GunnLeif Merl I 5VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 73 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 51.
text and translation
En hers jaðarr halda máttit
brezkri jǫrðu né bauga fjǫlð.
Alt fór inn heiðni herr it eystra
eldi ok jarni eylands jaðar.
En {jaðarr hers} máttit halda brezkri jǫrðu né fjǫlð bauga. Inn heiðni herr fór alt it eystra, jaðar eylands, eldi ok jarni.
‘And the leader of the army [RULER = Vortigern] could not hold the British land nor the mass of treasures. The heathen army overran the edge of the island, all the east, with fire and iron. ’
notes and context
This stanza possibly represents an inference from one or both of the following in DGB 105: Vortegirnus … duci eorum Hengisto dedit agros plurimos in Lindiseia regione (Reeve and Wright 2007, 127.299-300) ‘Vortigern … gave their leader Hengest extensive lands in the region of Lindsey’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 126) or [Saxones] urbem Lundoniae primitus adeuntes ceperunt. Ceperunt deinde Eboracum et Lindocolinum nec non et Guintoniam, quasque prouincias deuastantes (Reeve and Wright 2007, 137.494-5) ‘[The Saxons] went first to London, which they took. Next they took York, Lincoln and Winchester and laid waste to all regions’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 136). But the more likely source, at least for ll. 5-8, is Bede (HE I 15; Colgrave and Mynors 1969, 50-1), who locates the incursions generically in orientali parte insulae ‘in the eastern part of the island’, cited by Henry of Huntingdon (HA 1996, 78-9). — [8]: Double alliteration on vowels in even lines, where one of them is <j>, as seen here, occurs rarely as an apparent licence, starting in the late C12th. See Note to Eyv Hál 10/2-3I.
sources
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.
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AM 544 4° (Hb) — 50v/32 - 50v/34
imagesEnn hers | iaðaʀ hallda mattið brezkri iorðv ne bavgaf⸌i⸍old allt for en heiðni herr eð eystra elldi | ok iarni eylandz iaðar
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