GunnLeif Merl I 42VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 110 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 42)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 78.
‘Eru laufviðar ljósum fjǫtri
takmǫrk gefin í tali ára.
Munat hann ríkja of in rǫmmu skǫp
né því inu fagra fróni ráða.
‘Takmǫrk eru gefin {ljósum fjǫtri laufviðar} í tali ára. Hann munat ríkja of in rǫmmu skǫp né ráða því inu fagra fróni.
‘Limits are set {to the white fetter of the leafy tree} [SNAKE] as to number of years. He will not govern the mighty fates nor rule that fair land.
Mss: Hb(51v) (Bret)
Editions: Skj AII, 28, Skj BII, 32, Skald II, 20; Bret 1848-9, II, 53 (Bret st. 110); Hb 1892-6, 279-80; Merl 2012, 159.
Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.66; cf. Wright 1988, 103, prophecy 7): Terminus illi positus est quem transuolare nequibit ‘A limit has been set for the white dragon beyond which it will not be able to fly’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). Gunnlaugr partially rationalises this prophecy of the Norman Conquest by explicitly mentioning rule over the land (cf. Note to I 32/5-8) and additionally invokes the concept of an over-ruling Fate (skǫp: cf. Fritzner: skǫp), as also in I 49/8. The Norman Conquest itself is narrated in I 46‑8. — [1-2] ljósum fjǫtri laufviðar ‘to the white fetter of the leafy tree [SNAKE]’: The determinant of this snake-kenning belongs to a miscellaneous group that refers to the environment in which the snake lives, here the woods (cf. Meissner 115 and the similar snake-kenning in I 44/4).
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
- Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
- 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.
- Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
- 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.
- Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
- Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
- Internal references
- 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 27 April 2024)
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