I found today’s phrase in Lesley Coote’s Prophecy and Public Affairs in Later Medieval England. It is a fragment of “Sicut rubeum draconem,” a prophecy inspired by and reworked from the Prophecia Merlini.
In ultimis diebus albi drachonis semen ejus trifarium spergetur.[1]
In – prep.; in, on, into, at, among
ultimis – adj.; far, farther, farthest, latest, last, highest, greatest
diebus – noun; day, daylight
In ultimis diebus – In the last days
albi – white
drachonis – noun; dragon
albi drachonis – of the white dragon
semen – noun; seed
ejus – pronoun; his
trifarium – adj.; three-fold
spergetur -> dispergetur (dispergo, dispergere, dispersi, dispersus) – verb; to scatter
In the last days of the white dragon, his seed will be scattered about threefold.
Now…this translation was dicey because of “spergetur,” which doesn’t appear in any of my dictionaries and such. Dispergetur, however, is a known word meaning “to scatter.” I actually had to go back into my dictionary in English looking for a word that meant something that would fit into the phrase (in this case, I was looking for “to seed” or “to scatter (seeds).” And that’s what I found.
1. “Sicut rubeum draconem” in Lesley Coote, Prophecy and Public Affairs in Later Medieval England, (Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press, 2000), 61.