Þul Sjóvar 1III/1 — sílægja ‘ever-lying one’
Sær, sílægja, salt, ægir, haf,
lǫgr, sumr, lœgir, lagastafr ok vágr,
gjallr, gnap, geimi, gnarr, svífr ok marr,
súgr, sog, sami, svelgr, rǫst ok fjǫrðr.
Sær, sílægja, salt, ægir, haf, lǫgr, sumr, lœgir, lagastafr ok vágr, gjallr, gnap, geimi, gnarr, svífr ok marr, súgr, sog, sami, svelgr, rǫst ok fjǫrðr.
Sea, ever-lying one, salt, the main, ocean, liquid, the swim, calm one, waters’ foundation and bay, clamouring one, towering one, extensive one, murmurer, rocker and mere, sucker, sucking one, unchanging one, swallower, current and fjord.
readings
[1] sílægja: ‘[…]ía’ B, ‘býlgia’ 744ˣ
notes
[1] sær, sílægja ‘sea, ever-lying one’: The same pair of heiti from ‘the language of men’ and ‘the language of gods’ opens the list of the sea-names in Alv 24/1-2 (NK 127) Sær heitir með mǫnnom, | enn sílægia með goðom ‘It is called sær among men and sílægja among the gods’, but the latter name is not found elsewhere. Presumably, the word is a euphemism and most likely means ‘one ever-lying still’, from sí- ‘ever’ (intensifying prefix) and the strong verb liggja ‘lie’ (cf. AEW: silægja; Meissner 1924, 136), alternatively interpreted as sil-ægja, from sil ‘slowly flowing water’ and ægir ‘sea’. Cf. also Shetland Norn sjologa ‘mist lying over the sea’ (< *sjá-lægja lit. ‘sea-lying’); however, in compounds sjór/sær never occurs as si-/sí- (see Kommentar III, 352-3).