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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Þul Ásynja 2III

[1] Nanna: In Old Norse sources, Nanna is Baldr’s wife and the daughter of Nepr (see Notes to Þul Ása I ll. 2, 3). She did not survive her husband and died from grief at his death (SnE 2005, 26, 46-7; SnE 1998, I, 1, 17, 30). In the other version of this myth related by Saxo (Saxo 2005, I, 3, 2, 2-9, pp. 190-7), Nanna is the wife of Hǫðr (see Note to Þul Ása I l. 10). Turville-Petre (1964, 115) argues that Nanna is the name of a valkyrie and, based on nǫnnor Herians ‘the Nǫnnur of Herjann <= Óðinn> [VALKYRIES]’ in Vsp 30/10 (NK 7), he maintains that the meaning of the name is probably ‘warlike’. However, the very structure of this poetic circumlocution in which Nanna (nǫnnur pl.) is the base-word in a kenning for ‘valkyrie’, speaks against that assumption. The origin of the name is uncertain. It is either a nursery word (cf. ModSwed. dialects nanna ‘mother’) or derived from the Germanic root *nanþ- (cf. ON nenna ‘strive’; AEW: Nanna).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
  3. Turville-Petre, Gabriel. 1964. Myth and Religion of the North. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
  4. 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.
  5. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  6. Saxo 2005 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2005. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum / Danmarkshistorien. Trans. Peter Zeeberg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab & Gads forlag.
  7. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  8. Internal references
  9. Not published: do not cite ()
  10. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ása heiti I’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 754. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3187> (accessed 29 March 2024)

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