[8] Gylfi: Here a sea-king, the son of Geitir (Flat 1860-8, I, 22; see l. 7 above). The name is frequently used in kennings for ‘sea’ and ‘ship’. Finnur Jónsson (1934-5, 294) connects it with the sea-heiti gjálfr n. ‘swelling waves, surge’, while Björn Sigfússon (1934, 130-1) offers the interpretation ‘he who lives on a raised floor, a chief’ (from gólf n. ‘raised floor’). Cf. the A variant Gylfir in Þul Sea-kings l. 6 (and in ms. 744ˣ of the present stanza).
References
- Bibliography
- Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
- Björn Sigfússon. 1934. ‘Names of Sea-Kings (heiti sækonunga)’. MP 32, 125-42.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1934-5. ‘Þulur: Søkonge- og jættenavneremserne’. APS 9, 289-308.
- Internal references
- Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Heiti for sea-kings’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 987. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1045> (accessed 5 June 2024)