Note to Eil Þdr 20^III

[6] tollurr karms ‘the pole of the wagon-cab [CHARIOTEER = Þórr]’: Because tollurr is the subject of the subordinate clause, tollur (all mss) has been emended to tollurr. Tollurr is usually interpreted either as an unknown tree-name or as a word for ‘stick’; cf. ModSwed. tolle ‘shoot, scion’, MLG toll ‘twig’ (AEW: tollurr). Here it functions as the base-word in a man-kenning. Karmr has several meanings: ‘frame’, ‘vessel’, ‘container’ or ‘parapet’. There is only one certain attestation of karmr in the sense ‘wagon, cart’ (see ONP: karmr); cf. also ModNorw. karm ‘sides of a wagon-cab’ or ‘back rest on a sled’. Hence karmr could refer to a part of a wagon, and it is taken here as pars pro toto for ‘wagon’. The wagon excavated in Oseberg has a removable cab or container, and such a wagon is also depicted on the tapestry found there. Moreover, the C10th wagon-boxes found in Denmark and Sweden, which were used as coffins, are of the same shape as the Oseberg wagon (Eisenschmidt 2006, 73-8). The whole kenning means ‘charioteer’, then; this unambiguously points to the god Þórr and his attribute, the wagon pulled by two goats.

References

1. Bibliography
2. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
3. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
4. Eisenschmidt, Silke. 2006. ‘Wagen und Wagenbau, Wagengrab. §11 Wikingerzeit’. In RGA, 33, 73-8.