Þul Spjóts 1^III

Darr, spjót ok nǫt,         dǫf, lenz ok vigr,
snata, fleinn ok sváf,         sviða, hræmæki,
geirr, spjǫr, nata,         gefja, kesja,
gaflak, frakka,         Gungnir, peita.

Darr, spjót ok nǫt, dǫf, lenz ok vigr, snata, fleinn ok sváf, sviða, hræmæki, geirr, spjǫr, nata, gefja, kesja, gaflak, frakka, Gungnir, peita.

Dart, spear and sting, dǫf, lance and rod, spike, barb and one causing sleep, burn, corpse-sword, pike, javelin, stinging one, lance, halberd, javelin, Frankish [spear], Gungnir, [spear] from Poitou.

Mss: R(43r), Tˣ(45r), C(12r), A(19r), B(8v), 744ˣ(69v-70r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Darr: ‘[…]aurr’ B, ‘Daurr’ 744ˣ;    ok: om. Tˣ;    nǫt: ‘myt’ A, ‘my᷎t’ B    [2] dǫf lenz: so A, B, ‘davflén’ R, ‘doflen’ Tˣ, ‘daufleinn’ C    [3] snata: ok snata C;    ok: om. Tˣ;    sváf: ‘suar’ Tˣ, ‘su[…]f’ B, ‘suaf’ 744ˣ    [4] ‑mæki: ‑mækir C    [5] geirr: ‘gerr’ Tˣ;    spjǫr: spjót Tˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 665, Skj BI, 664-5, Skald I, 329, SnE 1848-87, I, 569-70, II, 477, 561, 621, SnE 1931, 203, SnE 1998, I, 121.

