Note to Þul Sverða 1^III

[4] Dragvandill: Perhaps lit. ‘draw-wand’. This is the name of a sword originally belonging to the legendary king of the Saami, Gusi(r), and later owned by a succession of saga-heroes including Ketill hœngr, Skallagrímr and Egill (FSN II, 122 etc.; Eg chs 61, 64-5, ÍF 2, 195, 204, 209-10). The word is used in poetry only as a proper name and never as a common noun. All mss give the form Dragvandill here, while other prose and poetic sources have either ‑vandill or ‑vendill (cf. Egill Lv 35/2^V (Eg 64), Keth Lv 20/1^VIII (Ket 36)). According to Falk (1914b, 63), vendill is a sword-heiti. The variant ‑vandill in Dragvandill may be derived from vǫndr m. ‘wand’ (cf. vǫndull m. ‘wisp’); hence the name would mean ‘a sword which is so long that it is dragged’ (see Falk 1914b, 49), or, perhaps more likely, a sword that is drawn from its scabbard (cf. draga sverð ‘draw a sword’, Heggstad et al. 2008: 1. draga). Falk (1914b, 63) derives ‑vandill/-vendill from an ethnic name (cf. Vandill, Vendill in Jutland and Wendala in Saxo 2005, II, 681). Vandill is also the name of a sea-king and a giant (see Note to Þul Sækonunga 5/2 and Þul Jǫtna II 1/6).

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. ÍF 2 = Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar. Ed. Sigurður Nordal. 1933.
4. Falk, Hjalmar. 1914b. Altnordische Waffenkunde. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter, II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1914, 6. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
5. Saxo 2005 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2005. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum / Danmarkshistorien. Trans. Peter Zeeberg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab & Gads forlag.
6. Internal references
7. 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 162-389. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=14> (accessed 4 May 2024)
8. Not published: do not cite (Keth^VIII)
9. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sækonunga heiti 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 685.
10. 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.
11. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 64 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 35)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 279.
12. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 36 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 20)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 590.