GunnLeif Merl I 31VIII/6 — síðan ‘afterwards’
‘Stór verða rǫk, rignir blóði,
hár snarpr at þat sultr mannkyni.
En inn rauði snákr eflisk síðan;
fær hann af miklu mátt erfiði.
‘Stór rǫk verða, rignir blóði, snarpr sultr hár mannkyni at þat. En inn rauði snákr eflisk síðan; hann fær mátt af miklu erfiði.
‘Great wonders will occur, it will rain with blood, acute famine will thereupon afflict mankind. But the red snake gathers strength afterwards; he will acquire power from great exertion.
notes
[6] eflisk síðan ‘gathers strength afterwards’: This is the reading of Hb (not refreshed) and it is retained by Bret 1848-9, Merl 2012 and this edn. Other eds have seen the lack of alliteration as pointing to a problem with the text. Skj B, followed by Skald, emends to síðan eflisk with the objective of restoring alliteration on <s> on the hǫfuðstafr ‘head-stave’; the alliteration created in this way, however, would then cause difficulties in l. 5, where it would fall in a prohibited position, the second lift in a Type B-line. Given that demonstrable errors in the Hb text occur elsewhere (see Introduction), it may be that eflisk has supplanted some other word.