Note to Þul Hrafns 1III
[6] klóakan ‘sharp-clawed one’: This raven-heiti is an obscure word, perhaps derived from kló f. ‘claw’ and the bird-name kárn (for the latter, see Þul Fugla 4/1 and Note there and ÍO: klóakan). The B (744ˣ) variant ‘kíalakan’ is also difficult to make sense of (cf. Óðinn’s name Kjalarr, Þul Óðins 1/5). The LaufE mss have (normalised) kjólakan here, which could be construed as kjóla-, gen. pl. of kjóll m. ‘barge’ (see Þul Skipa 2/7), and ‑kan (= kárn, see above). Kjólakan would then mean ‘barges’ bird’, and the term could refer to ravens circling above ships (see also Note to kjalarfugl, Þul Fugla 4/1). The form kjólakan is also preferable from a metrical point view, but because the word is not present in this form in either A or B, it is not emended here.
References
- Bibliography
- ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
- Internal references
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Óðins nǫfn 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. 732.
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fugla heiti 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 955.
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skipa heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 863.
- (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ 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=10928> (accessed 13 April 2025)