GunnLeif Merl I 52^VIII

Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 120 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 52)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 88.

text and translation

notes and context

Cf. DGB 113 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 146-7.83-6; cf. Wright 1988, 104, prophecy 11): Findetur forma commercii; dimidium rotundum erit. Peribit miluorum rapacitas, et dentes luporum hebetabuntur. Catuli leonis in aequoreos pisces transformabuntur, et aquila eius super montem Arauium nidificabit ‘The shape for trading will be split: the half will be circular. The greed of kites will be ended, and the teeth of wolves blunted. The lion’s cubs will become fishes of the sea, and his eagle will nest on mount Aravius’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 146).  The reference of the first sentence is to a currency reform contemplated by Henry I which has occasioned much confusion in the sources. John of Worcester, writing 1118 or earlier, and following him Symeon of Durham, in his Historia de Regibus ‘History of the Kings’, writing probably in 1129 or earlier, appear to have the correct story: they state under the year 1108 that, ‘since pennies were often rejected because bent and broken, Henry I made several orders about them, one being that circular halfpence should be coined’ (Tatlock 1950, 404). This new issue was stamped with an outer circle to guard against the practice of clipping (Poole 1955, 415). A somewhat different story is told by William of Malmesbury (Mynors et al. 1998-9, I, 742-3): Cum nummos fractos, licet boni argenti, a uenditoribus non recipi audisset, omnes uel frangi uel incidi precepit ‘Having heard that broken coins, although made of good silver, were not being accepted in payment, he gave orders that all coins alike should be broken or cut’. Gunnlaugr’s account seems to reflect this less accurate version but he understands that the coins were stamped. More general information on Henry’s measures against corrupt money-lenders and merchants, characterised as kites and wolves in Geoffrey’s allegory, is contained in William (loc. cit.) and Henry of Huntingdon (HA 1996, 474-5). The last historical event that can be identified with certainty in the Prophecies is the drowning of Henry I’s children, including the heir-apparent William Adelin, collectively referred to in the allegory as the lion’s cubs, in 1120 in the wreck of the White Ship (cf. Henry of Huntingdon, HA 1996, 466-7; Taylor 1911, 13; Tatlock 1950, 403). By the eagle, Geoffrey refers to the Empress Matilda, but he describes her taking refuge on a mountain – this and the eagle motif in apparent reference to her marriage to Henry IV, the German emperor, in 1114 (Curley 1982, 242-3) – and there is no apparent awareness that she was subsequently active in English politics in dispute with her cousin Stephen of Blois for the English crown. Gunnlaugr treats the catuli leonis ‘lion’s cubs’ as part and parcel of the evil forces that the Beast of Justice (Henry I) has checked, a shift from Geoffrey’s version of the story that might reflect influence from the chroniclers’ condemnations of the drowned passengers and crew as variously sodomites (Henry of Huntingdon) or drunkards (William of Malmesbury) that brought the wrath of God upon themselves. Merl as extant contains no mention of the eagle. This might be simply a matter of accidental loss of text subsequent to Gunnlaugr but it is conceivable that the mention was deliberately by-passed by Gunnlaugr or his source, as contradicting known recent history. — [1-2]: Bret 1848-9 explains this as a reference to the custom of dividing coins as a token of allegiance, apparently in ignorance of the various C12th accounts mentioned above (see Note to [All]). Finnur Jónsson explains mótpenningum correctly as præget mønt ‘stamped coins’ (LP: mótpenningr). The explication in Merl 2012 is unclear and seems to reflect some chronological confusion. The noun mótpenningr is a hap. leg. and may be a neologism on Gunnlaugr’s part; ONP: mót 1 cites two instances from C14th prose texts of the simplex in reference to marks or stamps on silver coins. The noun mótmark ‘stamp-mark’ and verb mótmarka ‘mark with a stamp’ appear first in the latter half of the C13th in Norwegian contexts (ONP: mótmark, mótmarka).

readings

• [3] gleðu: gleði Hb
• [7] léons: léo Hb

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.

• AM 544 4° (Hb) — 52r/1 - 52r/3

  ‘Sprett es í miðju
  mótpenningum;
  mun gǫrst gleði
  glatask ránsemi.
  Tennr munu gylðis
  trausti numnar,
  ok léo vargar
  verða at fiskum
  hvassir hvelpar
  hvaltúnum í.

  Sprett er | i miðiv mot penningvm mvn giorst gleði glataz ranseme tennr mvnv gylþis travsti | nvmnar ok leo vargar verða at fiskvm hvassir hvelpar hvaltvnvm i

  (VEÞ)

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