GunnLeif Merl I 27^VIII

‘Hann munu tígna         tungur lýða;
sá mun gramr vera         gumnum tíðastr.
Ey mun uppi         ǫðlings frami
ok hans hróðr fara         með himinskautum.

‘Tungur lýða munu tígna hann; sá gramr mun vera tíðastr gumnum. Frami ǫðlings mun ey uppi ok hróðr hans fara með himinskautum.

‘The tongues of men will honour him; that king will be the most renowned among men. The lord’s prowess will always be remembered and his glory will travel to the corners of heaven.

Mss: Hb(51r) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 25, Skj BII, 29, Skald II, 18; Bret 1848-9, II, 47-8 (Bret st. 95); Hb 1892-6, 278; Merl 2012, 147-8.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 145.42-3; cf. Wright 1988, 102, prophecy 2): In ore populorum celebrabitur, et actus eius cibus erit narrantibus ‘He will be celebrated in the mouth of the nations and his deeds will feed those who tell them’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 144). The extension of the ‘mouth’ motif to ‘food’ and the allusion to tellers of stories on Arthurian themes is not represented in Merl. — [1] tígna ‘honour’: This verb, along with its cognates tíginn ‘revered, honoured’ and tígn ‘honour’, is distinctive of late religious poetry (LP: tígna); similarly in prose, attestations are most frequent in learned texts (ONP: tígna). — [5] mun ey uppi ‘will always be remembered’: The formula vera uppi in this context means ‘live in the memory, be remembered’ (cf. Fritzner: vera uppi b, Arn Hryn 15/1^II, Gríp 23/5, 41/3). — [8] himinskautum ‘the corners of heaven’: Himinskaut is a largely poetic word, with only one prose attestation (cf. ONP: himinskaut). The phrase með himinskautum occurs only here and in Hyndl 14/8, also a passage in praise of a king. Cf. also Gríp 10/8 and SnSt Ht 95/8^III.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
6. 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.
7. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
8. 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.
9. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
10. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
11. Internal references
12. 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 26 April 2024)
13. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda, Magnússdrápa 15’ 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. 201-2.
14. Not published: do not cite ()
15. Not published: do not cite ()
16. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 95’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1204.