GunnLeif Merl I 87^VIII

‘Þá mun illingar         asni ríkja;
sás fljótr taka         fé gullsmiða.
Es lofða vinr         latr at hefna
gylðis barna         gramr ránsemi.

‘Þá mun asni illingar ríkja; sás fljótr taka fé gullsmiða. {Gramr vinr lofða} es latr at hefna ránsemi {barna gylðis}.

‘Then will the ass of evil reign; he will be quick to take the property of goldsmiths. {The fierce friend of men} [RULER] will be slow to avenge the rapacity {of the children of the wolf} [WOLVES].

Mss: Hb(52v) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 34, Skj BII, 41, Skald II, 26, FF §64; Bret 1848-9, II, 69 (Bret st. 155); Hb 1892-6, 282; Merl 2012, 196-7.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 115 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 151.139-40; cf. Wright 1988, 107, prophecy 29): Succedet asinus nequitiae, in fabricatores auri uelox sed in luporum rapacitatem piger ‘The ass of wickedness is his successor, swift against makers of gold but slow against the rapacity of wolves’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 150). — [1] illingar ‘of evil’: Attestations of this word mostly occur in homiletic and other religious contexts (CVC: ílling; Fritzner: illing, cf. illingr; ONP: illing). — [8] gramr ‘fierce’: Construed here as an adj. qualifying vinr ‘friend’: cf. II 35/5. But the word is difficult to place convincingly; Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) treats it as a predicative adj., though his Danish translation renders it as an adverbial phrase med grusomhed ‘with ferocity’; similarly Merl 2012. Kock (FF §64) would construe it as gramr ‘king’, in apposition to vinr ‘friend’ – basing himself, as often, on West Germanic verse style. An alternative approach might be to emend to grams ‘fierce’ or even grás ‘grey’, gen. sg. agreeing with gylðis ‘wolf’.

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. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
5. 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.
6. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
7. 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.
8. FF = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1922. Fornjermansk forskning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 18:1. Lund: Gleerup.
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 7 May 2024)