[6] Geirǫlnir: Perhaps ‘spear-feeder’, from geirr m. ‘spear’ and the strong verb ala ‘nourish, feed’. Falk (1924, 13), however, suggests that the name could have developed from *Geirǫnlir (with metathesis), which in turn may have been derived from the name of a valkyrie, Geirǫnul, where ‑ǫnul is a nominal derivation from the verb *ana (cf. ModIcel. ana ‘rush on’), hence lit. ‘one rushing on with a spear’. This is also a heiti for ‘goat’ (see Note to Þul Hafrs 1/2), but it is not otherwise used in poetry.