Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 118 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 50)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 86.
‘Þá mun ríkja réttlætis dýr,
þats eyverskir ormar hræðask.
Ok fyr sunnan sæ sjalfir ugga
víz rammligir valskir turnar.
‘Þá mun dýr réttlætis ríkja, þats eyverskir ormar hræðask. Ok sjalfir valskir turnar víz rammligir ugga fyr sunnan sæ.
‘Then the beast of justice will rule, which the island-dwelling serpents will dread. And south across the sea the French towers themselves, redoubtable on every side, will be fearful.
Mss: Hb(51v) (Bret)
Editions: Skj AII, 29, Skj BII, 34, Skald II, 21, NN §3217; Bret 1848-9, II, 56 (Bret st. 118); Hb 1892-6, 280; Merl 2012, 165.
Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 113 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.78-9; cf. Wright 1988, 104, prophecy 11): Succedet leo iusticiae, ad cuius rugitum Gallicanae turres et insulani dracones tremebunt ‘They will be succeeded by the lion of justice, at whose roar the towers of France and the island dragons will tremble’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). The reference is to Henry I (c. 1068/1069 ‑ 1 December 1135), the fourth son of William the Conqueror, who succeeded to the throne in 1100 and campaigned extensively in France and Normandy. The soubriquet ‘Lion of Justice’ refers to his judicial and financial reforms (cf. the account of William of Malmesbury: Mynors et al. 1998-9, I, 742-3, and 798-9). The expression ‘island dragons’, translated literally by Gunnlaugr, refers to ‘all British rulers of the islands belonging to Wales, Scotland and Ireland’ (Curley 1982, 241). For Henry’s Welsh campaign of 1114 see Poole (1955, 287). — [2] réttlætis ‘of justice’: This noun is characteristic of C12th and later religious poetry and learned prose texts. — [7] víz ‘on every side’: Equivalent to víðs. For discussion of this adverbial usage, see NN §3217.
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