GunnLeif Merl I 31^VIII

‘Stór verða rǫk,         rignir blóði,
hár snarpr at þat         sultr mannkyni.
En inn rauði snákr         eflisk síðan;
fær hann af miklu         mátt erfiði.

‘Stór rǫk verða, rignir blóði, snarpr sultr hár mannkyni at þat. En inn rauði snákr eflisk síðan; hann fær mátt af miklu erfiði.

‘Great wonders will occur, it will rain with blood, acute famine will thereupon afflict mankind. But the red snake gathers strength afterwards; he will acquire power from great exertion.

Mss: Hb(51v) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 26, Skj BII, 30, Skald II, 19; Bret 1848-9, II, 49 (Bret st. 99); Hb 1892-6, 279; Merl 2012, 150-1.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.50-1; cf. Wright 1988, 102, prophecies 3 and 4): Pluet sanguineus imber, et dira fames mortales afficiet. His superuenientibus, dolebit rubeus sed emenso labore uigebit ‘A rain of blood will fall, and a terrible famine will afflict mortals. The red dragon will lament as these occur, but will recover its strength once the travail is over’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). This prophecy alludes to events narrated in DGB XI (Reeve and Wright 2007, 256-7). — [3] hár ‘will afflict’: From há ‘afflict, plague’, a weak verb, attested only twice in poetry (LP: háa) and not at all in prose (ONP) but familiar in Modern Icelandic (AEW: há). — [6] eflisk síðan ‘gathers strength afterwards’: This is the reading of Hb (not refreshed) and it is retained by Bret 1848-9, Merl 2012 and this edn. Other eds have seen the lack of alliteration as pointing to a problem with the text. Skj B, followed by Skald, emends to síðan eflisk with the objective of restoring alliteration on <s> on the hǫfuðstafr ‘head-stave’; the alliteration created in this way, however, would then cause difficulties in l. 5, where it would fall in a prohibited position, the second lift in a Type B-line. Given that demonstrable errors in the Hb text occur elsewhere (see Introduction), it may be that eflisk has supplanted some other word.

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
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. 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. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
9. 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.
10. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
11. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
12. Internal references
13. 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 18 April 2024)