GunnLeif Merl I 76^VIII

‘Þá munu á foldu         fǫgr víf draga;
blístrar meyjum         metnuðr í spor.
Munu kvensemi         kastra smíðuð;
svíkr gumna vin         girnð in ranga.

‘Þá munu fǫgr víf draga á foldu; metnuðr blístrar í spor meyjum. Kastra kvensemi munu smíðuð; in ranga girnð svíkr {vin gumna}.

‘Then beautiful women will make their way on the ground: pride hisses in the maidens’ trail. Castles of desire for women will be built; the wrongful concupiscence betrays {the friend of men} [RULER].

Mss: Hb(52v) (Bret)

Readings: [1] á foldu: foldu Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 32, Skj BII, 39, Skald II, 25; Bret 1848-9, II, 65-6 (Bret st. 144); Hb 1892-6, 281; Merl 2012, 188-9.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 115 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 151.122-4; cf. Wright 1988, 106, prophecy 23): Mulieres incessu serpentes fient, et omnis gressus earum superbia replebitur. Renouabuntur castra Veneris, nec cessabunt sagittae Cupidinis uulnerare ‘Women in their movement will become snakes and their every step will be filled with pride. The Fortress of Venus will be renewed, and Cupid’s arrows will not fail to wound’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 150). Geoffrey’s castra Veneris is rendered more generically by Gunnlaugr as kastra kvensemi ‘castles of desire for women’ (cf. I 74 Note to [All]), and he rationalises the reference to Cupid’s arrows. The word kvensemi (or kvennsemi) ‘desire, lust for women’ occurs chiefly in learned texts (ONP: kvensemi, cf. kvensamr; Fritzner: kvennsemi, cf. kvennsamr). The target of disapproval here may be the developing cult of love that was to reach its apogee in the later C12th at the courts of aristocratic women such as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Ermengarde of Narbonne (see Cheyette 2001, 237-8, 244-5); Gunnlaugr and his audience could have known of the ethos at Ermengarde’s court from Rv Lv 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 25^II. — [1-2]: A difficult passage which has resisted definitive solution. This edn follows Skj B (also Skald and Merl 2012) in adding prep. á ‘on’ before foldu ‘land’. This solution represents a refinement of Bret 1848-9, which tentatively supplies prep. um ‘around’ before foldu. It results in the sentence Þá munu fǫgr víf draga á foldu ‘Then beautiful women will make their way on the ground’. The idea would be that the women move along the ground in the manner of snakes, as stated by Geoffrey. In the sense ‘move oneself’, however, the reflexive dragask would be expected rather than active draga (CVC: draga), though see Fritzner: draga 18; LP: draga 12 for rare and uncertain attestations in this sense. An alternative interpretation of the ms. text that avoids emendation would be to regard it as a late C13th or C14th garbling that has effaced Gunnlaugr’s original. Here ms. foldu would be interpreted as fǫldu ‘headdress’, a f. counterpart of faldr ‘headdress’ (only one example extant in ONP but clearly attested in Bbreiðv Lv 4^/3^V (Eyrb 28), KormǪ Lv 49/2^V (Korm 70), and KormǪ Lv 60/5^V (Korm 81)). Then draga would have the sense ‘wear’ (ONP: draga A4), attested in translation texts from the mid to late C13th. The resulting sentence would read Þá munu fǫgr víf draga fǫldu ‘Then beautiful women will wear headdress[es]’. Women sporting headdresses of varying grades of showiness were emblematic of pride in medieval literature, the locus classicus in Old Norse being Rþ 29/1 (Dronke 1997, 168, 227). — [3] blístrar ‘hisses’: The application of the verb blístra in context remains unclear. Attested senses include ‘make a strong blowing noise (of uncertain type), whistle, hiss, snort, sniff’ (so ONP: blístra); in the present context ‘hiss’ is tentatively selected, in view of Geoffrey’s allusion to snakes, which Gunnlaugr otherwise seems to have passed over, at least to judge from the present state of the text. Bret 1848-9 translates as hvisler ‘hisses’, followed by Skj B, while Merl 2012 has pfeift ‘whistles’. Meanwhile the idiom blístra í spor, glossed in ONP: blístra as ‘to sniff in somebody’s tracks [to no avail]’, ‘to whistle for somebody in vain’ (cf. also ÍF 8, 227 n. 3, ÍF 30, 38 n. 3), also needs to be taken into account. Conceivably Gunnlaugr could have in mind verses where the speaker is an intimidated or outwitted male lover (e.g. Bjbp Jóms^I and Steinarr Woman^III). In DGB, however, it is overweening behaviour on the part of women themselves that is under attack, not the allegorised pride of someone sniffing in vain in their tracks. Admittedly it is uncertain whether Gunnlaugr has resumed his close adherence to the Latin by this point or whether the rendering might be looser and more euphemistic (cf. Note on ll. 1-2); replebitur ‘will be filled’ is semantically remote from blístrar, though for another somewhat loose translation of replebitur see I 70/8. An alternative approach would see the problem as lying with a disruption of the text: blístrar could have arisen through error for original *miklask (3rd pers. sg. pres. ind. of miklask ‘be augmented, increased’), thus *metnuðr miklask í spor meyjum ‘pride is augmented in the maidens’ tracks’, where *miklask would loosely render replebitur. The noun metnuðr occurs in collocation with miklask in Anon Hsv^VII 30, as a variant reading for magnask (LP: mikla), and with þróask ‘swell’ in Hávm 79/4. In prose usage mikill ‘great’ and its superlative mesti ‘greatest’ are frequent collocates of metnuðr (ONP: metnuðr). For the idea of something springing up from the footsteps of a woman, cf. II 12/3-4. — [6] kastra ‘castles’: Latin 2nd declension n. nom. pl. 

References

1. Bibliography
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3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
6. 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.
7. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
8. 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.
9. ÍF 30 = Sverris saga. Ed. Þorleifur Hauksson. 2007.
10. Cheyette, Frederic L. 2001. Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
11. ÍF 8 = Vatnsdœla saga. Ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 1939.
12. Dronke, Ursula, ed. and trans. 1997. The Poetic Edda. II: Mythological Poems. Oxford: Clarendon.
13. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
14. 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.
15. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
16. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
17. Internal references
18. 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 24 April 2024)
19. Tarrin Wills and Stefanie Gropper 2007, ‘ Anonymous, Hugsvinnsmál’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 358-449. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1018> (accessed 24 April 2024)
20. Emily Lethbridge 2012, ‘ Bjarni byskup Kolbeinsson, Jómsvíkingadrápa’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 954. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1122> (accessed 24 April 2024)
21. Russell Poole 2017, ‘ Steinarr, Poem about a woman’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 384. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1387> (accessed 24 April 2024)
22. Judy Quinn (ed.) 2022, ‘Eyrbyggja saga 28 (Bjǫrn Breiðvíkingakappi Ásbrandsson, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 460.
23. Not published: do not cite ()
24. Not published: do not cite ()
25. Edith Marold (ed.) 2022, ‘Kormáks saga 70 (Kormákr Ǫgmundarson, Lausavísur 49)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1153.
26. Edith Marold (ed.) 2022, ‘Kormáks saga 81 (Kormákr Ǫgmundarson, Lausavísur 60)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1173.
27. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali Kolsson, Lausavísur 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. 592-3.