Note to Þul Viðar 2III
[2] reynir (m.) ‘rowan’: The rowan was the one of the few trees, along with the dwarf birch (fjallhrapi, st. 1/6 above), that were found in Iceland, and therefore the word occurs frequently in Icelandic names of places which had rowan-groves at the time of the settlement (see CVC: reynir). Reynir is used in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 40) to explain the origin of the group of man-kennings with masculine terms for trees as base-words. According to that passage, this popular kenning pattern originated from a confusion of reynir ‘tester’ (an agent noun derived from the weak verb reyna ‘test, try’) and reynir ‘rowan’. See also SnE 1998, I, 25, Grett Ævkv II 2/7V and 4/1-3V (Gr 40, 42) and Notes there. The corresponding kennings for ‘woman’ are similarly explained as a result of confusion of selja ‘sallow’ with selja ‘one who hands over sth. to sby’ (see selja ‘sallow’, st. 1/2 above and Þul Kvenna II 2/1).
References
- Bibliography
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ 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=112> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Kvenna heiti ókend 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 961.
- Jonathan Grove (ed.) 2022, ‘Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar 40 (Grettir Ásmundarson, Ævikviða II 2)’ 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. 731.