GunnLeif Merl I 71VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 139 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 71)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 107.
‘Eyðisk eyjar it enska nafn;
mun hon Anglía eigi kǫlluð.
Hlýtr hon at halda heiti inu forna;
kend es við Brútum Brítannía.
‘It enska nafn eyjar eyðisk; hon mun eigi kǫlluð Anglía. Hon hlýtr at halda inu forna heiti; es kend Brítannía við Brútum.
‘The English name of the island is expunged; it will not be called Anglia. It gets to retain the old name; it is called Britain after Brutus.
Mss: Hb(52r) (Bret)
Editions: Skj AII, 32, Skj BII, 38, Skald II, 24; Bret 1848-9, II, 63-4 (Bret st. 139); Hb 1892-6, 281; Merl 2012, 183.
Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 115 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 149.114; cf. Wright 1988, 105, prophecy 20): Nomine Bruti uocabitur insula, et nuncupatio extraneorum peribit ‘The island will be called by Brutus’ name and the naming conferred on it by the foreigners will perish’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 148). — [7-8]: The idea is familiar, but Gunnlaugr may have taken it either from a commentary or perhaps directly from DGB I (21.459-60: Reeve and Wright 2007, 28‑9). He spells out more explicitly than Geoffrey that this represents a reversion to the ancient name.
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- 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.
- Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
- 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.
- Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
- Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
- Internal references
- 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 20 April 2024)
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