Note to Ótt Lv 3I
[8] Naumu ‘with a Nauma <giantess>’: Nauma features quite frequently in woman-kennings, providing the base-word in the same way that names of goddesses and valkyries frequently do (LP: 1. nauma; Meissner 407), and hence may have been regarded as a goddess name, as seemingly in Þjóð Yt 22/5-6, though no such deity is mentioned in SnE or elsewhere. In the present instance, however, Nauma may be thought of as a giantess, since the stanza is set in a cave, and in the kenning salr Naumu ‘hall of Nauma [CAVE]’ in Grett Lv 28/6V (Gr 60) Nauma seems to be a giantess, denizen of rocks and caves. The two possibilities could perhaps be reconciled by adopting Brøgger’s suggestion (1924-6, 26) that Nauma was a minor deity whose domain is the abodes of the dead – grave-mounds and cairns.
References
- Bibliography
- Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Internal references
- Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
- Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 22’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 48.
- Jonathan Grove (ed.) 2022, ‘Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar 60 (Grettir Ásmundarson, Lausavísur 28)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 771.