Note to Þul Sverða 3III
[8] Fjǫrsváfnir: So C. Lit. ‘life-quencher’, from fjǫr n. ‘life’ and an agent noun from the weak verb svæfa ‘lull to sleep’ (with a ‑nir ending), hence metaphorically ‘to kill’; cf. also SnE 1998, II, 274. See also sváfnir ‘serpent’ (Þul Orma 3/6) and sœfir ‘sword’ (SnSt Ht 54/5). In Nj (ch. 130, ÍF 12, 334), Fjǫrsváfnir is the name of Kári Sǫlmundarson’s sword, but the word is not found in poetry other than in the present þula. The reading of the other mss, fjǫrsoðnir (from the weak verb soðna ‘become sodden, cooked’), is difficult to make sense of in this context (see LP: fjǫrsváfnir).
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.
- ÍF 12 = Brennu-Njáls saga. Ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 1954.
- Internal references
- 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Njáls saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 1220-1313. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=55> (accessed 3 May 2024)
- Not published: do not cite (KáriV)
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Orma heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 931.
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 54’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1163.