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Etymological Comments on Certain Words and Names in the Elder Edda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Extract

The following etymological comments are offered for the purpose of clarifying the sense of certain Old Norse names and words as well as (in certain cases) the interpretation of the passages in which they occur.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , March 1951 , pp. 278 - 291
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1951

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References

1 Cf. Scand. Stud., xxi (1949), 20–24.

2 “Die bestechende hypothèse Noreens … der Nagl-far mit ‘totenschiff’ übersetzt … ist demnach doch wohl abzulehnen.”

3 Cf. Feist, p. 372a, under naus: “Kaum aus idg. Gdf. no–í zu … gr. Leichnam. Näher liegt Vergleich … mit … apreuss. nowis Leichnam … zu idg. Wzl. näu- quälen (s.u. naups). …”

4 “Der name (vermutlich koseform eines kompsoitums mit wini-; vgl. ahd. Winigër, Winigard, Winigild u.a.) kommt sonst nicht vor.”

5 Cf. Finnur Jónsson, Lex. Poet.2, p. 447b: “den ikke skabte.”

6 Perhaps also in the name Q´s-olfr (= Ás-ol fr), but here the element s- may not represent the stem form -s- with u-umlaut of á, as Kock assumes for s-skópnir, but the w-umlaut of á (<Ás-wolfa r).

7 There is no evidence that skap-ker is derived from skapt-her (skapt=‘shaft, handle’); cf. OS skap:OHG skapf ‘a barrel, vessel (for holding liquid).’

8 Cf. Fick, Vgl. Wörterbuch der indo-germ. Sprachen, p. 451, skapjan'.sköp schöpfen; Walde-Pokorny, ii, 562–563.

9 The word ímr may possibly have been used as the name of a giant (Íms faÐir) in VafÐm. 5, 4, but this is uncertain, inasmuch as the text here is undoubtedly corrupt.

10 Cf. Grímr: Grimnir, Grípir: Gripnir, etc.

11 The derivation of the element Sin- in these two names is not entirely certain, but this fact has no bearing on the question inasmuch as the names were of ON origin. In the name Sin-rjóÐ the element Sin- probably represents the prefix sí-<sin- (=Goth. sin- in sin-eigs) ‘always, ever,’ with the n- preserved before -r (Sin-rjóÐ=‘The Ever Red’). In the name Sin-mara the element Sin- may either be identical with the Sin- in Sin-rjóÐ, or (more likely) represent the appellative sin ‘sinew’ (Sin-mara=‘The Ogress [-mara] who crushes [cf. mar-jan >merja, marÐa ‘to crush’] the sinews,‘ i.e., ‘One who destroys life’); cf. Finnur Jónsson (p. 495b, s.v.), who translates Sin-mara by “den sene-⊘deæggende.”

12 Cf. the -Ð- in the by-form Svi-Ð-uÐr, which occurs in the pulur (iv).

13 Cf. the verb svíÐ-a ‘to singe, burn‘—sviÐ-a=sviÐin kylfa; cf. Fritzner, Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog 2, iii, 620b, s.v.

14 Cf. Noreen, 241: “… Guttormr (Gutthormr, GuÐpormr u.a. schreibungen) ein mannsname zu pyrma ehren.”

15 Identity of the root har- in ON har-a with haz- in Goth, haz-jan ‘to praise’: OE her-ian ‘to praise’: OHG har-ēn ‘to call, cry out’ is hardly possible in view of the sense of ON har-a ‘to stare.‘

16 Cf. Walde-Pokorny, i, 354, 3. qar- ‘hart.“ The IE extension -t (>PG-þ>Ð) is present in Gk. (=Goth. hard-us<IE qar-lú) but is lacking in Gk. ‘nut’ (lit. ‘a hard object’), (reduplicated form) ‘rough, hard.’ Walde-Pokorny do not, however, equate the PG base har- in ON har-Ð-r with the root har- in har-a ‘to stare.’

17 Cf. Hóvm. 134, 6: ór skorpum belg, ‘from a (leather) sack which has become sharp (i.e., crumpled from drying).‘

18 Cf. Walde-Pokorny, ii, 627 f.

19 Cf. Deutsche Altertumskunde, v (1891), 134. Müllenhoff's interpretation is accepted by Gering (i, 19).

20 The idea of ‘keeping in safety, safeguarding“ is the natural (end) result of ‘concealing, hiding, burying.’ For ON folgenn ‘concealed, hidden, buried’>‘kept in safety, safeguarded’ compare OE byrgan ‘to bury’: beorgan ‘to keep in safety, protect’ (Eng. bury: Germ, bergen ‘to conceal; save, secure‘).

21 A dwarf could be the ‘guardian’ of his treasures, and if in Hóvm. 14, 2 Fjalarr refers to the giant Suttungr, who held the poet's mead in his possession, he could have been the ‘guardian’ as well as the ‘concealer’ of this precious object. C. N. Gould's interpretation of the name Fjalarr (PMLA, xxiv [1929], 946) as a “Paneller”, derived from the root fjal- (cf. fjol ‘plank, board, panel‘), seems reasonable as applied to a dwarf but cannot be valid as the name of either a giant or a cock.

22 It is doubtful whether the form Surta, which occurs only in the phrase Surta loge (Vafpm. 50, 4; 51, 2) represents a gen. form of a nom. Surte. Gering, I, 61, explains the form Surta as due to assimilation in the compound Surtar-loge. This explanation must be correct, for a PN svurtē would have yielded Sorte (cf. sorte ‘dark cloud, darkness‘).

23 Traditionally, thralls and persons of foreign origin; cf. Rígsp. 7, 1–2: Jóò ó1 Edda,/ióso vatni/horundsvartan,/héto præl.