[3] hrævarðr (m.) ‘corpse-wrapped one’: An otherwise unattested cpd, from hræ n. ‘corpse, carrion’ and p. p. of the weak verb verja ‘clothe, wrap, enclose’ (so Falk 1914b, 52; SnE 1998, II, 321). The variant hrævaðr in mss A and B (and in the LaufE mss) could be interpreted as ‘one who wades through corpses’, from hræ- and ‑vaðr, an agent noun from the strong verb vaða ‘wade’, playing on the metaphor that a sword steps on corpses.
References
- Bibliography
- 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 24 April 2024)