried in the chirche of xij. Apostolles. and is a seint’ (Eckhardt 1982, 73). Emended to tólpti í and construed as ‘twelfth in [the hall]’ in Skj B, followed by Skald, on the basis of an incorrect interpretation of .xii. as duodecimus ‘twelfth’ in Bret 1848‑9. In a hybrid approach, Merl 2012 reads í tólpta hǫll but translates, in combination with hann skjótla verðr taliðr, as der Edle wird bald als zwölfter gerechnet in der Halle ‘the noble one will soon be reckoned as twelfth in the hall’, but this is ruled out by considerations of syntax and word order.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
6. 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.
7. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
8. Eckhardt, Caroline D. 1982. The Prophetia Merlini of Geoffrey of Monmouth: A Fifteenth-Century English Commentary. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America.
9. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
10. Hammer, Jacob. 1940. ‘A Commentary on the Prophetia Merlini (Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, Book VII)’. Speculum 15, 409-31.
11. Internal references
12. 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 2 May 2024)
13. Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 18 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 18)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 152.