GunnLeif Merl I 44^VIII

‘Þá mun grimmum         ganga at móti
landnyrðingr hvass         lundar fjǫtri
ok blóma þá         á brott reka,
es vestrœnir         vindar grœddu.

‘Þá mun hvass landnyrðingr ganga at móti {grimmum fjǫtri lundar} ok reka þá blóma á brott, es vestrœnir vindar grœddu.

‘Then a sharp northeast wind will come against {the savage fetter of the grove} [SNAKE], and drive away the flowers that the westerly winds fostered.

Mss: Hb(51v) (Bret)

Readings: [1] grimmum: gumnum Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 28, Skj BII, 33, Skald II, 20-1, NN §102; Bret 1848-9, II, 54 (Bret st. 112); Hb 1892-6, 280; Merl 2012, 160-1.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 113 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.68-9; cf. Wright 1988, 103, prophecy 8): Tunc exurget in illum aquilo et flores quos zephirus procreauit eripiet ‘Then the north wind will rise against it and blow away the flowers the western breeze has nurtured’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). This prophecy alludes to Viking raids in England. — [1] þá ‘then’: Merl 2012 interprets the ms. reading as þat ‘that’ and translates Das wird den Menschen und der Fessel des Waldes [= der Schlange] wie ein scharfer Nordostwind entgegenwehen ‘That will blow against men and the fetter of the grove [= the snake] like a bitter northeast wind’, but this involves the introduction of wie ‘like, as’. — [1] grimmum ‘savage’: Emended in this edn from ms. gumnum ‘to men’ (not refreshed), which is retained in all previous eds. Bret 1848-9 and Skj B leave gumnum untranslated (despite a statement to the contrary regarding Skj B in Merl 2012) but appear to have construed it as an appositional expansion to fjǫtri lundar ‘the fetter of the grove [SNAKE]’; this, although advocated by Kock (NN §102), leads to an awkward discrepancy between pl. and sg. The other cases discussed by Kock are not syntactically parallel. Merl 2012 instead posits a double object but is obliged to add und ‘and’ to the translation (see Note to l. 1 above). The emendation grimmum is palaeographically straightforward and removes these difficulties. Gunnlaugr uses the adj. grimmr ‘savage’ and adv. grimmliga ‘savagely’ elsewhere (I 16/3, I 32/9, I 48/2, I 64/5, II 28/6) and it fits well with Geoffrey’s ascription of saeuicia ‘savagery’ to the white serpent in 112.39 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147). See Introduction for apparent errors in the Hb text. — [3] landnyrðingr ‘a northeast wind’: This term is explained as originating with reference to the western coast of Norway (LP: landnorðr lit. ‘land-north’, north-east). Cf. Merl I 84/2. For scholarly discussion of this system of orientation see Stefán Einarsson (1944), Haugen (1957), Jackson (1998), Wanner (2009, 49‑50). DGB has simply ‘a north wind’.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. 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.
7. Haugen, Einar. 1957. ‘The Semantics of Icelandic Orientation’. Word: Journal of the Linguistic Circle of New York 13, 447-59.
8. Jackson, Tatjana N. 1998. ‘On the Old Norse System of Spatial Orientation’. SBVS 25, 72-82.
9. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
10. 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.
11. Stefán Einarsson. 1944. ‘Terms of Direction in Old Icelandic’. JEGP 43, 265-85.
12. Wanner, Kevin J. 2009. ‘Off-Center: Considering Directional Valences in Norse Cosmography’. Speculum 84, 36-72.
13. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
14. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
15. Internal references
16. 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 23 April 2024)