GunnLeif Merl I 80^VIII

‘Kømr kaupskapar         kappgóðr þinig
villigalti         virðum samna,
þeims af fróni         flýðu áðan.
Lætr hann byggva þá         brezkar jarðir,
borgir eyddar,         ból góligust.

‘Kappgóðr villigalti kaupskapar kømr þinig samna virðum, þeims flýðu áðan af fróni. Hann lætr þá byggva brezkar jarðir, eyddar borgir, góligust ból.

‘The wild boar of commerce, exceedingly good, will come there to gather men who had previously fled from the land. He causes them to settle the British lands, the devastated cities, the choicest estates.

Mss: Hb(52v) (Bret)

Readings: [6] flýðu: flýði Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 33, Skj BII, 40, Skald II, 25, NN §3258D; Bret 1848-9, II, 67 (Bret st. 148); Hb 1892-6, 282; Merl 2012, 191-2.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 115 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 151.128-9; cf. Wright 1988, 106, prophecy 26): Superueniet aper commercii, qui dispersos greges ad amissam pascuam reuocabit ‘The boar of commerce will arrive and call the scattered flocks back to their lost pasture’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 150). This is a third salvific boar-king in Geoffrey’s series. Gunnlaugr rationalises the allegory by replacing ‘flocks’ with ‘men’ and expanding ‘pasture’ to include the concept of ‘cities’. — [2] kappgóðr ‘exceedingly good’: A hap. leg., which, in the absence of any counterpart in the Latin, resists definitive interpretation. Difficulty is caused by the variety in uses of kapp- in the other compounds where this is the initial element, along with the fact that some of them are also hap. leg. The interpretation tentatively adopted in this edn is due to Bret 1848-9 and Skj B, which take kapp- as an intensifier, thus ‘very good’, but varies on it by introducing the concept of ‘exceeding’ or ‘outdoing’ inherent in the sense of kapp ‘contest, ardour’ (see CVC, Fritzner, ONP: kapp). Against this, NN §3258D, followed by Merl 2012, proposes the interpretation ‘able in competition’. Gunnlaugr goes beyond DGB so as to introduce the word kapp, either as simplex or compounded, in three other instances: I 41/2 hvítdreki kapps ‘the white serpent of belligerence’, I 92/1 mǫnnum kapps ‘to men of bravery’ and II 9/3-4 í kappsauðga borg ‘in the exceedingly prosperous city’. They demonstrate that he was capable of using the word in both the key meanings in contention here. Kock is only able to discount the latter meaning by basing himself on a highly select subset of kapp- compounds that exhibit the former meaning; Merl 2012 does not elaborate on this aspect. Also, in context the characterisation of the boar-king as ‘able in competition’ would seem to have little relevance, whereas his being described as ‘exceedingly good’ can be taken as borne out by the restoration of his people to their former fortunes; in effect, he will be a ‘good king’ memorable as outdoing other kings in terms of ‘goodness’, a decided contrast to the bad leadership described in the preceding stanzas and also a polar opposite of a subsequent ruler, the asni illingar ‘ass of evil’ (I 87/1-2). The specific aspects of his goodness are further spelt out in the following stanzas. — [4] samna ‘to gather’: In Skj B emended to samnar ‘gathers’ (followed by Skald), but the inf. can be understood as following on loosely from kømr ‘comes’ (cf. Bret 1848‑9 and, apparently independently, Merl 2012). — [6] flýðu ‘fled’: Emended from ms. flýði in Skj B to give a verb in the 3rd pers. pl. pret. indic., followed by subsequent eds. Bret 1848‑9 retains the ms. reading without comment. — [10] góligust ból ‘the choicest estates’: Cf. Anon (Mberf) 2/2^II ból, þats ek veit gólast ‘the farm, which I find the best’.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
6. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
7. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
8. 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.
9. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
10. 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.
11. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
12. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
13. Internal references
14. 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 28 April 2024)
15. Kari Ellen Gade and Diana Whaley (eds) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Magnúss saga berfœtts 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 829-30.
16. Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 18 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 18)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 152.