GunnLeif Merl I 66^VIII

‘Bresta brynjur,         bíta malmar,
eru dreyrfáið         dǫrr á lopti,
fleinn á flaugun,         folk í dreyra,
bíldr í benjum,         broddar á skildi,
hjalmr á hǫfði,         hlíf fyr brjósti,
geirr á gangi,         guðr í vexti.

‘Bresta brynjur, malmar bíta, dreyrfáið dǫrr eru á lopti, fleinn á flaugun, folk í dreyra, bíldr í benjum, broddar á skildi, hjalmr á hǫfði, hlíf fyr brjósti, geirr á gangi, guðr í vexti.

‘Mail-shirts split, weapons bite; blood-stained darts are in the air, the spear in flight, the army in blood, the arrow in wounds, spear-points in the shield, the helmet on the head, the shield before the breast, the spear in motion, battle on the increase.

Mss: Hb(52r) (Bret)

Readings: [5] fleinn á: fleina Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 31, Skj BII, 37, Skald II, 23; Bret 1848-9, II, 62 (Bret st. 134); Hb 1892-6, 281; Merl 2012, 178-80.

Notes: [3, 4] dreyrfáið dǫrr ‘blood-stained darts’: This appears in the form dreyrfáðir dǫrir in Bret 1848-9, without explanation or apparent warrant, probably through a misunderstanding of the declension of darr n. with nom./acc. pl. dǫrr (cf. LP: darr). — [3] dreyrfáið ‘blood-stained’: De Vries (1964-7, II, 75 n. 180) compares HHj 9/6. — [5] fleinn á ‘the spear in’: Emended by Bret 1848-9, followed by Skj B and Skald, for ms. fleina ‘of spears’ (not refreshed), to maintain parallelism in the catalogue commencing in l. 3. Merl 2012 retains the ms. reading but at the cost of sense and syntax. — [8] broddar ‘spear-points’: So in Hb, with superscript ‑ar contraction (not refreshed). Bret 1848-9, Skj B, Skald and Merl 2012 read broddr, which would fit better with the surrounding sg. nouns.

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. Vries, Jan de. 1964-7. Altnordische Literaturgeschichte. 2 vols. 2nd edn. Grundriss der germanischen Philologie 15-16. Berlin: de Gruyter.
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. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
8. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
9. Internal references
10. 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 27 April 2024)
11. Not published: do not cite ()