GunnLeif Merl I 45^VIII

‘Mun gull glóa         guðs húsum á,
en lǫgðis veðr         lægir þeygi.
Mun trautt taka         tálsamr dreki
híð sín mega,         þvíat honum nálgask
víti fyr vélar,         þats hann verðr bera.

‘Gull mun glóa á húsum guðs, en {veðr lǫgðis} lægir þeygi. Tálsamr dreki mun trautt mega taka híð sín, þvíat víti nálgask honum fyr vélar, þats hann verðr bera.

‘Gold will shine in God’s houses, but {the storm of the sword} [BATTLE] will not cease. The treacherous dragon will scarcely manage to reach its lairs, since retributions for its machinations will come upon it, that it will have to endure.

Mss: Hb(51v) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 28, Skj BII, 33, Skald II, 21; Bret 1848-9, II, 54 (Bret st. 113); Hb 1892-6, 280; Merl 2012, 161-2.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 113 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.69-71; cf. Wright 1988, 103, prophecy 8): Erit deauratio in templis, nec acumen gladiorum cessabit. Vix obtinebit cauernas suas Germanicus draco, quia ultio prodicionis eius superueniet ‘There will be gilding in the temples, nor will the sharpness of sword-blades decline. The Germanic dragon will be hard put to keep possession of its caves, since retribution will be visited on its treason’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). Gunnlaugr renders cauernas ‘caves’ as híð ‘lairs’, here differing from his interpretation of the earlier occurrence of cauernas as ‘lands’ (see I 21 Note to [All]). He seems to have had the majority reading draco ‘dragon’ in his source ms., not the minority variant vermis ‘worm, serpent’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 147). The mention of enriched decoration of churches might relate to the very large endowments to religious foundations from Cnut and, later in the C11th, Edward the Confessor. The treachery Geoffrey alludes to might be both the generalised perfidy of the Saxons, as seen from a British perspective, and the more specific perceived failure of Earl Harold Godwineson to keep his oath to Duke William, as interpreted by, for instance, the C12th commentator John of Cornwall (Curley 1982, 237; on Harold’s oath see Stenton 1971, 577-8). — [1] gull mun glóa ‘gold will shine’: A poetic commonplace; cf. SnSt Ht 72/1, 2^III. — [7] híð sín ‘its lairs’: Skj B erroneously has the sg., sit leje ‘his lair’. The pl. of the ms. and all other eds accords with Geoffrey’s cavernas ‘caves’. — [10] hann ‘it’: Omitted in Skald.

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. 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. Stenton, F. M. 1971. Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
9. Curley, Michael J. 1982. ‘A New Edition of John of Cornwall’s Prophetia Merlini’. Speculum, 217-49.
10. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
11. Internal references
12. 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 25 April 2024)
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 72’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1183.