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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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GunnLeif Merl I 65VIII

Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 133 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 65)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 103.

Gunnlaugr LeifssonMerlínusspá I
646566

text and translation

‘Svífr it hvassa         hagl tvíviðar
— hnígr hǫlða lið —         hart af strengjum.
En geyst hinig         gaflok fara;
megut Skǫglar ský         við skotum halda.

‘{It hvassa hagl tvíviðar} svífr hart af strengjum; lið hǫlða hnígr. En gaflok fara geyst hinig; {ský Skǫglar} megut halda við skotum.
 
‘‘The cutting hail of the bow [ARROWS] flies hard from the strings; the troop of men sinks down. And javelins travel this way ferociously; the clouds of Skǫgul <valkyrie> [SHIELDS] cannot withstand the volleys.

notes and context

Battle commonplaces without a substantive source in Geoffrey’s text (cf. Bret 1848-9). These extend from this stanza to st. 69. Although all the events described in these stanzas are represented as taking place in the future, the present tense has been used in their translation to convey a sense of immediacy.

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.

editions and texts

Skj: Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínússpá II 65: AII, 31, BII, 37, Skald II, 23; Bret 1848-9, II, 61-2 (Bret st. 133); Hb 1892-6, 281; Merl 2012, 178.

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