GunnLeif Merl I 38VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 106 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 38)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 75.
Svá ‘Thus’
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svá (adv.): so, thus
tœmir ‘will be emptied’
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tœma (verb): [was allotted]
notes
[1] tœmir ‘will be emptied’: The verb is used impersonally. This is one of only two attestations in poetry, both in C12th or later texts (LP: tœma).
láð ‘the land’
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2. láð (noun n.): earth, land
lýða ‘of men’
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lýðr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -; -ir): one of the people
kennings
bǫrnum lýða —‘the children of men — ’
= MANKIND
the children of men — → MANKIND
bǫrnum ‘the children’
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barn (noun n.; °-s; bǫrn/barn(JKr 345³), dat. bǫrnum/barnum): child
kennings
bǫrnum lýða —‘the children of men — ’
= MANKIND
the children of men — → MANKIND
drífr ‘will stream’
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2. drífa (verb; °drífr; dreif, drifu; drifinn): drive, rush
hryggr ‘the grieving’
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2. hryggr (adj.; °-van/-jan; compar. -vari/-ari/-ri; superl. -astr): sorrowful, sad
heðan ‘from here’
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heðan (adv.): hence, from this place
herr ‘people’
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herr (noun m.; °-s/-jar, dat. -; -jar, gen. -ja/herra): army, host
notes
[4] herr ‘people’: Merl 2012 reads acc. sg. her, treats drífr as transitive and construes hryggr as the subject (adj. for noun), yielding a translation traurig drängt er (man?) die Menge von hier aus dem Land ‘sorrowful he (one?) expels the multitude from here out of the land’. But this fits poorly with DGB and leaves the identity of the person described as hryggr ‘sorrowful’ unexplained; moreover, the required sense of drífa is attested in only a single dubious instance (ONP: drífa B út 2). Geminate <r> is frequently simplified in Hb (Hb 1892-6, xliii).
ór ‘out of’
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3. ór (prep.): out of
landi ‘the land’
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land (noun n.; °-s; *-): land
at ‘so that’
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4. at (conj.): that
skógar ‘the forests’
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skógr (noun m.; °-ar/-s, dat. -i; -ar): forest
[5] skógar: skjótla Hb
notes
[5] skógar ‘forests’: Emended by Bret 1848-9, followed by all eds, for ms. skjótla ‘quickly’ (not refreshed), an anticipation of the next line. Also possible would be the reverse order skjótla … skógar.
þar ‘there’
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þar (adv.): there
skjótla ‘will quickly’
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skjótla (adv.)
vaxa ‘grow’
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vaxa (verb): grow, increase
es ‘where’
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2. er (conj.): who, which, when
ársamir ‘fertile’
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ársamr (adj.): °fertile
akrar ‘fields’
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akr (noun m.; °akrs, dat. akri; akrar): field
vôru ‘there were’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
fyrr ‘previously’
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fyrr (adv.): before, sooner
með ‘among’
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með (prep.): with
fyrðum ‘men’
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2. fyrðr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -): man
á ‘in’
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3. á (prep.): on, at
fold ‘the land’
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fold (noun f.): land
Breta ‘of the Britons’
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Breti (noun m.; °; -ar): Briton
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.61-2; cf. Wright 1988, 103, prophecy 5): Erit miseranda regni desolatio, et areae messium in fruticosos saltus redibunt ‘There will be grievous desolation in the kingdom and the threshing-floors for harvest will revert to fruitful glades’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). This passage would make better sense if in infructuosos ‘in unfruitful’, the reading of ms. H of the First Variant Version were adopted (Wright 1988, 103), thus correcting an obvious haplography. This is done by e.g. the Anglo-Norman decasyllabic translation: lande senz fruit ‘fruitless scrub’ (Blacker 2005, 35) and Alain de Flandres (Wille 2015, 128). Implicitly, at least, Gunnlaugr’s skógar ‘forests’ are unfruitful: it is unclear whether he knew such a reading or has rationalised the text on his own initiative. Geoffrey explains in DGB XI that the famine and plague are so severe that the Saxons cannot survive in Britain any better than the Britons (Reeve and Wright 2007, 278-9). Gunnlaugr interweaves motifs from the source passage corresponding to I 36.
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