Note to Þul Tungls 1^III

[4] mulinn (m.) ‘crescent’: The quality and quantity of the root vowel are uncertain (for details, see ÍO: múlinn, mýlinn). Alv 14/1-2 (NK 126) has the variant mylinn: Máni heitir með mǫnnom, | enn mylinn með goðom ‘It is called máni among men but mylinn among the gods’. Güntert (1921, 143) explains mýlinn as ‘fiery’ (cf. Lat. mulleus ‘red, crimson’), but cf. mylir a tvngli ‘covers the moon’ (AÍ II, 90; otherwise the weak verb mýla is attested in the sense ‘muzzle’). According to Alexander Jóhannesson (1927, 47), the correct form of the word is mulinn (from muli, moli ‘small particle’). If so, the heiti probably denotes the moon on the wane (AEW: múlinn, mýlinn; LP: mulinn glossed as aftagende ‘waning’; SnE 1998, II, 358: ‘horned’). Other than in the present þula and in Alv 14/2, the word occurs once in C14th skaldic poetry (Árni Gd 63/3^IV). In Skm (SnE 1998, I, 85), possibly due to confusion of the two lists of heiti, mylin (f.; cf. the variants ‘mysen’ R(37r), C(6r), ‘mylen’ Tˣ(38v), ‘mylin’ A(14v)) is found among the names for ‘sun’, while mulinn (m.) is given as a term for ‘moon’ (cf. the variants there: ‘mvlenn’ R(37r), ‘mulenn’ Tˣ(38v), ‘mvlinn mylinn’ U(36v), ‘mvsinn’ C(6r), but ‘mylinn’ in A(14v)).

References

1. Bibliography
2. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
3. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
4. AÍ = Kålund, Kristian and Natanael Beckman. 1908-18. Alfræði íslenzk: Islandsk encyklopædisk litteratur. 3 vols. SUGNL 37, 41 and 45. Copenhagen: Møller.
5. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
6. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
7. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. Güntert, Hermann. 1921. Von der Sprache der Götter und Geister. Halle (Saale): Niemeyer.
9. Alexander Jóhannesson. 1927. Die Suffixe im Isländischen. Sonderdruck aus Árbók Háskóla Íslands 1927. Halle (Saale): Niemeyer.
10. Internal references
11. (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 20 April 2024)
12. Not published: do not cite (Árni Gd 63^IV)
13. Not published: do not cite ()