Þul Øxna 2^III

Himinhrjóðr, simir         ok harðfari,
Hœfir, digni,         hjǫlluðr, simull,
hliðr, stúfr ok litr,         hríðr, forsimi,
Arfr, jǫrmuni         ok eikismiðr.

Himinhrjóðr, simir ok harðfari, Hœfir, digni, hjǫlluðr, simull, hliðr, stúfr ok litr, hríðr, forsimi, Arfr, jǫrmuni ok eikismiðr.

Himinhrjóðr, simir and hard-goer, Hœfir, stout one, roarer, simull, hliðr, stump and coloured one, hríðr, forsimi, Arfr, mighty one and eikismiðr.

Mss: R(44r), Tˣ(46r), C(13r), A(20r), B(9v), 744ˣ(79v-80r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Himinhrjóðr: so C, himinrjótr R, himinhrjótr Tˣ, himinbrjótr A, ‘hriostr’ B;    simir: simarr A, B    [2] ok: om. Tˣ    [3] Hœfir: so C, ‘bevir’ R, ‘begir’ Tˣ, ‘kæfir’ A, ‘kęvir’ B;    digni: ‘dirnir’ A, digir B    [4] hjǫlluðr: hjǫllr Tˣ, kjǫllurr A, ‘[…]io᷎llurr’ B, ‘kio᷎llurr’ 744ˣ;    simull: simul Tˣ, ‘[…]mull’ B, simull 744ˣ    [5] ok: om. Tˣ, ‘[…]’ B, ok 744ˣ;    litr: ‘lít[…]’ B, litr 744ˣ    [6] hríðr: so A, B, hríð R, Tˣ, her‑ C;    forsimi: ‘fors[…]’ B, ‘forsine’ 744ˣ    [7] Arfr: so A, B, ‘arnr’ R, Tˣ, arn C;    jǫrmuni: aurmuni C, jǫrmun B    [8] ok: om. Tˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 675, Skj BI, 669, Skald I, 334, NN §2158A; SnE 1848-87, I, 587, II, 483, 566-7, 625-6, SnE 1931, 210, SnE 1998, I, 130.  

Notes: [1] Himinhrjóðr: Lit. ‘sky-devastator’. So C. See Note to Anon Þorgþ II l. 5. — [1] simir: As a heiti for ‘ox’ the word does not occur elsewhere and its meaning is unclear, but cf. simi (st. 1/5; see also Note to Þul Hesta 1/5). — [2] harðfari (m.) ‘hard-goer’: A cpd not attested elsewhere (from the adj. harðr ‘hard’ and the strong verb fara ‘go, travel’) — [3] Hœfir: Perhaps lit. ‘hoofed one’. See Note to Anon Þorgþ II l. 3. — [3] digni (m.) ‘stout one’: A hap. leg. that could be connected with the adj. digr ‘stout, fat’ (cf. Goth. *digan ‘knead’, Norw. dialects digne ‘become fat’; cf. AEW: digni). — [4] hjǫlluðr (m.) ‘roarer’: A hap. leg., cf. ON hjala ‘chatter, talk’ (weak verb), OE hiellan, OHG hellan ‘shout’ (AEW: hjǫlluðr). The heiti belongs to the semantic type ‘noise-maker’ which is used frequently in the þulur (Gurevich 1992c, 40-3). Other ox-names of this type in the present list are olgr ‘noise-maker’, gellir ‘yeller’ (st. 3/5) and glymr ‘roar’ (st. 3/6), but none of them appears in poetry as heiti for ‘ox’. — [4] simull: A hap. leg. Cf. ON simul, ModNorw. simle ‘reindeer doe’ (ModSwed. somel ‘young deer’) and the name of a giantess (see Note to Þul Trollkvenna 3/6). See also simi (st. 1/5), and Note to simir (l. 1 above). — [5] hliðr (m.): Other than in the present stanza, the heiti is mentioned in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 109) as an example of wordplay: Hlið heitir á garði ok hlið kalla menn oxa ‘There is what is called a gateway (hlið) in a fence, and people call an ox hlið’). Hliðr is also a heiti for ‘stag’ (Þul Hjartar l. 2). The meaning of this heiti is not clear (see also røkkvihliðr, st. 1/8 above). — [5] stúfr (m.) ‘stump’: As an ox-name the word is found only here, but it is also listed among the heiti for ‘horse’ (Þul Hesta 1/8 and Anon Þorgþ I 2/1, see Note there) and ‘sword’ (Þul Sverða 2/1). — [5] litr (m.) ‘coloured one’: Most likely this is the same word as litr m. ‘colour, appearance’ (see Note to Þul Dverga 6/2). As an ox-name the heiti is found only in this þula, but it is also the name of a giant and a dwarf (Þul Dverga 6/2). — [6] hríðr (m.): A hap. leg., and the meaning is unclear. De Vries (AEW: hríðr) connects it with hreiði (st. 3/6 below, see Note there); for another possible interpretation see Gurevich (1992a, 25). — [6] forsimi: A hap. leg. and an obscure word. See simi (st. 1/5) and simir (l. 1 above). — [7] Arfr: Lit. ‘inheritance’. See Note to Anon Þorgþ II l. 6. — [7] jǫrmuni (m.) ‘mighty one’: This is also a horse-heiti (see Note to Þul Hesta 3/8), but it is not otherwise found as a heiti for ‘horse’ or ‘ox’. See also jǫrmunrekr (st. 1/4 above). — [8] eikismiðr (m.): No satisfactory explanation has been offered for this otherwise unattested cpd. The first element could be derived either from the adj. eikinn ‘savage’ (referring to a bull; CVC: eikinn) or from the noun eik f. ‘oak’. For the second element, see smiðr ‘smith’ (st. 1/6 above). Faulkes (SnE 1998, II, 263) suggests ‘oaken-smith, mighty smith’, but this would be an odd term for ‘ox’.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
6. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
7. Gurevich, Elena A. 1992a. ‘Skaldische Synonymik und ihre Interpretation in der frühen isländischen gelehrten Poetik: Über eine Systematisierungsmöglichkeit der Heiti in den Þulur’. In Popowa 1992, 15-30.
8. Gurevich, Elena A. 1992c. ‘Þulur in Skáldskaparmál: An Attempt at Skaldic Lexicology’. ANF 107, 35-52.
9. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
10. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. Internal references
12. (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 18 April 2024)
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Þorgrímsþula I 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. 672.
14. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Trollkvenna heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 727.
15. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 704.
16. 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.
17. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Hesta heiti 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. 935.
18. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Hesta heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 937.
19. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Þorgrímsþula II’ 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. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3181> (accessed 18 April 2024)
20. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hjartar 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. 898. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3214> (accessed 18 April 2024)