Note to StarkSt Vík 7VIII (Gautr 15)
[4] úlfliða ‘the wrists’: Lit. ‘the wolf-joints’. The cpd úlfliðr ‘wolf-joint’ (cf. Arn Frag 4/3III) is explained by Snorri Sturluson in Gylf (SnE 2005, 25), doubtless basing himself on popular etymology, as derived from the story of how the gods persuaded the wolf Fenrir to be bound with the fetter Gleipnir. Týr placed his hand in the wolf’s mouth as a pledge of the gods’ good faith, but, when they later refused to release the wolf, he bit Týr’s hand off at the wrist, and that is why the wrist may be called úlfliðr. The first element in this cpd probably derives from ǫln ‘forearm’; cf. Þul á hendi l. 5 and Note.
References
- Bibliography
- SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- (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 27 April 2024)
- Diana Whaley (ed.) 2017, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Fragments 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 6.
- Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Heiti á hendi’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 967. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3245> (accessed 27 April 2024)