Þul Sólar 1^III

Sól ok sunna,         sýn, fagrahvél,
leiptr, hrjóðr, leika,         líknskin, rǫðull,
leiptr, ifrǫðull         ok ljósfari,
drífandi, alfrǫðull         ok Dvalins leika.

Sól ok sunna, sýn, fagrahvél, leiptr, hrjóðr, leika, líknskin, rǫðull, leiptr, ifrǫðull ok ljósfari, drífandi, alfrǫðull ok leika Dvalins.

Sun and sunlight, sight, fair-wheel, lightning, coverer, plaything, grace-shine, disc, lightning, doubt-disc and light-bringer, driving one, elf-disc and Dvalinn’s <dwarf’s> plaything.

Mss: R(44v), Tˣ(46v), C(13v), A(20r), B(9v), 744ˣ(82v-83r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Sól ok sunna: Sunna sýni A, ‘[…]vnna sy[…]’ B, ‘Sunna sýni’ 744ˣ    [2] sýn: sól A, B    [3] leiptr: om. C, ‘[…]eíptr’ B, leiptr 744ˣ;    hrjóðr: ‘[…]riodr’ B, ‘hriodr’ 744ˣ    [4] líknskin: líkskin Tˣ, ‘likskinn’ A, blik skín B    [5] leiptr: om. Tˣ;    ifrǫðull: ‘í […]ull’ B, ‘ífro᷎dull’ 744ˣ    [6] ok: om. Tˣ    [7] drífandi: ‘drífand[…]’ B, ‘drifande’ 744ˣ    [8] ok: om. Tˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 678-9, Skj BI, 671, Skald I, 335-6; SnE 1848-87, I, 593, II, 485, 568, 627, SnE 1931, 212, SnE 1998, I, 133.

Notes: [1] sól ok sunna ‘sun and sunlight’: In A and B, the initial position in the list is occupied by a poetic term for ‘sun’, sunna f., while in R, Tˣ and C the first heiti mentioned is sól f., a common word for ‘sun’ in Old Norse. In Alv one belongs to the language of the gods, the other to the language of men (Alv 16/1-2 (NK 126)): Sól heitir með mǫnnom, | enn sunna með goðom ‘It is called sól among men, but sunna among the gods’. — [2] sýn (f.) ‘sight’: As a sun-heiti, the word possibly means ‘pleasant sight’. In the list of poetic terms for ‘sun’ in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 85), this heiti is given as sýni n., as in mss A and B (744ˣ) of the present þula. — [2] fagrahvél (n.) ‘fair-wheel’: The heiti is also known from Alv 16/5, where it is the word for ‘sun’ in the language of the elves, and from the list of heiti for ‘sun’ in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 85; cf. SnE 1998, II, 268). It does not occur elsewhere in skaldic poetry, but it is found several times in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: fagrahvél). — [3] leiptr, hrjóðr ‘lightning, coverer’: As heiti for ‘sun’ these words are found only in this stanza, but the same pair appears among heiti for ‘heaven’ in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 85) and in Þul Himins II l. 7 (see Note there). Hrjóðr is also the name of one of the nine heavens in Þul Himins I l. 13 and in Þul Himins II l. 6. It is possible that hrjóðr has been included in the present stanza owing to confusion of the two lists of heiti (see also Notes to ll. 6-7 below). For leiptr, see Note to l. 5 below. — [3] leika (f.) ‘plaything’: As a heiti for ‘sun’ the word is not found elsewhere. See Note to leika Dvalins ‘Dvalinn’s plaything’ in l. 8 below. — [4] líknskin (n.) ‘grace-shine’: So R, C and the list of heiti for ‘sun’ in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 85; SnE 1998, II, 347); the other mss of the þula have different variants of this heiti. Mss Tˣ and A give líkskin ‘pleasant-shine’ (from the verb líka ‘please’ or, possibly, from lík n. ‘body’), and B has blikskin ‘gleaming shine’. None of these variants are otherwise attested in poetry. — [5] leiptr (n.) ‘lightning’: The word leiptr appears twice in this stanza in all mss except Tˣ and C, where it is omitted either in l. 3 or in l. 5. — [5] ifrǫðull (m.) ‘doubt-disc’: The first element of this cpd is obscure. In ÍO: ifröðull, ifrǫðull, it is suggested that if- may be identical with ON if n., ifi m. ‘doubt’ (lit. ‘doubt-disc’). According to Falk (1925a, 242), however, if- is connected with the root element in such terms as ifingr ‘head bandage’ and the hawk-heiti ifjungr, ifli, ifill ‘hooded one, blindfolded one, bound’ (see Note to Þul Hauks 2/3-4 as well as Þul Bjarnar l. 12). Ifrǫðull would then denote the covered sun (cf. hrjóðr ‘coverer’ in l. 3 above). Other than in this þula, the heiti is found only in the list of sun-heiti in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 85) with the variants ‘ifr ravðvll’ R(37r), ‘ifr.raudoll’ Tˣ(38v), ‘ifr rø̨ðvll’ A(14v) and ‘ífraudull’ C(6r). — [6-7] ljósfari, drífandi ‘light-bringer, driving one’: As terms for ‘sun’, these heiti are not found elsewhere, but in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 85), the same pair of names is listed among the poetic terms for ‘heaven’, probably owing to confusion of the two lists of heiti (cf. also Note to l. 3 above). — [7] alfrǫðull (m.) ‘elf-disc’: This term for ‘sun’ is known from eddic poetry (Vafþr 47/2, Skí 4/4; cf. also Gylf, SnE 2005, 54 and Skm, SnE 1998, I, 85). — [8] leika Dvalins ‘Dvalinn’s <dwarf’s> plaything’: Or ‘Dvalinn’s playmate’. In Alv 16/3 this is the name for ‘sun’ among the dwarfs, possibly derived from a lost myth (for Dvalinn, a dwarf whose name is often used as a term for ‘dwarf’ in general, see Note to Þul Dverga 2/2). According to Old Norse beliefs, dwarfs, who are rock-dwellers, cannot endure daylight and are turned into stone by the sun’s rays. Hence leika here denotes ‘sby or sth. capable of destroying the dwarfs’ (so Åkerblom 1920, 52-4), which is clearly a euphemism. Alternatively, the phrase has been interpreted as ‘Dvalinn’s mockery’ (Güntert 1921, 144; see also Kommentar III, 336-40). This name, which is more of a mythological kenning than a heiti, is mentioned among the poetic terms for ‘sun’ in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 85) and it occurs in Heiðr (FSN I, 475). The heiti is also used in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: 2. leika).

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. 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.
6. 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.
7. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
8. Kommentar = See, Klaus von et al. 1997-2012. Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda. 7 vols. Heidelberg: Winter.
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. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
12. Güntert, Hermann. 1921. Von der Sprache der Götter und Geister. Halle (Saale): Niemeyer.
13. Falk, Hjalmar. 1925a. ‘Die altnordischen Namen der Beizvögel’. In Germanica: Eduard Sievers zum 75. Geburtstage 25. November 1925. Halle (Saale): Niemeyer, 236-46.
14. Åkerblom, Axel. 1920. ‘Bidrag till eddatolkningen’. ANF 36, 47-54.
15. Internal references
16. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=23> (accessed 7 May 2024)
17. (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 7 May 2024)
18. (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 7 May 2024)
19. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga 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. 695.
20. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Hauks 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. 943.
21. Not published: do not cite ()
22. Not published: do not cite ()
23. Not published: do not cite ()
24. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Bjarnar 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. 895. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3213> (accessed 7 May 2024)
25. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Himins heiti I’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 905. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3217> (accessed 7 May 2024)