Note to Þul Hauks 1^III

[1] hamðir (m.): The meaning of this heiti is uncertain. It is perhaps derived from hamr m. ‘skin’ (so AEW: Hamðir; cf. CVC: hamr ‘esp. the skin of birds flayed off with feathers and wings’) and ‑þér (cf. runic þewaʀ ‘servant’) used as a second element in personal names (cf. the legendary hero Hamðir < Hamþér). This explanation is problematic, however, because ‘genuine’ names with ‑þér as a second element are usually old, and it is doubtful whether the word retained its original meaning in later, made-up words (see AEW: þér 3). Heimþér and gamðir ‘amusing one’ (ll. 3, 5 below) have the same second element. Alternatively, Falk (1925a, 239) suggests that this hawk-heiti could have been derived from a mythical pers. n., based on beliefs in the Norse gods’ abilities to shape-change (e.g. valshamr ‘falcon shape’ owned by Frigg and Freyja; Skm, SnE 1998, I, 2, 24, 30). Another possibility is that the word was related to the weak verb hemja ‘restrain’ and meant ‘tamed one’ (for details, see ÍO: hamðir). As a heiti for ‘hawk’ the word does not occur elsewhere.

References

1. Bibliography
2. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
3. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
4. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
5. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
6. Falk, Hjalmar. 1925a. ‘Die altnordischen Namen der Beizvögel’. In Germanica: Eduard Sievers zum 75. Geburtstage 25. November 1925. Halle (Saale): Niemeyer, 236-46.
7. Internal references
8. (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 25 April 2024)