Þul Ásynja 5^III

Nornir heita,         þær es nauð skapa;
Nipt ok Dísi         nú mun ek telja.

Nornir heita, þær es skapa nauð; nú mun ek telja Nipt ok Dísi.

Those are called norns who create distress; now I shall list Nipt and Dís.

Mss: R(42v), Tˣ(44r), C(11v), A(18r), B(8v), 744ˣ(63r-v) (SnE)

Readings: [3] Nipt: ‘nipr’ A, ‘ní[…]’ B, ‘nípt’ 744ˣ;    Dísi: ‘nisi’ Tˣ    [4] mun ek telja: eru taldar C

Editions: Skj AI, 659, Skj BI, 661, Skald I, 326; SnE 1848-87, I, 557, II, 474, 557, 617, SnE 1931, 198, SnE 1998, I, 115.

Notes: [3-4] nú mun ek telja Nipt ok Dísi ‘now I shall list Nipt and Dís’: It is uncertain whether Nipt and Dís in these lines are the personal names of the norns, the goddesses of fate mentioned in ll. 1-2, or common nouns. In the latter case, l. 3 should be translated as ‘sister and lady’ (see SnE 1998, I, 115 and Faulkes 1987, 157). If so, the last two lines of this stanza should be interpreted not as a part of the list of names of various kinds of female deities, but rather as a transitional section between Þul Ásynja and Þul Kvenna I. Dís f. is a term denoting a female guardian spirit (or lesser deity), but in poetic language it is occasionally applied to norns or goddesses of fate as well as to valkyries, who are called dísir Herjans ‘Óðinn’s dísir’. As to nipt f. ‘sister, female relative’, this word is never found as a term for ‘norn’ (but cf. nipt Nera ‘Neri’s sister [NORN]’ in HHund I 4/5 (NK 130) where Neri is the name of a legendary person).

References

1. Bibliography
2. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Faulkes, Anthony, trans. 1987. Snorri Sturluson. Edda. Everyman’s Library. London and Rutland, Vermont: J. M. Dent & Sons and Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. Rpt. with new chronology and synopsis 2005.
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. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
7. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. Internal references
9. Not published: do not cite ()
10. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ásynja heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 762. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3190> (accessed 2 May 2024)
11. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Kvenna heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 772. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3191> (accessed 2 May 2024)