[2] Arnhǫfði: Lit. ‘eagle-head’ (from ǫrn f. ‘eagle’ and hǫfuð n. ‘head’). This cpd, which is not attested elsewhere, may refer to wooden effigies of the god Óðinn, a so-called stolpegud ‘pole-god’, a pole with an eagle’s head (see Falk 1924, 3). It is also possible that the name alludes to the myth according to which Óðinn, in the shape of an eagle, transported the mead of poetry back to Ásgarðr (see Skm, SnE 1998, I, 4-5).
References
- Bibliography
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Falk, Hjalmar. 1924. Odensheite. Skrifter utg. av Videnskapsselskapet i Kristiania. II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1924, 10. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
- 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)