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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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GunnLeif Merl I 41VIII

Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 109 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 41)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 77.

Gunnlaugr LeifssonMerlínusspá I
404142


Þá kórónask         kapps hvítdreki,
ok saxneskir         seggir ríkja.
En eirjǫfurr         ofan at stíga
verðr af brǫttum         borgararmi.

Þá kórónask hvítdreki kapps, ok saxneskir seggir ríkja. En eirjǫfurr verðr at stíga ofan af brǫttum borgararmi.

Then the white serpent of belligerence will be crowned and Saxon men will rule. And the copper lord has to climb down from the sheer city wall.

Mss: Hb(51v) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 27-8, Skj BII, 32, Skald II, 20; Bret 1848-9, II, 53 (Bret st. 109); Hb 1892-6, 279; Merl 2012, 158. 

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.65; cf. Wright 1988, 103, prophecy 7): Exin coronabitur Germanicus uermis et aeneus princeps humabitur ‘Then the Germanic worm will be crowned, and the prince of bronze buried’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). Gunnlaugr’s elaboration on the passing of the bronze prince raises the question of whether his copy-text contained the variant reading humiliabitur ‘will be humbled’, found in mss O and M, as also in mss a, H and R of the First Variant Version and the commentary by Alain de Flandres (Wille 2015, 129), rather than the standard reading humabitur ‘will be buried’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147, Wright 1988, 103). Alain explains the bronze horseman allegorically, as representing the British people (Wille 2015, 129), and Gunnlaugr’s understanding, in speaking of this figure climbing down, may have been similar. — [5] eirjǫfurr ‘the copper lord’: Referring to the effigy of Caduallo mentioned in st. 34. — [8] borgararmi ‘city wall’: Printed separately as borgar armi by all previous eds, but the cpd form borgararmr, referring especially to the outer wall of a fortress or city, is standard (ONP: borgararmr).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  3. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
  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. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
  9. Wille, Clara, ed. and trans. 2015. Alain de Flandres, Prophetie und Politik: die Explanatio in Prophetia Merlini Ambrosii des Alanus Flandrensis. Lateinische Sprache und Literatur des Mittelalters 49. Bern: Lang.
  10. Internal references
  11. 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 28 March 2024)
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