Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 157 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 89)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 123.
‘Ok Ránar vegr renn of ósa
Sábrínus sjau; sék þat fyrir.
En Óskarô — þat es undr mikit —
mun mánuðr sjau môttug vella.
Gervisk fiskum fjǫrtjón at því,
en ór sjǫlfum þeim snákar verða.
‘Ok {vegr Ránar} renn of sjau ósa Sábrínus; sék þat fyrir. En Óskarô mun vella môttug sjau mánuðr; þat es mikit undr. Fjǫrtjón gervisk fiskum at því, en snákar verða ór sjǫlfum þeim.
‘And {the path of Rán <sea-goddess>} [SEA] will run through seven mouths of the Severn; I foresee that. And the river Usk will boil powerfully for seven months; that is a great marvel. Loss of life for the fish will come of that, and snakes will be engendered out of them.
Mss: Hb(52v) (Bret)
Readings: [2] ósa: ‘asa’ Hb [11] en: er Hb
Editions: Skj AII, 35, Skj BII, 42, Skald II, 26, NN §3258E; Bret 1848-9, II, 70 (Bret st. 157); Hb 1892-6, 282; Merl 2012, 197-8.
Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 151.141-3; cf. Wright 1988, 107, prophecy 30): Sabrinum mare per septem hostia discurret, et fluuius Oscae per septem menses feruebit. Pisces illius calore morientur, et ex eis procreabuntur serpentes ‘The Severn sea will flow out through seven channels and the river Usk will boil for seven months. The heat will kill its fish and from them snakes will be procreated’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 150). The Bristol Channel was formerly known as the Severn Sea (cf. Welsh Môr Hafren). — [1] vegr Ránar ‘the path of Rán <sea-goddess> [SEA]’: Possibly Gunnlaugr misunderstands Lat. mare as referring to the open sea rather than to the Severn estuary. — [2] ósa ‘mouths’: Emended in Bret 1848-9, followed by subsequent eds, from ms. ‘asa’ (not refreshed). — [3] Sábrínus ‘the Severn’: Nom. sg. form used as gen. — [5] Óskarô ‘the river Usk’: Rises in Brecon, Wales and flows into the sea at Newport, some fifty kilometres from the mouth of the Severn. — [11] en ‘and’: Emended from ms. er ‘which’ (not refreshed) in NN §3258E, Skald (printed as enn); not so Bret 1848-9, Skj B or Merl 2012, and the reading could perhaps stand, giving the sense ‘when’ or ‘because’, but cf. men ‘but’ in the translation in Skj B and doch ‘but, however’ in Merl 2012. For discussion of probable errors in Hb see Introduction.
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