‘Lát grund grafa, gera skorninga,’
sagði Merlínus menja deili.
‘Veitið vatni, ok vitið síðan,
hvat spát hafi spillir bauga,
— þat es nýlunda — niðr ór fjalli.’
‘Lát grafa grund, gera skorninga,’ sagði Merlínus deili menja. ‘Veitið vatni niðr ór fjalli ok vitið síðan, hvat spillir bauga hafi spát; þat es nýlunda.’
‘Have the earth dug, form channels,’ Merlin said to the sharer of neck-rings [GENEROUS MAN = Vortigern]. ‘Drain the lake down from the mountain and then find out what the despoiler of rings [GENEROUS MAN = Merlin] has prophesied; that is a novelty.’
[5-6] veitið … vitið ‘drain … find out’: As noted by Merl 2012, this is 2nd pers. pl., contrasting with the sg. lát ‘let’ used in l.1. The interpretation of Merl 2012 is that Merlin turns from addressing Vortigernus to addressing his workmen. More likely, however, is that implicitly Vortigernus is the speaker of ll. 5-10, as indicated by the following sentence in DGB (see I 14, Note to [All]).