Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 143 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 75)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 111.
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2. blása (verb; °blǽss; blés, blésu; blásinn): blow
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Mist (noun f.): Mist
[1] vinr Mistar ‘the friend of Mist <valkyrie> [WARRIOR]’: By introducing a warrior-kenning where Geoffrey has qui ‘who’, Gunnlaugr emphasises the human represented by the allegorical goat-king of I 74. The absence of alliteration suggests, however, that Mist might have replaced some other heiti. Finnur Jónsson tentatively suggests Njǫrðr (LP: Mist). Kock (NN §105) proposes Nipt ‘sister, female relative’ as a valkyrie-heiti, but this is highly doubtful (see Þul Ásynja 5/3-4III and Note there). It is also possible that this passage is more extensively damaged: see Notes to l. 2.
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vinr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. -/(-i OsvReyk 92.17); -ir): friend
[1] vinr Mistar ‘the friend of Mist <valkyrie> [WARRIOR]’: By introducing a warrior-kenning where Geoffrey has qui ‘who’, Gunnlaugr emphasises the human represented by the allegorical goat-king of I 74. The absence of alliteration suggests, however, that Mist might have replaced some other heiti. Finnur Jónsson tentatively suggests Njǫrðr (LP: Mist). Kock (NN §105) proposes Nipt ‘sister, female relative’ as a valkyrie-heiti, but this is highly doubtful (see Þul Ásynja 5/3-4III and Note there). It is also possible that this passage is more extensively damaged: see Notes to l. 2.
[2] ór ‘out of’: Emended from ms. ok (not refreshed) in Bret 1848-9, followed by subsequent eds.
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nǫs (noun f.; °; nasar/nasir): nose, nostrils
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tjossi (noun m.)
[2] †tiossa† ‘…’: This ms. reading (not refreshed) has not so far been explained or convincingly emended; DGB supplies no guidance at this point. Skj B emends to brúsa ‘of the he-goat’. Bret 1848-9 already interprets it in that sense (af Bukkenæsen) but without emendation; CVC has the entry tjossi ‘he goat (?)’, citing the present passage as the unique attestation, but it does not feature in Fritzner or ONP and is no doubt a mere ghost-word. Kock (NN §105; Skald), followed by Merl 2012, emends to acc. *tjǫssu, taken as in apposition to þoku ‘fog’ and glossed as ‘wave’. He bases his case on inference from West Germanic words denoting ‘heavy wave, sea-swell’, but no such word is attested in Old Norse and Kock does not clarify how such a sense would relate to the context.
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1. þoka (noun f.; °-u; -ur): [Fog, mist]
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þvílíkr (adj.): such
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4. at (conj.): that
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3. þekja (verb): thatch, cover
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3. of (prep.): around, from; too
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1. ey (noun f.; °-jar, dat. -ju/-; -jar): island
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3. of (prep.): around, from; too
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fylkir (noun m.): leader
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fastr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): firm, fast
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lífdagr (noun m.): [his life]
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1. bresta (verb; °brestr; brast, brustu; brostinn): burst, split
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3. eigi (adv.): not
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2. þá (adv.): then
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2. ár (noun n.; °-s; -): year, year’s abundance
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í (prep.): in, into
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land (noun n.; °-s; *-): land
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Cf. DGB 115, prophecies 22 and 23 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 151.119-22; cf. Wright 1988, 106): qui ex naribus suis tantam efflabit nebulam quanta tota superficies insulae obumbrabitur. Pax erit in tempore suo et ubertate glebae multiplicabuntur segetes ‘who will breathe forth from his nostrils a cloud which will cover the whole surface of the island. There will be peace in his time and the rich soil will increase its crops’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 150).
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