Note to Þul Sverða 4III
[2] vallangr (m.) ‘corpse-long one’: An otherwise unattested heiti which consists of the two elements val- ‘slain’ and the adj. langr ‘long’ (so R, and adopted in Skj B, Skald, SnE 1998 and in the present edn). Alternatively, the first element could be from vǫlr ‘stick’ and the second the adj. langr, hence ‘one with a long stick’, i.e. with a long blade. Falk (1914b, 62; cf. also SnE 1998, II, 420) prefers valangr, the reading of mss A and B (and the LaufE mss), which means ‘corpse-grief’ (with the second element angr m. ‘grief, sorrow’; cf. such similar poetic terms for ‘weapon’ as valskóð, hræskóð in which ‑skóð n. means ‘harmful implement’). The C variant vallandi is also a hap. leg., which may be interpreted as ‘one from Valland’, i.e. from France or Normandy. Neither valangr nor vallandi is found elsewhere.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Falk, Hjalmar. 1914b. Altnordische Waffenkunde. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter, II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1914, 6. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- (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 25 April 2024)