Þul Fugla 2^III

Óðinshani, alka,         ǫnd, hrossagaukr,
hrafn, hœns, himbrin,         hryggjarstykki,
heri, hani, hœna         ok hilduri,
úfr, valr, smyrill,         ugla, skurfir.

Óðinshani, alka, ǫnd, hrossagaukr, hrafn, hœns, himbrin, hryggjarstykki, heri, hani, hœna ok hilduri, úfr, valr, smyrill, ugla, skurfir.

Red-necked phalarope, auk, duck, snipe, raven, poultry, great northern diver, hryggjarstykki, heri, rooster, hen and hilduri, eagle-owl, falcon, merlin, owl, skurfir.

Mss: A(21r) (SnE)

Editions: Skj AI, 687, Skj BI, 677, Skald I, 341, NN §3140; SnE 1848-87, II, 488-9.

Notes: [All]: Of the seventeen heiti listed in this stanza, only three (hrafn m. ‘raven’ l. 3, hani m. ‘rooster’ l. 5 and valr m. ‘falcon’ l. 7) occur in skaldic poetry. — [1] óðinshani (m.) ‘red-necked phalarope’: Phalaropus lobatus. The name translates as ‘Óðinn’s rooster’ (see also Notes to st. 4/1 kjalarfugl and st. 5/4). — [1] alka (f.) ‘auk’: Alca torda. This is the same bird as tyrðilmúli ‘razorbill’ (st. 4/6). — [2] hrossagaukr (m.) ‘snipe’: Lit. ‘horses’ cuckoo’, the name given to the common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) because of its neighing cry (see CVC: gaukr). — [3] himbrin (n.) ‘great northern diver’: In ModIcel. himbrimi (Colymbus glacialis) ‘the great northern diver’ (Bjarni Sæmundsson 1936, 668). — [4] hryggjarstykki: Lit. ‘back-piece’. This may be a kind of wild duck (see CVC: hryggr), or possibly a seagull, the great black-backed gull (Larus marinus; so ÍO: hryggur). The name may refer to a spot or the colour on the bird’s back. — [5] heri: Not otherwise attested as a bird-name, and probably not the same word as ON heri m. ‘hare’. See also Þul Dverga 5/7. — [6] hilduri: This is a hap. leg. and an obscure word. — [7] úfr (m.) ‘eagle-owl’: The Eurasian eagle-owl (Buba buba), one of the largest species of owl. — [7] smyrill (m.) ‘merlin’: Falco columbarius, a small falcon. — [8] skurfir (m.): A hap. leg. It is not clear what kind of bird this is, but skurfir is perhaps related to skarfr ‘cormorant’ (ÍO: skurfir; see st. 3/6 below); if so, skurfir may mean ‘cormorant’, Phalacrocorax carbo (Bjarni Sæmundsson 1936, 503). In Skj B and Skald, the heiti is spelled skyrfir.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
7. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
8. Bjarni Sæmundsson. 1936. Fuglarnir. Íslensk dýr III. Reykjavík: Bókaverslun Sigfúsar Eymundssonar.
9. Internal references
10. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga 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. 701.