GunnLeif Merl I 92^VIII

‘Munu kapps mǫnnum         kvánfǫng boðin:
eru ekkjur þar         orðnar margar.
En á kǫldum         kall þeira næst
menn Mundíu         montum heyra.’

‘Kvánfǫng munu boðin mǫnnum kapps: margar eru orðnar ekkjur þar. En menn heyra kall þeira næst á kǫldum montum Mundíu.’

‘Marriages will be offered to men of bravery: many [women] have become widows there. But men will hear their cry afterwards on the cold mountains of the Alps.’

Mss: Hb(52v) (Bret)

Editions: Skj AII, 35, Skj BII, 42, Skald II, 27; Bret 1848-9, II, 71 (Bret st. 160); Hb 1892-6, 282; Merl 2012, 200-1.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 151.145-6; cf. Wright 1988, 107, prophecy 30): Cucullati ad nuptias prouocabuntur, et clamor eorum in montibus Alpium audietur ‘The wearers of cowls will be challenged to marry, and their complaint will be heard in the mountains of the Alps’ (Reeve and Wright 2007, 150). The comment about widows appears to be Gunnlaugr’s innovation. — [1] mǫnnum kapps ‘to men of bravery’: That is to say, ‘to warriors’. Bret 1848-9, Skj and Skald retain this ms. reading, but a word equivalent in sense to *kápumǫnnum ‘cowled men’ (for which see Fritzner, ONP: kápumaðr) would be expected, rendering cucullati ‘those with cowls’, i.e. ‘monks’ (Hb 1892-6, cxii; cf. Skj B); cf. the Anglo-Norman decasyllabic rendering: Mungiu orra le cri des cuvelez ‘Montgieu will hear the cries of the cowled ones’ (Blacker 2005, 43). Bret 1848-9 translates accordingly without altering the text: de kutteklædte Mænd ‘the cowl-clad men’, i.e. ‘monks’, followed by Skj B. The word kápumǫnnum is introduced into the text by emendation in Merl 2012, but this is precluded by metrical considerations, since it would yield a hypermetrical málaháttr line and the metre of Merl I is otherwise regular. Alternatively, Gunnlaugr might be imagined as having first written lines that included the word kápumǫnnum or a synonym thereof in a different metrical context but then, whether as a result of his own self-censorship or advice from his mentors, altering it to the conveniently similar kapps mǫnnum in order to tone down the notion of forced marriages of monks into a scenario of warriors being offered marriage. The explanation that these marriages arise because the number of widows is so large could be seen as part of this revision. It is unclear whether he intends the kall ‘cry’ to be attributed to men or widows; the punctuation adopted in this edn preserves the logic of DGB, where it is the men. — [7] á kǫldum montum Mundíu ‘on the cold mountains of the Alps’: Here DGB has montibus Alpium ‘on the mountains of the Alps’. The name Mundía used by Gunnlaugr (and also recorded in Sigv Lv 18/1^I; see Note there) can be traced back to *Montgiu = Fr. Mont Joux < Lat. Mons Jovis, lit. ‘mountain of Jove’, ‘Great S. Bernard’; the Latin name derives from the presence of a Roman temple to Jupiter Poeninus at the site (Meissner 1903, 193-4, cf. LP: Mundio). It would have been known from pilgrimage itineraries (Meissner 1903, 193-4 and references there given) but it was early generalised, as in the present stanza, so as to denote the Alps as a whole (Meissner 1903, 196).

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. 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. 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.
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. Blacker, Jean, ed. 2005. ‘The Anglo-Norman Verse Prophecies of Merlin’. Arthuriana 15, 1-125.
12. Meissner, Rudolf. 1903. ‘Der isländische name der Alpen’. ZDA 47, 192-6.
13. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
14. Internal references
15. 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)
16. Russell Poole 2017, ‘ Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I’ 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=1223> (accessed 26 April 2024)
17. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Lausavísur 18’ 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. 722.