Note to Þul Jǫtna I 5III
[7] Víðblindi: In Skm (SnE 1998, I, 63), it is told that Víðblindi was a giant who pulled whales out of the sea like fish, and whales are therefore called geltir Víðblinda ‘Víðblindi’s boars’ (for similar kennings for ‘whale’, see LP: Víðblindi). The meaning of the name is uncertain. The last element of the cpd, ‑blindi, means ‘blind’, but the quantity of vowel in the first element ([i:] or [i]) cannot be established. If the vowel is long, Víð- can be connected with the adj. víðr ‘wide’ (so Finnur Jónsson 1934-5, 299). If the first vowel is short (Við-), the word may be derived from viðr m. ‘tree, forest, wood’ (so Motz 1987, 304), but in that case the meaning of this giant-name is difficult to make sense of. See also the dwarf-name Blindviðr in Þul Dverga 1/5.
References
- Bibliography
- 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.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1934-5. ‘Þulur: Søkonge- og jættenavneremserne’. APS 9, 289-308.
- Motz, Lotte. 1987. ‘Old Icelandic Giants and Their Names’. FS 21, 295-317.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ 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=112> (accessed 27 May 2024)
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 693.