Note to Þul Á 6^III

[3-4] Kǫrmt … ok Ǫrmt, tvær Kerlaugar ‘Kǫrmt … and Ǫrmt, two Kerlaugar’: Cf. Grí 29/1-2 (NK 63) Kǫrmt oc Ǫrmt | oc Kerlaugar tvær (also cited in Gylf, SnE 2005, 17). According to Grí 29/3-6, these are the rivers Þórr crosses on his way to the legal assembly at the ash Yggdrasill. Kǫrmt is also an island in Rogaland, Norway (Karmøy; see Þul Eyja 3/2), but it is uncertain whether there is any connection between that island and the river-heiti. According to Olsen (1925), the pair Kǫrmt ok Ǫrmt is most likely to be derived from karmr and armr, which are terms for ‘pen in a sheep-fold’, denoting two parallel parts of a sheep-fold (the same as fjárhúskró or kró í fjárhúsi ‘corner in a cowshed/sheep cote’). He suggests that, as names for rivers, they have their origin in the myth about Þórr’s encounter with the daughters of the giant Geirrøðr in a goat-shed (see SnE 1998, I, 25). There have also been other attempts to explain the name Ǫrmt. According to Cleasby and Vigfusson (CVC 780), this could be the river Armet in Scotland, while Sijmons and Gering (S-G I, 200) argue that the possible sense of the name is in arme sich teilend, ein delta bildend ‘dividing itself into armlets, forming a delta’ (from armr ‘arm’). The name Kerlaug (here f. nom. pl. Kerlaugar) translates as ‘tub-washing’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
3. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
4. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
5. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
6. S-G = Gering, Hugo. 1927-31. Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda. Nach dem Tode des Verfassers herausgegeben von B. Sijmons. I: Götterlieder. II: Heldenlieder. Halle: Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
7. Olsen, Magnus. 1925. ‘Kǫrmt ok Ǫrmt’. In Germanica: Eduard Sievers zum 75. Geburtstage 25. November 1925, 246-57. Rpt. in Olsen 1938a, 178-88.
8. Internal references
9. (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 5 May 2024)
10. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Eyja 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. 976.
11. Not published: do not cite ()