[3] gífr ‘hag, troll-woman’: Commonly used as a heiti for a troll or, more often, a trollwife (see Vsp 52/6). By extension, gífr is often used, as here, to convey the notion of ‘enemy’, ‘danger’ or ‘bane’ and is frequently the base-word of kennings for the battle-axe (see LP: gífr).
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.
- Internal references
- Not published: do not cite ()