Note to Þul Óðins 1^III

[5] Gizurr: A pers. n. of uncertain origin, perhaps related to a weak verb *gitsa, ODan. gitse ‘guess’, cf. OIcel. geta (AEW: Gizurr). See also Sanngetall (st. 7/2). It has been suggested (Falk 1924, 13-14) that this Óðinn-heiti could have been derived from the story of Gizurr Gertingaliði or Grýtingaliði in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (Heiðr, FSN I, 495; see also NK 305, 308-10), an emanation of Óðinn, or Óðinn himself, who provoked war between Angantýr, king of the Goths, and his half-brother Hlǫðr, king of the Huns. A reverse relationship is probably more likely, namely, that the name had Odinic associations and so could be applied to Odinic figures in heroic legends and fornaldarsögur. It is clear from the contexts in which it is used that this name was associated with the conception of Óðinn as the promoter of strife (cf. Turville-Petre 1964, 51). In Anon Mhkv 22/2 Óðinn is called Gizurr and described as one who incites princes against each other, and Sturla Þórðarson (Sturl Lv 4/4, 7^IV) replaced the name of the treacherous Gizurr jarl Þorvaldsson with Óðinn and Gautr (see the latter name in l. 6 below).

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
4. Turville-Petre, Gabriel. 1964. Myth and Religion of the North. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
5. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
6. Falk, Hjalmar. 1924. Odensheite. Skrifter utg. av Videnskapsselskapet i Kristiania. II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1924, 10. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
7. Internal references
8. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=23> (accessed 3 June 2024)
9. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘(Biography of) Sturla Þórðarson’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 392.
10. Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 22’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1236.
11. Not published: do not cite (Sturl Lv 4^IV)