Note to Þul Kvenna I 1III
[4] feima (f.) ‘lass’: Lit. ‘shy’. The heiti refers to ‘a bashful girl, a young lass’ (so CVC: feima; cf. ModIcel. feiminn ‘timid, modest’; see also Note to Vígf Lv 1/2I). In Snorri’s words (Skm, SnE 1998, I, 107): Feima er sú kǫlluð er ófrǫm er svá sem ungar meyjar, eða þær konur er ódjarfar eru ‘One who is retiring, such as young girls or those women who are shy, is called feima’. However, the word may be related to OE fæmne ‘maid’ (see AEW: feima). This term is found only in poetry, and only rarely there. Feima is also the name of a giantess in Gríms saga loðinkinna (FSN II, 145-8).
References
- Bibliography
- FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gríms saga loðinkinna’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 288. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=76> (accessed 26 April 2024)
- (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 26 April 2024)
- Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Vígfúss Víga-Glúmsson, Lausavísa 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 364.