GunnLeif Merl I 60^VIII

‘Verðr af slíku         sverðéls hǫtuðr
himna ferðar         hugþekkr grami.
Ok at þetta líf         þingdjarfr konungr
taliðr es tyggja         tungls með englum.

‘{Hǫtuðr {sverðéls}} verðr hugþekkr {grami {ferðar himna}} af slíku. Ok þingdjarfr konungr es taliðr at líf þetta með englum {tyggja tungls}.

‘{The hater {of the sword-storm}} [BATTLE > HOLY MAN] will be dear to {the lord {of the host of the heavens}} [ANGELS > = God] because of such [deeds]. And the king bold in encounters will be counted after this life with the angels {of the lord of the moon} [= God].

Mss: Hb(52r) (Bret)

Readings: [7] tyggja: ‘tigia’ Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 30, Skj BII, 36, Skald II, 23; Bret 1848-9, II, 60 (Bret st. 128); Hb 1892-6, 280; Merl 2012, 173-4.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 114 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 149.104-5; cf. Wright 1988, 105, prophecy 17): Promerebitur inde fauorem Tonantis et inter beatos collocabitur ‘For this he will earn the favour of the Thunderer and be numbered among the blessed’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 148). — [2] hǫtuðr sverðéls ‘the hater of the sword-storm [BATTLE > HOLY MAN]’: This phrase, as it stands in the ms., is most straightforwardly explained as a kenning meaning literally somebody who hates warfare, and this might seem appropriate for an evidently saintly king (LP: hǫtuðr, cf. Merl 2012). In l. 6, however, the same person is described as þingdjarfr ‘bold in encounters’, which would normally mean bellicose encounters, and that might be regarded as indicating an interpretation of the kenning in l. 2 as ‘warrior’ (so Bret 1848-9 and Skj B). Saintly kings such as Oswald, referred to earlier in the poem (I 33/5-6), are not necessarily averse to battle – indeed Oswald is described as a leader in warfare. It is true that the adj. þingdjarfr appears in a somewhat similar context in I 37/3 (see Note there) and can be explained in both instances as an ornamental epithet without close reference to the immediate situation. But another possibility, broached in LP: hǫtuðr, is that the reading hǫtuðr is a simple error for hvǫtuðr ‘whetter’, a heiti that occurs once elsewhere in Merl (I 94/11); Meissner 321 appears to incline to this solution and it is adopted in Skald. A similar difficulty arises in Anon Pl 29/3^VII. — [5] at líf þetta ‘after this life’: The use of at appears irregular. Gunnlaugr may have taken Geoffrey’s inde ‘for this’ in the sense ‘thenceforward’, as is assumed in Skj B, but attestations of at in the sense of ‘after’ are not precisely parallel, as they involve constructions of the type at jǫfur dauðan ‘after the lord’s death’, lit. ‘at/with the lord dead’, at gram fallinn ‘after the king’s fall’, lit. ‘at/with the king fallen’: see ONP: at II. B. Possibly Gunnlaugr’s usage mingles this sense of at with at with the dat. in the sense of ‘because of’: see ONP: at I D 12. — [7] tyggja ‘lord’: Normalised in Bret 1848-9 (followed by subsequent eds) from ms. ‘tigia’ (not refreshed), with spelling tiggja in Bret 1848‑9 and Merl 2012.

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. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
5. 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.
6. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
7. 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.
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. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
11. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
12. Internal references
13. 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 26 April 2024)
14. Jonna Louis-Jensen and Tarrin Wills (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Plácitusdrápa 29’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 199-200.
15. Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 18 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 18)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 152.