Note to Þul Fjarða 1^III

[3] Angr: In Old Norse local names the ending ‑angr was frequently used to denote ‘bay’ or ‘fjord’ (cf. Harðangr, Stafangr, Heyjangr in ll. 5, 6; ÍO: ang(u)r 1). There is no etymological relation between this word and angr m. ‘grief’ (see the Note above); hence it is impossible to say whether it is used here as a common noun (‘bay, fjord’) or as a p. n. In poetry angr occurs in a kenning for ‘gold’ (HaukrV Ísldr 15/7-8^IV) of the type eldr allra vatna ‘fire of all kinds of water’ (SnE 1998, I, 40), which, along with all sorts of sea-heiti, permitted the use of place names belonging to various rivers and fjords qualified by a term for ‘fire’. Finnur Jónsson treats Angr as a p. n. (LP: Angr 2), identifying it as the name of a branch of Hardangerfjorden. According to Munch (1846, 84), ON Angr was the name of several fjords in Norway, among them Sandesognsfjorden (present-day Sandebukta), a branch of Oslofjorden in Vestfold, where he found the name Angerskleven, the old main road that runs past the town of Holmestrand (cf. also Angersnes in Nordland, northern Norway). However that may be, Anger (< ON Angr) is no longer used as a fjord-name in Norway.

References

1. Bibliography
2. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
3. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
4. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
5. Munch, P. A. 1846. ‘Geographiske bemærkninger, knyttede til et hidtil uudgivet stykke af den yngre Edda’. ÅNOH, 81-96; 365-7.
6. Internal references
7. Not published: do not cite (HaukrV Ísldr 15^IV)