Notes: [All]: Many of the English translations of the heiti are taken from Faulkes (1987, 160). — [1] nǫt (f.) ‘sting’: A hap. leg. See nata ‘stinger’ in l. 5 below. — [2] dǫf (f.): An obscure word, which is either the name of a type of spear or possibly means ‘shaft’. The word occurs only in Akv 4/7 (NK 240): dafar, darraða (ms. reading darraðr). Dronke (1969, 49-50) translates the line as ‘spears of the pennon’ and argues that darraðr here must be a heiti for ‘pennon’ deriving from an Óðinn-name Darraðr ‘dangling one’ (from darr, a poetic word for ‘spear’, Óðinn’s weapon), while dǫf is a heiti for ‘spear’. According to Falk (1914b, 74), dǫf is identical with ODan. dabe ‘pestle’ (see also ÍO: döf, dǫf 4). — [2] lenz (f.) ‘lance’: A loanword (cf. Lat. lancea ‘lance’), most likely a borrowing from Low German (cf. MLG lance, lense ‘lance’; see Falk 1914b, 75 and AEW: lenz). The word otherwise occurs once in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: lenz). — [2] vigr (f.) ‘rod’: A poetic term for ‘spear’ (see LP: vigr). Vigr most likely designated a spear made for throwing, and the original meaning may have been ‘flexible branch’ (Falk 1914b, 73-4). — [3] snata (f.) ‘spike’: A hap. leg. Cf. New Norw. snat ‘point’ (see Falk 1914b, 75). — [3] sváf (n.) ‘one causing sleep’: This word is otherwise not attested as a heiti for ‘spear’. It is derived from the strong verb sofa ‘sleep’ (< Gmc *sweban; see also the weak verb sœfa ‘lull to sleep’, i.e. ‘kill’). — [4] sviða (f.) ‘burn’: From the strong verb svíða ‘singe, burn’ (see also sviða f. ‘burn, hurt or mark due to burning’). According to Falk (1914b, 70-2), originally a rod with a point hardened by fire. The word does not occur in poetry. — [4] hræmæki (n.) ‘corpse-sword’: Compounded from hræ n. ‘carrion’ and mækir m. ‘sword’, and not attested elsewhere as a heiti for ‘spear’. — [5] nata (f.) ‘stinging one’: A verbal abstract, otherwise unattested, whose origin is obscure. See also nǫt ‘sting’ in l. 1 above. It is likely that the original sense of the word was ‘nettle’ (cf. New Norw. nata, brennenata ‘stinging-nettle’; see Falk 1914b, 75). — [6] gefja (f.) ‘lance’: A hap. leg. The heiti is probably a corrupt form of glefja or glafja ‘lance’ (cf. OSwed. glæfia, glavia ‘sword’; ModEngl. glaive (now obsolete)). In Old Norse, the latter word occurs as glaðel in Laxd (ch. 77, ÍF 5, 225 and n. 4), as glafel in Þiðreks saga (ch. 206, Þiðr 1853, 196) and as glafia in Konungs skuggsiá (Holm-Olsen 1983, 167; see also Falk 1914b, 72-3). The word is a borrowing from MLG glevie ‘spear’ < MLat. gladiolus, Lat. gladius ‘spear’ (Höfler 1932, 223) and denotes a foreign weapon. — [7] gaflak (n.) ‘javelin’: In Old Norse also gaflok, a term for a light spear and possibly a loanword from OE gafeluc ‘spear, javelin’ (< Welsh gaflach; see Falk 1914b, 72; AEW: gaflak). See also ModEngl. gavelock, now obsolete except in specific historical contexts. The heiti is not attested in Old Norse poetry until late C12th (GunnLeif Merl I 65/6^VIII). — [7] frakka (f.) ‘Frankish [spear]’: Most likely a loanword from OE franca ‘lance, javelin’. It is possible that this term might have been identical with framea in Tacitus’ Germania (ch. 6; see Falk 1914b, 75). Other than in the present þula, the only reliable attestation in Old Norse is found in Rþ 35/8 (NK 285) frǫccor dýia ‘[he began] to shake Frankish spears’. Cf. also the weak m. form frakki in the cpd hræfrakki ‘carrion-spear’ (Þul Sverða 2/8). — [8] Gungnir: Lit. ‘swinging one’ (cf. ModSwed. gunga, ModNorw., ModDan. gynge ‘swing’). The name of Óðinn’s spear in Old Norse myth and a heiti for ‘spear’ in skaldic poetry. — [8] peita (f.) ‘[spear] from Poitou’: Cf. Peita ‘Poitou’, Peituborg ‘Poitiers’ (see Falk 1914b, 75 and Note to RvHbreiðm Hl 18/6). The word denotes a missile weapon (cf. hagli peitu ‘by the hail of the spear [BATTLE]’, Eþver Lv 1/8^I).

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
5. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Holm-Olsen, Ludvig, ed. 1983. Konungs skuggsiá. 2nd rev. edn. Norrøne tekster 1. Oslo: Norsk historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt.
10. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
11. Dronke, Ursula, ed. and trans. 1969. The Poetic Edda. I: Heroic Poems. Oxford: Clarendon.
12. Falk, Hjalmar. 1914b. Altnordische Waffenkunde. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter, II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1914, 6. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
13. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
14. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
15. ÍF 5 = Laxdœla saga. Ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 1934.
16. Höfler, Otto. 1932. ‘Altnordische Lehnwortstudien’. ANF 48, 213-41.
17. Þiðr 1853 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1853. Saga Ðiðriks konungs af Bern. Fortælling om kong Thidrik af Bern og hans kæmper, i norsk bearbeidelse fra det trettende aarhundrede efter tydske kilder. Christiania (Oslo): Werner.
18. Internal references
19. 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Laxdœla saga’ 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, pp. 1199-1203. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=11> (accessed 26 April 2024)
20. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 791.
21. Not published: do not cite ()
22. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Einarr þveræingr Eyjólfsson, 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. 804.
23. Not published: do not cite ()
24. Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 133 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá I 65)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 103.
25. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 18’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1026.
26. Not published: do not cite ()