Þul Kvenna I 1^III

Snót, brúðr, svanni,         svarri, sprakki,
fljóð, sprund, kona,         feima, ekkja,
rýgr, víf ok drós,         ristill, sæta,
man, svarkr ok hæll,         mær ok kerling.

Snót, brúðr, svanni, svarri, sprakki, fljóð, sprund, kona, feima, ekkja, rýgr, víf ok drós, ristill, sæta, man, svarkr ok hæll, mær ok kerling.

Snót, bride, lady, haughty woman, lively one, matron, dame, woman, lass, widow, mighty woman, wife and girl, gentlewoman, grass-widow, maid, proud woman and widow, maiden and old woman.

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

Readings: [1] Snót: Snotr Tˣ, ‘[…]nót’ B, Snót 744ˣ;    brúðr: ‘[…]’ B, ‘bruðr’ 744ˣ;    svanni: svarri C, ‘[…]nní’ B, ‘suanní’ 744ˣ    [2] svarri: svanni C;    sprakki: ‘s[…]ke’ B, ‘spracke’ 744ˣ    [3] kona: om. A    [4] ekkja: ‘[…]’ B, ‘eckia’ 744ˣ    [5] ok: ok brúðr C    [6] ristill: ‘ri[…]ll’ B, ristill 744ˣ;    sæta: ‘hnæita’ A, ‘se᷎t[…]’ B, ‘se᷎ta’ 744ˣ    [7] man svarkr ok hæll: svarkr drós ok man A, ‘[…]eita[…]n’ B, ‘hneíta . . . . . …an’ 744ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 659, Skj BI, 661, Skald I, 326; SnE 1848-87, I, 558, II, 474, 557, 617, SnE 1931, 198, SnE 1998, I, 115.

