Note to Gauti Lv 1^VIII (Gautr 1)

[2] Skafnörtungr ‘Skafnǫrtungr’: This man’s name is written in several ways in the mss, both in the prose and the verse, though the first element, skaf ‘peeled bark’, is largely constant (though Skapnartungr occurs in the prose of 152, Gautr 1900, 6 n. 13). Skaf was bark peeled from trees and used to feed animals, especially goats; cf. Sigv Lv 26/4^I. The second element in the cpd is written ‑nörtungr, ‑nartungr or ‑nörungr. The last of these forms probably derives from nœra (later næra) ‘nourish, feed’; thus the cpd skafnörungr should mean ‘bark-feeder’. The element ‑nörtungr may be related to the Icelandic nickname nörtr (CVC: nörtr; AEW: nǫrtr), which AEW connects to ModIcel. narta ‘nibble’, but Lind (1920-1, col. 270) prefers to regard nörtr as a form of knörtr, which he connects to ModNorw. knart ‘a small, thick-set person’. In Skj B Finnur Jónsson glosses the name Skafnörtungr as den, der ved at skrabe forminsker noget ‘someone who diminishes something by scraping at it’, but this explanation is not very convincing. Skafnörtungr seems more likely to mean ‘bark-nibbler’, following the etymology proposed by AEW, perhaps an allusion to the man’s rustic character.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
4. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
5. Lind, Eric Henrik. 1920-1. Norsk-isländska personbinamn från medeltiden: samlade ock utgivna med forkläringar. Uppsala: Lundequist.
6. Gautr 1900 = Ranisch, Wilhelm, ed. 1900. Die Gautrekssaga in zwei Fassungen. Palaestra 11. Berlin: Mayer & Müller.
7. Internal references
8. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Lausavísur 26’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 732.