Note to Þul Óðins 5III
[4] Þriði: Lit. ‘the third’. According to Snorri, this was the third of the three kings, Hár, Jafnhár and Þriði, the informants of Gylfi in Gylf, and the one occupying the highest throne (SnE 2005, 8). This Óðinn-heiti is frequently used in kennings and is mentioned in Grí 46/4. In Þáttr Hálfdanar svarta, the name is explained as originating from a confusion with the Christian Trinity (Flat 1860-8, I, 564): Þride af þui at þeir … hǫfðu þa spurnn af þrenningunne ok sneru þui j uillu ‘Third because by then they … had heard of the Trinity and altered it falsely’. Grimm (1875-8, I, 134 n. 3, III, 61) compares this name to the name of Zeus, Τρίτος, and interprets it as the third name in the trilogy Búri, Burr, Óðinn, just as Zeus is the third in the trilogy Uranos, Kronos, Zevs (cf. Falk 1924, 30).
References
- Bibliography
- Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
- SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. 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.
- Grimm, Jakob [Jacob]. 1875-8. Deutsche Mythologie. 3 vols. 4th edn by Elard Hugo Meyer. Berlin: Ferd. Dümmlers Verlagsbuchhandlung.
- Internal references
- (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- Not published: do not cite ()