GunnLeif Merl I 96^VIII

Lesi sálma, spjǫll         lesi spámanna,
lesi bjartar þeir         bœkr ok roðla,
ok finni þat,         at inn fróði halr
hefr horskliga         hagat spásǫgu,
sem fyr hônum         fyrðar helgir.

Lesi sálma, lesi spjǫll spámanna, lesi þeir bjartar bœkr ok roðla, ok finni þat, at inn fróði halr hefr hagat spásǫgu horskliga, sem helgir fyrðar fyr hônum.

Let them read the psalms, read the sayings of the prophets, let them read bright books and rolls, and discover that the wise man has devised his prophecy sagaciously, like holy men before him.

Mss: Hb(52v) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 35, Skj BII, 43, Skald II, 27; Bret 1848-9, II, 72-3 (Bret st. 164); Hb 1892-6, 283; Merl 2012, 204-5.

Notes: [All]: 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’. — [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’. — [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).

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. Unger, C. R., ed. 1862. Stjorn. Gammelnorsk bibelhistorie fra verdens skabelse til det babyloniske fangenskab. Christiania (Oslo): Feilberg og Landmarks forlag.
5. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
7. 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.
8. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
9. LH = Finnur Jónsson. 1920-4. Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie. 3 vols. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Gad.
10. 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.
11. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
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 6 May 2024)
15. Not published: do not cite ()