Þul Þorgþ I 1^III

Hrafn ok Sleipnir,         hestar ágætir,
Valr ok Léttfeti,         vas þar Tjaldari,
Gulltoppr ok Goti,         getit heyrðak Sóta,
        Mór ok Lungr með Mari.

Hrafn ok Sleipnir, ágætir hestar, Valr ok Léttfeti, þar vas Tjaldari, Gulltoppr ok Goti, heyrðak Sóta getit, Mór ok Lungr með Mari.

Hrafn and Sleipnir, splendid horses, Valr and Léttfeti, Tjaldari was there, Gulltoppr and Goti, I heard Sóti mentioned, Mór and Lungr with Marr.

Mss: R(37v), Tˣ(39r), U(40r), A(14v), C(6v) (SnE); papp10ˣ(42v), 2368ˣ(95), 743ˣ(74v-75r) (LaufE)

Readings: [1] ok: om. Tˣ;    Sleipnir: ‘slettfeti’ U    [3] ok: om. 2368ˣ    [4] vas þar (‘var þar’): ‘vardar’ Tˣ    [6] heyrðak: verðr 2368ˣ    [7] Mór: ‘Mǫr’ A, papp10ˣ, ‘mar’ C;    Lungr: langr A, ‘Tungur’ 2368ˣ;    með: með hleypr 2368ˣ;    Mari: Mani papp10ˣ, 2368ˣ, 743ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 649, Skj BI, 656, Skald I, 321, NN §2157A; SnE 1848-87, I, 480, II, 351, 458, 595, SnE 1931, 169, SnE 1998, I, 88; LaufE 1979, 274, 352, NK 318-19.

Notes: [All]: In ms. A, a heading written in red ink (hersta hæiti ‘names of horses’) precedes the introductory statement Þæssir ærv hæstar taldir i Þorgrims þvlv ‘These are the horses enumerated in Þorgrímr’s þula’. — [1] Hrafn: Lit. ‘raven’ (m.). According to Skm (SnE 1998, I, 58), Ynglinga saga (ch. 29, ÍF 26, 57) and Anon Kálfv 3/1 (see Note there), Hrafn was the horse King Aðils took from King Áli after having defeated him in battle. The name is also listed in Þul Hesta 3/2 and is frequently used as a base-word in kennings for ‘ship’. — [1] Sleipnir: Lit. ‘one who slips, moves quickly’, from the adj. sleipr ‘slippery’. Óðinn’s eight-footed stallion, offspring of Loki and the stallion Svaðilfari, and known from a number of poetic and prose sources (e.g. Grí 44/5, Sigrdr 15/7, Gylf, SnE 2005, 17, 34-5, 46 and Skm, SnE 1998, I, 20). The name is also found in Þul Hesta 1/6 and it is used in skaldic kennings (see LP: Sleipnir). — [3] Valr: Lit. ‘falcon’ (m.). According to Anon Kálfv 2/1, this horse belonged to a legendary person named Vésteinn (see also Þul Hesta 2/2). Like Hrafn (l. 1 above), this horse-heiti frequently occurs as a base-word in kennings for ‘ship’. — [3] Léttfeti: Lit. ‘light-pacer’, from the adj. léttr ‘light’ and an agent noun from the strong verb feta ‘step’ or fet n. ‘pace, step’. This is one of the horses owned by the Æsir (Gylf, SnE 2005, 17; Grí 30/5). Like the other horse-names mentioned in this stanza, it is also recorded in Þul Hesta (st. 2/1). It is not used in skaldic kennings, but in the rímur it is a heiti for ‘horse’ in general (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: léttfeti). — [4] Tjaldari: Lit. ‘ambler’ (m.), most likely a loanword in Old Norse (< OS telderi, cf. OHG zeltari, ModGer. Zelter ‘palfrey’; see AEW: tjaldari). The name is also listed in Þul Hesta 2/6 but does not occur elsewhere. — [5] Gulltoppr: Lit. ‘gold-forelock’ (m.), the horse of the god Heimdallr in Old Norse myth (see Gylf, SnE 2005, 17, 25, 47). Gulltoppr is also recorded in the list of horses that belong to the Æsir in Grí 30/5 (NK 63): Gulltoppr oc Léttfeti ‘Gulltoppr and Léttfeti’. The name is included in Þul Hesta 1/3 but not otherwise used in skaldic verse. — [5] Goti: Gunnarr Gjúkason’s horse (cf. Note to Anon Kálfv 4/7). Perhaps originally ‘Gothic horse’ (so SnE 1998, II, 292), or derived directly from the strong verb gjóta ‘pour, spawn’ (see AEW: goti). In poetry the word is a heiti for ‘horse’ in general (see also Þul Hesta 1/7). — [6] Sóta ‘Sóti’: From sót n. ‘soot’ (hence, ‘soot-coloured one’). Sóti is also the name of various characters in the fornaldarsögur. As a poetic term for ‘horse’ the word is frequently used as a base-word in kennings for ‘ship’ and ‘wolf’, but it is not included in the list of horse-heiti in Þul Hesta. — [7] Mór: Lit. ‘brown one’ (m.), cf. mórauðr ‘yellow-brown (sheep)’ (CVC: mó-rauðr). In Anon Kálfv 2/3 Mór is the name of a horse that belongs to Meinþjófr (see Note there). See also Þul Hesta 3/8. — [7] Lungr: Perhaps ‘swift one’ (m.); cf. OE lung, OHG lungar ‘swift’ (AEW: lungr; NN §2157A). Other than in Þorgrímsþula, the name is included in Þul Hesta 2/4, and it is used as a heiti for ‘horse’ in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: lungr). — [7] Mari ‘Marr’: Otherwise used as a common noun (marr m. ‘steed’; mari is dat. sg.), a poetic word frequently found in skaldic verse (see also in Þul Hesta 3/7), but here evidently a proper name.

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. 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. 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.
8. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
12. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
13. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
14. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
15. Internal references
16. (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 19 April 2024)
17. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ 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=113> (accessed 19 April 2024)
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Ynglinga saga’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=158> (accessed 19 April 2024)
19. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Kálfsvísa 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. 666.
20. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Kálfsvísa 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. 667.
21. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Kálfsvísa 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 668.
22. 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.
23. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Hesta 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. 936.
24. 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.
25. Not published: do not cite ()
26. Not published: do not cite ()
27. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hesta 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. 935. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3236> (accessed 19 April 2024)