[1] Bjǫrgolfr: Not mentioned elsewhere in skaldic poetry, but it is attested in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: Bjǫrgólfr). According to Finnur Jónsson (1934-5, 303), the name (from bjǫrg n. pl. ‘mountains and úlfr ‘wolf’) is modelled on the same pattern as such giant-kennings as fjallgylðir ‘mountain-wolf [GIANT]’ Þjóð Haustl 4/1. Less convincing is Motz’s (1984, 181) suggestion that the first element of the cpd is derived from bjǫrg f. ‘help, salvation’ (or ‘stores, provisions, food’; ÍO: Bjǫrg- 2), hence perhaps ‘help-wolf’.
References
- Bibliography
- Finnur Jónsson. 1926-8. Ordbog til de af samfund til udg. af gml. nord. litteratur udgivne Rímur samt til de af Dr. O. Jiriczek udgivne Bósarímur. SUGNL 51. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
- ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1934-5. ‘Þulur: Søkonge- og jættenavneremserne’. APS 9, 289-308.
- Internal references
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 437.