Note to Þjóð Yt 7I
[5-6] jódís Ulfs ok Narfa ‘the sister of the Wolf and of Narfi [= Hel]’: This kenning is explicable on the basis that Hel, the wolf Fenrir and Narfi (also named Nari) are the offspring of Loki. Nari/Narfi’s mother is Sigyn, Loki’s wife, while the giantess Angrboða gives birth to Hel and Fenrir (as well as the Miðgarðsormr ‘World Serpent’, Gylf, SnE 2005, 27). The word jódís occurs only here and in SnE (1998, I, 108), where it is given together with systir ‘sister’ and dís ‘goddess, minor female deity’ among the heiti for ‘woman’. The sense ‘sister’ is clearly required by the present context and this finds some limited support in the SnE context (cf. st. 9/7, where dís Loga appears to mean ‘sister of Logi’; see Note). The second element of the cpd is dís, while the first is uncertain (see AEW: jódís, jóðdís).
References
- Bibliography
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ 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=113> (accessed 25 April 2024)