[5] Syn: The name of this Ásynja is also given next to Vár and Vǫr (see ll. 4, 5) in Gylf (SnE 2005, 30), where it is said that she is appointed as a defender at assemblies in cases which she wishes to refute (cf. the weak verb synja ‘deny’ used in legal phrases; CVC: synja). Hence Syn is presented as a goddess of lawsuits, and her name means ‘denial’. She is not mentioned in any Old Norse source other than Gylf and in kennings for ‘woman’.
References
- Bibliography
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=113> (accessed 4 May 2024)