GunnLeif Merl I 78^VIII

‘Sjá þessi rǫk         þrennar aldir,
— þó es lýða ráð         ljótt fyr dróttni —
unz landrekar         Lundúnum í
grafnir ór grundu         gumnum vitrask.

‘Þrennar aldir sjá rǫk þessi — þó es ráð lýða ljótt fyr dróttni —, unz landrekar grafnir ór grundu í Lundúnum vitrask gumnum.

‘Three ages witness these wonders — yet the conduct of men is odious before the Lord —, until kings disinterred from the ground in London are revealed to men.

Mss: Hb(52v) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 33, Skj BII, 39-40, Skald II, 25; Bret 1848-9, II, 66 (Bret st. 146); Hb 1892-6, 281-2; Merl 2012, 190.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 115 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 151.126-7; cf. Wright 1988, 106, prophecy 24): Omnia haec tria saecula uidebunt donec sepulti reges in urbe Lundoniarum propalabuntur ‘Three generations will witness all this until the kings buried in the city of London are revealed’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 150). With this motif of exhumation, Geoffrey partially reprises the Cadwallader story told in DGB XI (Reeve and Wright 2007, 278-9). — [5-8]: The syntax and meaning of these lines could be interpreted in at least two different ways. Previous eds have inserted explanatory phrases to clarify their understanding of the lines. Bret 1848-9 inserts an explanatory phrase: indtil Konger i London begravne stige op af Jorden og aabenbares ‘until kings buried in London rise up from the earth and show themselves’. Similarly Skj B (indtil konger begravede i London viser sig for folk, (stegne) op af jorden ‘until kings buried in London reveal themselves to men, (risen) up from the earth’) and Merl 2012. But the phrases ‘rise up’, ‘risen up’ have no counterpart in Gunnlaugr and are not strictly necessary for sense. The present edn adopts the view that grafnir ór grundu ‘disinterred from the ground’ (l. 7) is a phrase qualifying landrekar ‘kings’ (l. 5) and further specified by the adverbial phrase í Lundúnum ‘in London’ (l. 6), while the statement vitrask gumnum ‘are revealed to men’ (l. 8) translates Geoffrey’s Lat. propalabuntur ‘are revealed’. Another possible interpretation rearranges the syntax of ll. 5-8 as unz landrekar grafnir í Lundúnum vitrask gumnum ór grundu ‘until kings buried in London reveal themselves to men from the ground’. This has the disadvantage of requiring the phrase grafnir ór grundu to be split, and it is further from the sense of Geoffrey’s Latin text.

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. 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.
5. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
6. 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.
7. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
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 2 May 2024)