Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 107 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 39)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 76.
‘Þá mun inn hvíti hjarlþvengr fara
snót saxneska snarráðr laða.
Ok með miklum mannfjǫlða kemr
fjarðbyggs Skǫgul fold at byggja.
‘Þá mun {inn hvíti hjarlþvengr} fara snarráðr laða saxneska snót. Ok {Skǫgul {fjarðbyggs}} kemr með miklum mannfjǫlða at byggja fold.
‘‘Then the white thong of the earth [SNAKE] will travel, with swift resolution, to invite the Saxon woman. And the Skǫgul <valkyrie> of fjord-barley [JEWEL (steinn ‘stone’) > WOMAN] will come with a great multitude of men to settle the land. ’
Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.63; cf. Wright 1985, 75, prophecy 6): Exurget iterum albus draco et filiam Germaniae inuitabit ‘The white dragon will rise again and summon Germany’s daughter’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). The absence of this sentence from the text of the Prophecies in the First Variant Version of DGB (Wright 1988, 103) misled J. S. Eysteinsson (1953-7, 102) into supposing Gunnlaugr derived the motif of the Saxon woman from DGB XI. Geoffrey tells in DGB XI that the Saxons who survived the hardships summoned more immigrants from Germania (Reeve and Wright 2007, 278-9); the filia Germaniae is evidently a representation of these people. By contrast, Gunnlaugr’s rather specific-sounding phrase, snót saxneska, along with the second helmingr, suggests that he interpreted the representation as referring to a specific woman, perhaps prompted by Geoffrey’s account of the key role in the invasion played by Hengest’s daughter Ronwein in DGB VI (Reeve and Wright 2007, 128‑31).
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Þa mvn en hviti | hiarl þvengr fara snot saxneska snarraðr laða ok með miklvm mannfiolða kemr fiarðbygs | skogvl folld at byɢia ·
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