Notes: [1] snót (f.): Skm (SnE 1998, I, 107) provides the following definition of this word: Snótir heita þær, er orðnæfrar eru ‘those who are clever of speech are called snótir’. Although it is possible that Snorri’s explanation of the poetic word influenced the Tˣ variant (snotr ‘wise’), his interpretation is nothing but a learned speculation and the etymology of the heiti is obscure (for details, see AEW, ÍO: snót). — [1] svanni (m.) ‘lady’: Lit. ‘clever one’; from the adj. svinnr ‘wise, clever’ (AEW: svanni). This is a poetic term for ‘gentlewoman’; cf. Skm (SnE 1998, I, 107): Sprund ok svanni heita þær konur er mjǫk fara með dramb ok skart ‘Those women who go around with pomp and finery are called sprund and svanni’. — [2] svarri (m.): Lit. ‘noisy one’ (cf. the weak verb svarra ‘roar, rush’; AEW: svarri). According to Skm (SnE 1998, I, 107), this is a proud, haughty woman: svarri ok svarkr, þær eru mikillátar ‘svarri and svarkr are arrogant women’. — [2] sprakki (m.) ‘lively one’: Cf. ModIcel. sprakkur ‘lively’ (AEW: sprakki). This poetic word is one of the two heiti for ‘woman’ in the present þula that are not mentioned in Skm (the other is man ‘maid’ in l. 7). — [3] fljóð (f.) ‘matron’: Perhaps lit. ‘quick one’ (see AEW: fljóð). In Skm (SnE 1998, I, 107), this word is explained as follows: Víf ok brúðr ok  fljóð heita þær konur er manni eru gefnar ‘Those women who are given to a husband are called víf and brúðr and fljóð’. The word is used only in poetry. — [3] sprund (f.) ‘dame’: The sense of this poetic word is unclear (cf. ÍO: sprund), but it may have the same meaning as sprakki (‘lively one’; see AEW: sprund). — [4] feima (f.) ‘lass’: Lit. ‘shy’. The heiti refers to ‘a bashful girl, a young lass’ (so CVC: feima; cf. ModIcel. feiminn ‘timid, modest’; see also Note to Vígf Lv 1/2^I). In Snorri’s words (Skm, SnE 1998, I, 107): Feima er sú kǫlluð er ófrǫm er svá sem ungar meyjar, eða þær konur er ódjarfar eru ‘One who is retiring, such as young girls or those women who are shy, is called feima’. However, the word may be related to OE fæmne ‘maid’ (see AEW: feima). This term is found only in poetry, and only rarely there. Feima is also the name of a giantess in Gríms saga loðinkinna (FSN II, 145-8). — [5] rýgr (m.) ‘mighty woman’: Perhaps lit. ‘shouting one’ (see AEW: rýgr). Just like the following terms, víf ‘wife’ and drós ‘girl’, this is a poetic word for ‘mighty woman’. Cf. Skm (SnE 1998, I, 107): Rýgr heitir sú kona er ríkust er ‘That woman who is the most powerful is called rýgr’. See also Þul Trollkvenna 5/7. — [6] ristill (m.) ‘gentlewoman’: Like some other heiti for ‘woman’ in this list (svanni, svarri, sprakki and svarkr) the word is a m. noun. In Skm (SnE 1998, I, 107), ristill is a term for a woman ‘of independent character’ (skǫruglyndr). Other than in this stanza and in Rþ 25/6 the word occurs in Old Norse poetry only twice and only in late poems, the earliest from C14th (see Anon Mey 27/3^VII; see also Kommentar III, 590). The heiti is used quite frequently in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: ristill). The origin of ristill is obscure and several explanations have been suggested: from rist f. ‘instep of the foot’ (AEW: ristill 2); from the strong verb rísta ‘carve’, and thus a female rune carver (so Sturtevant 1952, 1151); from the strong verb rísa ‘rise’ (ÍO: ristill 3). — [6] sæta (f.) ‘grass-widow’: This word is derived from the verb sitja; hence lit. ‘sitting one’. Cf. Skm (SnE 1998, I, 107): Sæta heitir sú kona er búandi hennar er af landi farinn ‘A woman is called sæta when her husband has left the country’. In poetry the word is used as a heiti for ‘woman’ in general. The reading in A ‘hnæita’ may be a scribal error, although the B variant of l. 7 (‘[…]eita[…]n’ B, ‘hneíta . . . . . …an’ 744ˣ) suggests that the word may have been included in the common redaction of A, B. Hneita is also found in the lists in LaufE and RE 1665(Ji) (see LaufE 1979, 291 n., 374). — [7] svarkr (m.) ‘proud woman’: This term denotes ‘a proud, haughty woman’ (so CVC: svarkr). The word is derived from svarri m. ‘haughty woman’ (AEW: svarkr; see l. 2 above). This is the only term for ‘woman’ listed here that does not occur in extant poetry. — [7] hæll (m.) ‘widow’: In poetry this is the word for ‘woman’ in general. In SnE there is a distinction between hæll, ‘a woman whose husband has been slain’ (Skm, SnE 1998, I, 107: hæll er sú kona kǫlluð er búandi hennar er veginn), and ekkja, the term for a woman whose husband has died of an illness (Ekkja heitir sú er búandi hennar varð sóttdauðr). Hæll m. is merely a poetic word and rare, however, whereas ekkja f. is the commonly used term for ‘widow’ in both prose and poetry. According to de Vries (AEW: hæll 3), it is likely that hæll got its poetic meaning ‘widow’ from a skaldic word-play on homonyms, as in Egill Skallagrímsson’s last stanza (Egill Lv 48^V (Eg 132)). Since ekkja is a word for both ‘widow’ and ‘heel’, the meaning ‘widow’ may have been transferred to hæll ‘heel’ in analogy with the former term. See also Note to Anon Stríðk l. 8. — [8] mær ok kerling ‘maiden and old woman’: The same combination of heiti is found in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 107): Mær heitir fyrst hver, en kerli<n>gar er gamlar eru ‘Each one is called mær at first, but kerlingar when they are old’. In poetry mær f. can also mean ‘daughter’ and ‘wife’. Kerling f. usually refers to an old woman of low status (cf. karl m. ‘old man, humble man’), and probably for that reason it is rarely used in poetry (but see Vitg Lv 1/3-4^I).

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. 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.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
6. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
7. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
8. Finnur Jónsson. 1926-8. Ordbog til de af samfund til udg. af gml. nord. litteratur udgivne Rímur samt til de af Dr. O. Jiriczek udgivne Bósarímur. SUGNL 51. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
10. Kommentar = See, Klaus von et al. 1997-2012. Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda. 7 vols. Heidelberg: Winter.
11. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
12. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
13. Sturtevant, Albert Morey. 1952. ‘Etymological Comments on Certain Old Norse Proper Names in the Eddas’. PMLA 67, 1145-62.
14. Internal references
15. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
16. Not published: do not cite (Egill^V)
17. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gríms saga loðinkinna’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 288. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=76> (accessed 28 April 2024)
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ 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=112> (accessed 28 April 2024)
19. Kirsten Wolf (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilagra meyja drápa 27’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 908-9.
20. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Stríðkeravísur’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 628. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1042> (accessed 28 April 2024)
21. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Trollkvenna heiti 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 730.
22. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 132 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 48)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 389.
23. Not published: do not cite ()
24. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Vígfúss Víga-Glúmsson, Lausavísa 1’ 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. 364.
25. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2012, ‘Vitgeirr seiðmaðr, Lausavísa 1’ 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. 141.
26. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ 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=10928> (accessed 28 April 2024)