Note to Þul Sólar 1III
[8] leika Dvalins ‘Dvalinn’s <dwarf’s> plaything’: Or ‘Dvalinn’s playmate’. In Alv 16/3 this is the name for ‘sun’ among the dwarfs, possibly derived from a lost myth (for Dvalinn, a dwarf whose name is often used as a term for ‘dwarf’ in general, see Note to Þul Dverga 2/2). According to Old Norse beliefs, dwarfs, who are rock-dwellers, cannot endure daylight and are turned into stone by the sun’s rays. Hence leika here denotes ‘sby or sth. capable of destroying the dwarfs’ (so Åkerblom 1920, 52-4), which is clearly a euphemism. Alternatively, the phrase has been interpreted as ‘Dvalinn’s mockery’ (Güntert 1921, 144; see also Kommentar III, 336-40). This name, which is more of a mythological kenning than a heiti, is mentioned among the poetic terms for ‘sun’ in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 85) and it occurs in Heiðr (FSN I, 475). The heiti is also used in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: 2. leika).
References
- Bibliography
- FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1926-8. Ordbog til de af samfund til udg. af gml. nord. litteratur udgivne Rímur samt til de af Dr. O. Jiriczek udgivne Bósarímur. SUGNL 51. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
- Kommentar = See, Klaus von et al. 1997-2012. Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda. 7 vols. Heidelberg: Winter.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Güntert, Hermann. 1921. Von der Sprache der Götter und Geister. Halle (Saale): Niemeyer.
- Åkerblom, Axel. 1920. ‘Bidrag till eddatolkningen’. ANF 36, 47-54.
- Internal references
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=23> (accessed 5 May 2024)
- (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 5 May 2024)
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 695.
- Not published: do not cite ()