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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þul Sverða 3III/8 — sváfnir ‘sváfnir’

Lotti, hrǫnduðr,         lǫgðir, mækir,
mǫnduðr, mundriði         ok Mistilteinn,
malmr, þrór ok marr         ok miðfáinn,
Fetbreiðr, grindlogi         ok Fjǫrsváfnir.

Lotti, hrǫnduðr, lǫgðir, mækir, mǫnduðr, mundriði ok Mistilteinn, malmr, þrór ok marr ok miðfáinn, Fetbreiðr, grindlogi ok Fjǫrsváfnir.

Lotti, thruster, stabber, blade, aimer, hand-swinger and Mistilteinn, metal, thriver and striker and one decorated in the middle, Fetbreiðr, gate-flame and Fjǫrsváfnir.

readings

[8] ‑sváfnir: so C, ‑soðnir all others

notes

[8] Fjǫrsváfnir: So C. Lit. ‘life-quencher’, from fjǫr n. ‘life’ and an agent noun from the weak verb svæfa ‘lull to sleep’ (with a ‑nir ending), hence metaphorically ‘to kill’; cf. also SnE 1998, II, 274. See also sváfnir ‘serpent’ (Þul Orma 3/6) and sœfir ‘sword’ (SnSt Ht 54/5).  In Nj (ch. 130, ÍF 12, 334), Fjǫrsváfnir is the name of Kári Sǫlmundarson’s sword, but the word is not found in poetry other than in the present þula. The reading of the other mss, fjǫrsoðnir (from the weak verb soðna ‘become sodden, cooked’), is difficult to make sense of in this context (see LP: fjǫrsváfnir).

grammar

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