Þul Þorgþ II 1III
Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Þorgrímsþula II 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 675.
Gamalla ‘of ancient’
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gamall (adj.; °gamlan; compar. & superl. ellri adj.): old
øxna ‘oxen’
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oxi (noun m.; °-a; yxn/øxn/oxar): ox
hefk ‘I have’
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hafa (verb): have
gǫrla ‘precisely’
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gǫrla (adv.): quite, fully
[2] gǫrla fregit: so Tˣ, U, gerða R, gjǫrla talit C
fregit ‘learned’
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1. fregna (verb): hear of
[2] gǫrla fregit: so Tˣ, U, gerða R, gjǫrla talit C
þeira ‘of’
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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
[3] þeira: þeira er C
notes
[3] Rauðs ok Hœfis ‘of Rauðr and Hœfir’: The first name means ‘red one’ (see also Þul Øxna 1/7), but the sense of the second name is problematic – possibly ‘hoofed one’ from hófr m. ‘hoof’ (for other suggested interpretations, see AEW: hœfir; LP: hœfir). Hœfir appears as an ox-name in Þul Øxna 2/3 and also twice in kennings for ‘horn’ (Þjóð Yt 14/15I and HaukrV Ísldr 16/5IV).
Rauðs ‘Rauðr’
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rauðr (adj.; °compar. -ari): red
notes
[3] Rauðs ok Hœfis ‘of Rauðr and Hœfir’: The first name means ‘red one’ (see also Þul Øxna 1/7), but the sense of the second name is problematic – possibly ‘hoofed one’ from hófr m. ‘hoof’ (for other suggested interpretations, see AEW: hœfir; LP: hœfir). Hœfir appears as an ox-name in Þul Øxna 2/3 and also twice in kennings for ‘horn’ (Þjóð Yt 14/15I and HaukrV Ísldr 16/5IV).
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
notes
[3] Rauðs ok Hœfis ‘of Rauðr and Hœfir’: The first name means ‘red one’ (see also Þul Øxna 1/7), but the sense of the second name is problematic – possibly ‘hoofed one’ from hófr m. ‘hoof’ (for other suggested interpretations, see AEW: hœfir; LP: hœfir). Hœfir appears as an ox-name in Þul Øxna 2/3 and also twice in kennings for ‘horn’ (Þjóð Yt 14/15I and HaukrV Ísldr 16/5IV).
notes
[3] Rauðs ok Hœfis ‘of Rauðr and Hœfir’: The first name means ‘red one’ (see also Þul Øxna 1/7), but the sense of the second name is problematic – possibly ‘hoofed one’ from hófr m. ‘hoof’ (for other suggested interpretations, see AEW: hœfir; LP: hœfir). Hœfir appears as an ox-name in Þul Øxna 2/3 and also twice in kennings for ‘horn’ (Þjóð Yt 14/15I and HaukrV Ísldr 16/5IV).
notes
[4] Rekinn: Lit. ‘driven one’, from the p. p. of the strong verb reka ‘drive’ (see also rekningr ‘driven one’, Þul Øxna 1/7 and Note to [All] above). The U variant, Reginn ‘potent one’, is also listed as a heiti in Þul Øxna 1/5 (cf. regin n. pl. ‘gods, divine powers’ and Reginn, a dwarf-name in Þul Dverga 6/4). None of these variants occurs in other sources.
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
notes
[4] Kýrr: A hap. leg. Presumably a m. form of kýr f. ‘cow’; if so, ‘ox’ (so LP: kýrr; on gender conversion in the þulur, see Gurevich 1992a). The Tˣ variant hýr(r) ‘glad one, mild one’ makes good sense as well, but, like kýrr, it is unattested in other sources. The reading Hýrr was adopted for metrical reasons in Skj B and Skald (see Note to [All] above), but from a metrical point of view that is not necessary.
