Note to Anon (Ragn) 9^VIII (Ragn 39)

[4] Loðbróku ‘of Loðbróka’: The identification and form of the pers. n. here depends on whether the final letter of the word is understood as an abbreviation for ‑ar in the form of a superscript <r> or as a superscript <v>. The present ed.’s reading (cf. McTurk 1991a, 22-5) differs from that of all previous eds, who without exception have understood the superscript symbol as an abbreviation for ‑ar, and expanded the ms. form to loðbrókar, taking it as the gen. sg. of the strong f. common noun loðbrók ‘hairy breeches’, and as referring to Ragnarr, to whom loðbrók is applied elsewhere as a nickname. (The earliest known reference to a person whose name can be equated with ON loðbrók occurs in the Gesta Normannorurn ducum (c. 1070) of William of Jumièges, where the name is plainly that of a king: Lotroci Regis ‘of King Lothrocus’, see st. 37, Note to [All], above and the Note to Krm 1/8. Cf. also McTurk 2011b, 8; 1991, 39-50; van Houts 1992-5, I, xxxvii.) According to McTurk’s reading, on the other hand, the superscript symbol in question represents <v>. The use of superscript <v> for <u> (in ‘nock^vt’ = nokkut) elsewhere in 1824b (at 57v, l. 2, cf. Olsen, Ragn 1906-08, ci and 124, l. 28) supports the reading given here; see further McTurk (2007a, 57-9)). The word loðbróku may then be understood as the gen. sg. of a weak f. noun loðbróka, not otherwise attested in Old Norse. (Although the Maeshowe inscription mentioned in the previous Note uses the f. pron. hennar ‘her’ to refer, apparently, to the sons’ parent, the pers. n. to which it refers is loðbrók, not loðbróka). Bróka is listed in Þul Kvenna II 2/6^III as a poetic term for ‘woman’, and this may support the notion that loðbróka may be the pers. n., Loðbróka. McTurk has argued further (1991a, 16-30; 1991b, 343-52, 356-9; 2007a, 57-9; 2011b, 9-14) that this may be a variant of the goddess-name *Loþkona (‘woman with luxuriant hair’?), which Sahlgren (1918, 28-40) showed to be deducible from the Swedish p. n. Locknevi (<Loðkonuvé) and to refer in all likelihood, with its implications of luxuriant growth (its first element means ‘hairy’, ‘woolly’, or ‘grassy’), to a fertility goddess. It is then proposed that it was as part of this goddess’s cult that the trémaðr is here claiming to have been set up.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Houts, Elisabeth M. C. van, ed. and trans. 1992-5. The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni. 2 vols. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford: Clarendon.
3. McTurk, Rory. 1991a. Studies in Ragnars saga loðbrókar and Its Major Scandinavian Analogues. Medium Ævum Monographs new ser. 15. Oxford: Society for the Study of Mediæval Languages and Literature.
4. McTurk, Rory. 2007a. ‘Male or Female Initiation? The Strange Case of Ragnars saga’. In Hermann et al. 2007, 53-73.
5. McTurk, Rory. 2011b. ‘The Household of “Ragnarr loðbrók”’. In Hudson 2011, 1-18.
6. Sahlgren, Jöran. 1918. ‘Förbjuda namn’. NoB 6, 1-40.
7. Internal references
8. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Krákumál 1’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 717.
9. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 19 (Sigurðr ormr í auga, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 663.