GunnLeif Merl I 39^VIII

‘Þá mun inn hvíti         hjarlþvengr fara
snót saxneska         snarráðr laða.
Ok með miklum         mannfjǫlða kemr
fjarðbyggs Skǫgul         fold at byggja.

‘Þá mun {inn hvíti hjarlþvengr} fara snarráðr laða saxneska snót. Ok {Skǫgul {fjarðbyggs}} kemr með miklum mannfjǫlða at byggja fold.

‘Then {the white thong of the earth} [SNAKE] will travel, with swift resolution, to invite the Saxon woman. And {the Skǫgul <valkyrie> {of fjord-barley}} [JEWEL (steinn ‘stone’) > WOMAN] will come with a great multitude of men to settle the land.

Mss: Hb(51v) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 27, Skj BII, 32, Skald II, 20; Bret 1848-9, II, 52 (Bret st. 107); Hb 1892-6, 279; Merl 2012, 157.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 112 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 147.63; cf. Wright 1985, 75, prophecy 6): Exurget iterum albus draco et filiam Germaniae inuitabit ‘The white dragon will rise again and summon Germany’s daughter’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 146). The absence of this sentence from the text of the Prophecies in the First Variant Version of DGB (Wright 1988, 103) misled J. S. Eysteinsson (1953-7, 102) into supposing Gunnlaugr derived the motif of the Saxon woman from DGB XI. Geoffrey tells in DGB XI that the Saxons who survived the hardships summoned more immigrants from Germania (Reeve and Wright 2007, 278-9); the filia Germaniae is evidently a representation of these people. By contrast, Gunnlaugr’s rather specific-sounding phrase, snót saxneska, along with the second helmingr, suggests that he interpreted the representation as referring to a specific woman, perhaps prompted by Geoffrey’s account of the key role in the invasion played by Hengest’s daughter Ronwein in DGB VI (Reeve and Wright 2007, 128‑31). — [7] Skǫgul fjarðbyggs ‘the Skǫgul <valkyrie> of fjord-barley [JEWEL (steinn ‘stone’) > WOMAN]’: The determinant of the first level of this kenning is understood by ofljóst to refer to a jewel or precious stone, given that ‘fjord-barley’ refers metaphorically to a stone standing in the water of a fjord; cf. Meissner 90 for this group of stone-kennings.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
4. 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.
5. Eysteinsson, J. S. 1953-7. ‘The Relationship of Merlínússpá and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia’. SBVS 14, 95-112.
6. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
7. 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.
8. Wright, Neil, ed. 1985. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. I. Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS. 568. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
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)