Note to Þul Þorgþ I 2III
[6] Gullfaxi ok Jór með goðum ‘Gullfaxi and Jór with the gods’: As told in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 20, 22), Gullfaxi (lit. ‘gold-maned one’) originally belonged to the giant Hrungnir, but after having killed Hrungnir, the god Þórr decided to give the horse to his own son Magni. Unlike the second element of this cpd ‑faxi (from fax n. ‘mane’), which is often used as a poetic simplex for ‘horse’, the cpd Gullfaxi is never used as a common noun in skaldic verse. In Þul Hesta 1/2 the name is given as Gullinfaxi ‘golden-maned one’ (from the adj. gullinn; cf. the variants Silfrtoppr and Silfrintoppr, l. 4 above). Jór m. is a poetic term for ‘stallion’ which is also recorded in Þul Hesta 3/7, but attested as a proper name only in Þorgþ.
References
- Bibliography
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ 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=112> (accessed 14 April 2025)
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Hesta 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. 935.
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Hesta heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 937.