[1] búrhvalr (m.) ‘sperm whale’: So A. Probably the same as búrungr (see Note to st. 1/7). This is also the reading of the LaufE mss. The R, Tˣ, C variant (normalised) kýrhvalr ‘cow-whale’ may be synonymous with nauthvalr ‘cattle-whale’, which is said to be an alternative term for búrhvalr (so Halldór Hermansson 1924, 8). Hence búrhvalr and kýrhvalr seem to belong to the same species (either a sperm whale or a humpback whale).
References
- Bibliography
- Halldór Hermansson, ed. 1924. Jón Guðmundsson and his Natural History of Iceland. Islandica 15. Ithaca and New York: Cornell University Library.
- 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 4 May 2024)