Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 790.
Ek mun segja sverða heiti:
hjǫrr ok Hrotti, hǫguðr, Dragvandill,
gróa, Gramr, gellir, gjallr ok neðanskarðr,
sigðr ok Snyrtir, sómi, skjómi.
Ek mun segja heiti sverða: hjǫrr ok Hrotti, hǫguðr, Dragvandill, gróa, Gramr, gellir, gjallr ok neðanskarðr, sigðr ok Snyrtir, sómi, skjómi.
I shall say the names of swords: sword and Hrotti, useful one, Dragvandill, growing one, Gramr, yeller, clamouring one and end-notched one, sickle and Snyrtir, honour, glimmer.
Mss: R(42v), Tˣ(44v), C(12r), A(18v), B(8v), 744ˣ (SnE)
Readings: [1] Ek: ‘[…]k’ B, Ek 744ˣ [3] ok: om. Tˣ [4] hǫguðr: ‘haugudr’ Tˣ, C, hǫgguðr B [5] gellir: om. C, gillir A, B [6] gjallr: ‘giallrun’ C, gjallarr A, gjalarr B; neðanskarðr: neðanskarði B [7] ok: om. Tˣ [8] sómi skjómi: skjómi sómi Tˣ, ‘so[…] ok skíomí’ B, ‘somi ok skíomí’ 744ˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 662, Skj BI, 663, Skald I, 327, SnE 1848-87, I, 563, II, 476, 559, 619, SnE 1931, 200, SnE 1998, I, 118.
Notes: [3] hjǫrr (m.) ‘sword’: An old poetic term for ‘sword’ (cf. OE heoru ‘sword’). — [3] Hrotti: The name of several legendary swords and a poetic term for ‘sword’ in general. Cf. Fáfnir’s sword (see Fáfn prose (NK 188) and Vǫls 1965, 34), Hervarðr Arngrímsson’s sword (Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, FSN I, 416), as well as OE Hrunting, the name of Unferð’s sword in Beowulf (for the latter, see Beowulf 2008, 470 and references there). The meaning of Hrotti is not clear. It may have meant ‘branch, staff’ (so ÍO: hrotti 1), or it could have been derived from the strong verb hrinda (pret. hratt) ‘push, kick, throw’. — [4] hǫguðr (m.) ‘useful one’: An agent noun from the weak verb haga ‘manage, succeed’; cf. hagna ‘be suitable, succeed’ and Hǫgnuðr, the name of a magic wand (stafsproti) in Vatnsdæla saga (ch. 44, ÍF 8, 120 and n. 2; see also Falk 1914b, 53). The B variant, hǫgguðr lit. ‘killer, striker’ (so also the LaufE mss), suggests a connection with hǫgg n. ‘stroke, blow’ and the strong verb hǫggva ‘strike, behead’. Hǫguðr is not attested elsewhere as a heiti for ‘sword’, and neither is the B variant hǫgguðr. — [4] Dragvandill: Perhaps lit. ‘draw-wand’. This is the name of a sword originally belonging to the legendary king of the Saami, Gusi(r), and later owned by a succession of saga-heroes including Ketill hœngr, Skallagrímr and Egill (FSN II, 122 etc.; Eg chs 61, 64-5, ÍF 2, 195, 204, 209-10). The word is used in poetry only as a proper name and never as a common noun. All mss give the form Dragvandill here, while other prose and poetic sources have either ‑vandill or ‑vendill (cf. Egill Lv 35/2V (Eg 64), Keth Lv 20/1VIII (Ket 36)). According to Falk (1914b, 63), vendill is a sword-heiti. The variant ‑vandill in Dragvandill may be derived from vǫndr m. ‘wand’ (cf. vǫndull m. ‘wisp’); hence the name would mean ‘a sword which is so long that it is dragged’ (see Falk 1914b, 49), or, perhaps more likely, a sword that is drawn from its scabbard (cf. draga sverð ‘draw a sword’, Heggstad et al. 2008: 1. draga). Falk (1914b, 63) derives ‑vandill/-vendill from an ethnic name (cf. Vandill, Vendill in Jutland and Wendala in Saxo 2005, II, 681). Vandill is also the name of a sea-king and a giant (see Note to Þul Sækonunga 5/2 and Þul Jǫtna II 1/6). — [5] gróa (f.) ‘growing one’: The word is attested only as a f. pers. n. (of a prophetess, Svipdagr’s mother, in Grógaldr 1/1, and of a sorceress, the wife of Aurvandill in Skm, SnE 1998, I, 22). According to Falk (1914b, 51), the f. gender implies that the word ought to be a heiti for ‘axe’, and he believes that it could have been included among the sword-heiti by mistake. — [5] Gramr: Lit. ‘angry one’. The name of Sigurðr’s sword (e.g. Reg prose (NK 177)), used in poetry as a common noun. It is also a poetic term for ‘ruler’ (see Þul Konunga 1/7). — [5] gellir (m.) ‘yeller’: The A, B variant gillir (so also the LaufE mss) has the same meaning. Gellir is an agent noun derived from the weak verb gella ‘cause sth. to ring, resound’ (causative formation from the strong verb gjalla ‘ring, resound’; cf. the next word). The word is also listed among the heiti for ‘ox’ (Þul Øxna 3/5). Gellir is attested in prose as a pers. n. and as a nickname (see Note to Arn Magndr 4/4II), but the word does not occur elsewhere as a heiti for ‘sword’. — [6] gjallr (m.) ‘clamouring one’: This heiti is also given in Þul Skjaldar 2/1 and Þul Sjóvar 1/5, but aside from a dubious attestation in KormǪ Lv 55/5V (Korm 76), this poetic adj. is used only with the meaning ‘clamouring, ringing, resounding’ in Old Norse. Gjallr is attested as a heiti for ‘sword’ in the later rímur, however (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: gjallr). — [6] neðanskarðr (m.) ‘end-notched one’: Or ‘one notched from beneath’. An otherwise unattested cpd. See skarðr ‘notched one’ (st. 5/8). — [7] Snyrtir: Lit. ‘polisher’ or ‘polished one’. Bjarki’s sword in Saxo (Saxo 2005, I, 2, 7, 19, pp. 182-3), otherwise known as Laufi (see st. 2/2 below). The name occurs as a poetic term for ‘sword’ in general. According to Falk (1914b, 60), snyrtir is derived from the p. p. snyrtr ‘decorated’ (cf. ModNorw. snyrta ‘embellish’) and may have had the passive meaning ‘decorated one’. — [8] sómi (m.) ‘honour’: Cf. also sómr ‘seemly one’, a heiti for ‘bow’ (Þul Boga l. 4). Neither of these heiti is found in Old Norse poetry, but sómi is found as a heiti for ‘sword’ in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: sómi).
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