[1] Vrǫsku ‘of Rǫskva’: According to Snorri, the two children Þjálfi and Rǫskva were given to Þórr as servants as compensation for an incident in which Þjálfi injured one of Þórr’s goats, causing it to limp (Gylf, SnE 2005, 37). In ARG II, 332, Rǫskva’s name is connected with Goth. wrisqan ‘bear fruit’ (cf. ON rǫskvast ‘grow, ripen’), and she could have been a goddess of fertility. The name can be reconstructed as Gmc *Wraskwō, an agent noun meaning ‘ripener, ripening one’.
References
- Bibliography
- SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- ARG = Vries, Jan de. 1956-7. Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte. 2 vols. 2nd edn. Berlin: de Gruyter.
- 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 14 May 2024)