GunnLeif Merl I 79VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 147 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 79)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 116.
Kømr ‘there will come’
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koma (verb; kem, kom/kvam, kominn): come
árgalli ‘failure of the harvest’
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árgalli (noun m.; °-a; -ar): °failure of the crops, lean year
enn ‘Once more’
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2. enn (adv.): still, yet, again
inn ‘a’
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2. inn (art.): the
mikli ‘great’
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mikill (adj.; °mikinn): great, large
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
meinliga ‘hurtfully’
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meinliga (adv.): [painfully]
manndauðr ‘mortality’
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manndauðr (noun m.)
of ‘over’
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3. of (prep.): around, from; too
her ‘the people’
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herr (noun m.; °-s/-jar, dat. -; -jar, gen. -ja/herra): army, host
eyðask ‘will be devastated’
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2. eyða (verb; °-dd-): destroy
borgir ‘cities’
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borg (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -; -ir): city, stronghold
við ‘with’
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2. við (prep.): with, against
bragna ‘of men’
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bragnar (noun m.): men, warriors
tjón ‘the loss’
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2. tjón (noun n.; °-s; -): loss
Es ‘There will be’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
notes
[7] nauðr ‘adversity’: Emended, so as to supply alliteration, from ms. auðn (not refreshed) to nauð by Scheving (reported in and followed by Bret 1848-9, from which it is subsequently accepted by Skj B and Skald); nauð, however, is a later form for nauðr (LP: nauðr), which is adopted in this edn. Merl 2012 retains the reading of the ms., auðn ‘wilderness, desert, devastation’, which fits well for sense within a context of failures of harvest (cf. the cognate eyddar ‘devastated’ in I 80/9), but auðn is used elsewhere in relation to land, not people, and does not provide an alliterating line, as alliteration cannot fall on mikil in l. 7.
mikil ‘great’
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mikill (adj.; °mikinn): great, large
nýtra ‘valiant’
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nýtr (adj.; °compar. -ri, superl. nýztr/nýtastr): useful, able
notes
[8] nýtra manna ‘for valiant men’: Lit. ‘of valiant men’; subjective gen., following Skj B: nød blandt dygtige mænd ‘adversity among valiant men’. Interpreted in Bret 1848-9 as Nödklager af Borgerne ‘cries of calamity from the citizens’.
manna ‘men’
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maðr (noun m.): man, person
notes
[8] nýtra manna ‘for valiant men’: Lit. ‘of valiant men’; subjective gen., following Skj B: nød blandt dygtige mænd ‘adversity among valiant men’. Interpreted in Bret 1848-9 as Nödklager af Borgerne ‘cries of calamity from the citizens’.
flýr ‘will flee’
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flýja (verb): to flee, take flight
margr ‘many’
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2. margr (adj.; °-an): many
á ‘away’
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3. á (prep.): on, at
brott ‘’
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1. brott (adv.): away
maðr ‘a man’
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maðr (noun m.): man, person
ór ‘from’
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3. ór (prep.): out of
landi ‘the land’
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land (noun n.; °-s; *-): land
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Cf. DGB 115 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 151.127-8; cf. Wright 1988, 106, prophecy 25): Redibit iterum fames, redibit mortalitas; et desolationem urbium dolebunt ciues ‘Hunger will return, plague will return, and the natives will lament the desolation of their cities’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 150).
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