Note to Hjálm Lv 15VIII (Ǫrv 25)
[3-8]: The beginning of the list of names of Hjálmarr’s drinking mates, which continues over the following four stanzas. Many of the names, such as Álfr and Atli, with which the list begins, are attested in other heroic poems or in sagas; some are known to have been borne by individuals mentioned in historical sources, such as Ldn. Some of these names may be, or may have originated as, nicknames, especially those that refer to features of the landscape (e.g. gláma ‘bald, barren tract’ or possibly a variant of glámr ‘twilight, gleam’, cf. ONP: glámr, Þul Tungls 1/4III and Note there, Þul Jǫtna II 1/8III and Note there), birds (e.g. starri ‘Starling’, trani ‘Crane’) or other animals or natural phenomena (cf. Janzén 1947b, 44-6; Whaley 1993). Vifill (or Vífill) ‘? Beetle’ was the name of one of the first settler Ingólfr’s slaves in Ldn (ÍF 1, 44-5) and the name of a wise commoner who shelters the sons of King Hálfdan in Hrólf; see Hrólf 3/1 and Note.
References
- Bibliography
- ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
- ÍF 1 (parts 1 and 2) = Íslendingabók; Landnámabók. Ed. Jakob Benediktsson. 1968. Rpt. as one volume 1986.
- Janzén, A. 1947b. Personnavne. Nordisk Kultur VII. Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen: Bonniers, Aschehoug and Schultz.
- Whaley, Diana. 1993a. ‘Nicknames and Narratives in the Sagas’. ANF 108, 122-46.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Anonymous, Landnámabók’ in Guðrún Nordal (ed.), Poetry on Icelandic History. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 4. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=25> (accessed 16 April 2024)
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hrólfs saga kraka’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 539. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=73> (accessed 16 April 2024)
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Jǫtna heiti II 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 719.
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Tungls heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 912.
- †Desmond Slay (ed.) 2017, ‘Hrólfs saga kraka 3 (Heiðr vǫlva, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 543.