GunnLeif Merl I 5^VIII

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.

Mss: Hb(50v) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 22, Skj BII, 25, Skald II, 15; Bret 1848-9, II, 40 (Bret st. 73); Hb 1892-6, 277; Merl 2012, 132.

Notes: [All]: 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). — [5-6] alt it eystra ‘all the east’: Lit. ‘all the eastern [edge]’. An adverbial phrase, modifying fór ‘overran’, whose acc. object is jaðar ‘edge’. Bret 1848-9 paraphrases loosely here: over Öens hele östlige Bred ‘over the island’s entire eastern margin’ (similarly Skj B), obscuring the syntax. Cf. Merl I 73/7-8 for adverbial constructions with comp. and sup. adjectives of direction. Merl 2012 appears to presuppose movement towards the east rather than along the eastern side: fuhr … ganz nach Osten bis an den Rand der Insel ‘drove all the way to the east up to the edge of the island’. — [5] fór ‘overran’: For this sense of fara, see LP: fara A4. — [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 10/2-3^I.

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. 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.
5. Colgrave, Bertram and R. A. B. Mynors, eds. 1969. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford: Clarendon.
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. HA 1996 = Greenway, Diana E., ed. 1996. Henry of Huntingdon. Historia Anglorum: The History of the English People. Oxford: Clarendon.
8. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
9. 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.
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 30 April 2024)
13. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Háleygjatal 10’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 208.
14. Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 141 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 73)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 109.