Note to Þul Óðins 6III
[5] Svǫlnir: So A, lit. ‘cooler’; cf. the weak verb svala ‘chill, cool’ and the adj. svalr ‘cold’. Ms. B has ‘so᷎lner’, and the LaufE mss (normalised) Solnir or Sólnir. Svǫlnir may be related to Svalinn, otherwise attested as Svǫl, the shield that stands in front of the sun and cools the earth (cf. Grí 38/1; see also Þul Skjaldar 2/5). According to Falk (1924, 29), Svalinn was originally the name of Óðinn’s shield, and Bragi might have hinted at a connection between the two names when he chose the Óðinn-heiti Svǫlnir for his shield-kenning salpenningi Svǫlnis ‘Svǫlnir’s <= Óðinn’s> hall-penny’ (Rdr 12/1-2). If Falk’s explanation is correct, the actual meaning of Svǫlnir may be ‘the god with the shield’, although that interpretation remains speculative. This Óðinn-heiti frequently occurs in skaldic kennings.
References
- Bibliography
- Falk, Hjalmar. 1924. Odensheite. Skrifter utg. av Videnskapsselskapet i Kristiania. II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1924, 10. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
- Internal references
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skjaldar heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 825.
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Ragnarsdrápa 12’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 46.
- Not published: do not cite ()
- (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ 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=10928> (accessed 7 May 2024)