Gauti Lv 1VIII (Gautr 1)/2 — Skafnörtungr ‘Skafnǫrtungr’
Skúa tvá, er mér Skafnörtungr gaf,
þvengjum er hann þá nam.
Ills manns kveð ek aldri verða
grandalausar gjafir.
Skúa tvá, er Skafnörtungr gaf mér, er hann nam þá þvengjum. Ek kveð gjafir ills manns verða aldri grandalausar.
The two shoes, which Skafnǫrtungr gave me, he took the laces from them. I say the gifts of an evil man are never without harm.
readings
[2] Skafnörtungr gaf: gaf Skafnartungr gaf 152, gaf Skafnartungr with gaf added above the line in a different hand papp11ˣ, gaf Skafnartungr 567XIV γ, gaf Skafnörungr 164hˣ
notes
[2] Skafnörtungr ‘Skafnǫrtungr’: This man’s name is written in several ways in the mss, both in the prose and the verse, though the first element, skaf ‘peeled bark’, is largely constant (though Skapnartungr occurs in the prose of 152, Gautr 1900, 6 n. 13). Skaf was bark peeled from trees and used to feed animals, especially goats; cf. Sigv Lv 26/4I. The second element in the cpd is written ‑nörtungr, ‑nartungr or ‑nörungr. The last of these forms probably derives from nœra (later næra) ‘nourish, feed’; thus the cpd skafnörungr should mean ‘bark-feeder’. The element ‑nörtungr may be related to the Icelandic nickname nörtr (CVC: nörtr; AEW: nǫrtr), which AEW connects to ModIcel. narta ‘nibble’, but Lind (1920-1, col. 270) prefers to regard nörtr as a form of knörtr, which he connects to ModNorw. knart ‘a small, thick-set person’. In Skj B Finnur Jónsson glosses the name Skafnörtungr as den, der ved at skrabe forminsker noget ‘someone who diminishes something by scraping at it’, but this explanation is not very convincing. Skafnörtungr seems more likely to mean ‘bark-nibbler’, following the etymology proposed by AEW, perhaps an allusion to the man’s rustic character.