Note to Þul Ása I 1III
[3] Víðarr: The name may mean ‘one who rules over a large country’ (from the adj. víðr ‘wide’). The quantity of the vowel [i:] is secured by metre (Vafþr 53/3, Grí 17/3, Lok 10/1). In Gylf (SnE 2005, 26), Víðarr is characterised as hinn þǫgli Áss ‘the silent god’; it is also said that he is almost equal in strength to Þórr and supports the gods when there is danger. According to Vsp 55, Víðarr will avenge his father and kill the wolf Fenrir at Ragnarǫk ‘the Doom of the gods’ (cf. also Vafþr 51/1-3, 53/1-3, Grí 17 and Lok 10/1-3). Along with Váli, he is one of the gods who will survive Ragnarǫk (Vafþr 51). Skm (SnE 1998, I, 19) enumerates the poetic circumlocutions alluding to the main functions of Víðarr in Old Norse myth, and recommends that one refer to this god as eigandi jár<n>skós ‘possessor of the iron shoe’. This refers to Víðarr’s iron shoe which he wedged in the mouth of Fenrir at Ragnarǫk (see Gylf, SnE 2005, 50-1).
References
- Bibliography
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. 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 19 April 2024)
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ 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=113> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Not published: do not cite ()
- Not published: do not cite ()
- Not published: do not cite ()
- Not published: do not cite ()