GunnLeif Merl I 96VIII
Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 164 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 96)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 128.
Lesi ‘Let them read’
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lesa (verb): read
sálma ‘the psalms’
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salmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i/-; -ar): [psalms]
spjǫll ‘the sayings’
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1. spjall (noun n.): story
notes
[1-2] lesi spjǫll spámanna ‘read the sayings of the prophets’: Previous eds have treated each line as a syntactic unit but a spjǫll sálma ‘sayings of psalms’ makes inferior sense and leaves the gen. spámanna hanging: Skj B, following Bret 1848-9, ignores the difficulty, translating lese profeterne ‘read the prophets’; Merl 2012 supplies die Reden ‘the speeches’, translating the initial vísuorð as follows: Sie mögen die Reden der Psalmen lesen, sie mögen [die Reden] der Propheten lesen ‘they can read the sayings of the psalms, they can read [the sayings] of the prophets’.
lesi ‘read’
(not checked:)
lesa (verb): read
notes
[1-2] lesi spjǫll spámanna ‘read the sayings of the prophets’: Previous eds have treated each line as a syntactic unit but a spjǫll sálma ‘sayings of psalms’ makes inferior sense and leaves the gen. spámanna hanging: Skj B, following Bret 1848-9, ignores the difficulty, translating lese profeterne ‘read the prophets’; Merl 2012 supplies die Reden ‘the speeches’, translating the initial vísuorð as follows: Sie mögen die Reden der Psalmen lesen, sie mögen [die Reden] der Propheten lesen ‘they can read the sayings of the psalms, they can read [the sayings] of the prophets’.
spámanna ‘of the prophets’
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spámaðr (noun m.): prophet
notes
[1-2] lesi spjǫll spámanna ‘read the sayings of the prophets’: Previous eds have treated each line as a syntactic unit but a spjǫll sálma ‘sayings of psalms’ makes inferior sense and leaves the gen. spámanna hanging: Skj B, following Bret 1848-9, ignores the difficulty, translating lese profeterne ‘read the prophets’; Merl 2012 supplies die Reden ‘the speeches’, translating the initial vísuorð as follows: Sie mögen die Reden der Psalmen lesen, sie mögen [die Reden] der Propheten lesen ‘they can read the sayings of the psalms, they can read [the sayings] of the prophets’.
lesi ‘read’
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lesa (verb): read
bjartar ‘bright’
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bjartr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): bright
þeir ‘let them’
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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
bœkr ‘books’
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1. bók (noun f.; °bǿkr/bókar; bǿkr): book
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
roðla ‘rolls’
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roðull (noun m.)
notes
[4] roðla ‘rolls’: I.e. scrolls, or rolls of parchment. Apparently a hap. leg. in Old Norse (not cited in Fritzner; ONP: roðull notes it only as a ‘poetic word’) and distinct from rǫðull ‘sun’. Finnur Jónsson correctly explains it as a loan-word, ultimately from Lat. rotulus ‘small wheel’ (LH II, 174; cf. LP: roðull), implicitly correcting Bret 1848-9, which reads röðlar ‘suns’, interpreted as ‘holy men’ (so also CVC: röðull). In post-classical Latin rotulus assumed the sense of ‘a scroll of parchment’ and was adopted into Old French (role, rolle, from the end of the C12th), Anglo-Norman and Middle English (rouel, rolle).
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
finni ‘discover’
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2. finna (verb): find, meet
at ‘’
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4. at (conj.): that
inn ‘the’
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2. inn (art.): the
fróði ‘wise’
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fróðr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): wise
halr ‘man’
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halr (noun m.; °-s): man
hefr ‘has’
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hafa (verb): have
horskliga ‘sagaciously’
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horskliga (adv.)
hagat ‘devised’
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haga (verb): arrange, behave
spásǫgu ‘his prophecy’
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spásaga (noun f.)
sem ‘like’
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sem (conj.): as, which
fyr ‘before’
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fyr (prep.): for, over, because of, etc.
hônum ‘him’
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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
fyrðar ‘men’
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2. fyrðr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -): man
helgir ‘holy’
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heilagr (adj.; °helgan; compar. -ari, superl. -astr): holy, sacred
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
For admonitions on the correct interpretation of prophecy similar to those advanced in this and the ensuing stanzas, cf. Stjórn (Unger 1862, 30): Spamanna bøkr ok postolanna ritningar uerda mǫrgum sua myrkar ok uskilianligar. sem þær se meðr nǫckurum þokum edr skyflokum skyggdar ok huldar. enn þa uerda þær uel skiliandi monnum sua sem nytsamligh sannleiks skúúr. ef þær eru medr margfalldri ok uitrligri tracteran talaðr ok skynsamliga skyrðar ‘The books of the prophets and the writings of the apostles are to many so obscure and unintelligible as if they were shadowed and hidden by fogs or cloud-banks yet then they become fully intelligible to men just like beneficent showers of truth, if they are recounted with manifold and wise exegesis and explicated with discrimination’.
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