[2] vitnir (m.) ‘watcher’: This heiti could also be translated as ‘aware one, observant, keen-scented one’ (SnE 1998, II, 430), from a Germanic weak verb *witan ‘observe, watch’ (cf. Goth. *witan, OE bewitian ‘observe, watch; AEW: vita 4). See also ‑vitnir in Hróðvitnir (l. 3). This wolf-heiti is frequently used in skaldic verse. Along with vargr ‘wolf’ and ulfr ‘he-wolf’, vitnir is also a sword-heiti (Þul Sverða 6/7).
References
- Bibliography
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- 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, Sverða 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. 800.