Himinhrjóðr ‘Himinhrjóðr’
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himinhrjóðr (noun m.): himinhrjóðr
[5] Himinhrjóðr: so C, himins hrjótr R, himins rjótr Tˣ, himinrjóðr U
notes
[5] Himinhrjóðr: Most likely identical with Himinhrjótr in Gylf (SnE 2005, 44), where it is the largest ox in the giant Hymir’s herd. In the mss this name is recorded in a number of variants: (a) Himinhrjóðr (so C and adopted in Skj B, Skald and the present edn), which can be translated as ‘sky-devastator’ with the second element derived from the strong verb hrjóða ‘strip, clear’ (so Kahle 1903, 173-4; Finnur Jónsson (LP: Himinhrjóðr) interprets the name as ‘one with horns so high that they pierce the sky’). (b) Himin(s)hrjótr (so R and ms. Tˣ of Þul Øxna 2/1 as well as Gylf) from the strong verb hrjóta ‘fall, fly, be flung’, hence ‘one who is throwing himself towards the sky’, or from the strong verb (h)rjóta ‘snore, rumble, grunt’ (cf. ms. Tˣ and himinrjótr in ms. R of Þul Øxna 2/1), perhaps ‘sky-snorter’ (see SnE 1998, II, 475). (c) Himinrjóðr (so U) lit. ‘sky-reddener’ and (d) himinbrjótr ‘sky-destroyer’ (so ms. A of Þul Øxna). None of these variants occurs in poetic sources other than the þulur.
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
notes
[5] Apli: Cf. aplakálfr m. ‘aborted or new-born calf’ and aplalamb n. ‘aborted or new-born lamb’. Apli m. is an embryo of animals (see CVC: apli). The word must refer to ‘calf’; hence it is not derived from apaldr m. ‘apple tree’ and to be taken in the meaning ‘dappled’ (see the discussions in AEW: apli and apaldr, epli). In Old Norse poetry this ox-name is given only here and in Þul Øxna 3/1, but it is attested in the rímur as a heiti for ‘ox’ (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: apli). It is also a horse-name (see Note to Þul Hesta 4/3).
Arfr ‘Arfr’
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arfr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i/-(Frost 215¹²); -ar): inheritance
notes
[6] Arfr: Several explanations for this heiti have been suggested (see AEW: arfr 2). Most likely it is the same word as arfr m. ‘inheritance’, which is supported by ModSwed. dialects arv, orv ‘ox-yoke’ and OE orf ‘cattle’ (see NN §2158A; for the semantic development cf. fé ‘cattle’ > ‘property, money’). The name is also given in Þul Øxna 2/7 (cf. the next Note), but it is not otherwise attested in poetry as an ox-heiti.
ok ‘ok’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
notes
[6] Arfuni: Perhaps lit. ‘heir’. As an ox-name the word is also recorded in Þul Øxna 3/4 but not found elsewhere. The pair Arfr ok Arfuni ‘Arfr and Arfuni’ most likely points to a semantic connection between these two heiti: ‘inheritance/cattle’ – ‘heir/bull’ (cf. NN §2158A). Alternatively, de Vries (AEW: arfr 2) suggests that arfuni (or ǫrfuni, so ms. A, Þul Øxna 3/4) might be derived from the root erf- in erfiði n. ‘toil, burden’ with the suffix ‑uni (from the weak verb una ‘be content with, be happy with’). If so, the name would mean ‘content with toil’.
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The first two heiti are in the gen., matching the case of nǫfn gamalla øxna ‘the names of ancient oxen’ (l. 1), and the remaining heiti are in the nom. — In Skj B, Finnur Jónsson (followed by Kock in Skald) renders this stanza in ljóðaháttr metre (see Þorgþ I 2-3 above), emending our ll. 3-4 and giving l. 6 as a full line with internal alliteration:
Gamalla øxna nǫfn, hefk gǫrla fregit
þeira Rauðs ok Rekins,
Hœfir ok Hýrr, Himinhrjóðr ok Apli,
Arfr ok Arfuni.
This reconstruction has little or no support in the ms. witnesses, and Finnur’s l. 3 appears to be based on his reading of Þul Øxna 1/7, which has the pair rauðr ok rekningr (lit. ‘red one and driven one’). The last heiti in that line, rekningr, is most likely a variant of Rekinn, but that form is not attested in any of the extant mss of Þorgþ II. The present edn follows the metrical arrangement of the mss witnesses, which give the stanza as a sequence of long-lines (so also SnE 1998). To be sure, one of the resulting lines (l. 6) is metrically irregular, and it may be that some of the names in the þula have been moved out of their original positions, but that cannot be ascertained. — [6]: The pattern of alliteration in this line is unmetrical (two alliterating staves in an even line; see Note to [All] above).
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