[8] nættingr (m.) ‘night-bringer’: So A (see Readings above). This is an obscure word. Other than in the present þula this sword-heiti appears only once (Þorm Lv 5/8V (Fbr 23)). The word is derived from the weak verb nætta ‘pass the night’ (cf. nótt f. ‘night’) and could mean either ‘night-bringer’ (i.e. ‘killer’) or ‘one made by night’ (ÍO: nættingur; SnE 1998, II, 365). Falk (1914b, 57) suggests that nættingr may have been a proper name and, if so, possibly the same as the bird-name nætingr (see Þul Fugla 6/2; cf. the sword-heiti ǫrn ‘eagle’, st. 8/3 below).
References
- Bibliography
- ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
- 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
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fugla heiti 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 957.
- R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2022, ‘Fóstbrœðra saga 23 (Þormóðr Kolbrúnarskáld, Lausavísur 5)’ 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. 519.