Þul Manna 1^III

Mál es at segja         manna heiti:
greppar ok gumnar,         gumar ok drengir,
gotnar, rekkar,         garpar, seggir,
sveit, snillingar         ok sælkerar.

Mál es at segja heiti manna: greppar ok gumnar, gumar ok drengir, gotnar, rekkar, garpar, seggir, sveit, snillingar ok sælkerar.

It is time to say the names for men: poets and gumnar, gumar and bold men, gotnar, upright men, champions, men, troop, valiant ones and affluent ones.

Mss: R(42v), Tˣ(44v), C(11v), A(18r), B(8v), 744ˣ(63v-64r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Mál: ‘[…]al’ B, ‘Mal’ 744ˣ;    segja: ‘seiga’ Tˣ    [2] manna: ‘[…]nna’ B, manna 744ˣ    [3] greppar: ‘g[…]pr’ B, ‘greppr’ 744ˣ;    ok: om. Tˣ    [4] gumar: ‘g[…]’ B, ‘gu… . .’ 744ˣ;    ok: om. Tˣ, ‘[…]’ B, ‘.’ 744ˣ;    drengir: ‘[…]’ B, ‘. . eingir’ 744ˣ    [5] gotnar: gotnar ok A, ‘[…] ok’ B, gotar ok 744ˣ;    rekkar: ‘rekk[…]’ B, rekkar 744ˣ    [6] garpar: greppar A, ‘[…]rp[…]’ B, garpar 744ˣ;    seggir: ‘[…]ggir’ B, seggir 744ˣ    [7] sveit: sveit ok B;    snillingar: ‘snilli[…]’ B, snillingar 744ˣ    [8] ok: om. Tˣ;    sæl‑: ‘[…]e᷎l‑’ B, ‘se᷎l‑’ 744ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 659-60, Skj BI, 661, Skald I, 326, NN §2160; SnE 1848-87, I, 558, II, 474, 557, 617, SnE 1931, 198, SnE 1998, I, 115-16.

Notes: [3] greppar ‘poets’: In Skm (SnE 1998, I, 105), the list of names for ‘men’ opens with the same heiti: Skáld heita greppar ok rétt er í skáldskap at kenna svá hvern mann ‘Poets are called greppar, and in poetry it is proper to refer thus to any man’. — [3, 4] gumnar, gumar: Both heiti are variant pl. forms of the word gumi m. (cf. Lat. homo ‘man’). Both words are commonly used poetic terms for ‘men’ in general, despite the following explanation given in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 105): Gumnar eða gumar heita flokkstjórar, svá sem gumi er kallaðr í brúðfǫr ‘The leaders of a troop are called gumnar or gumar, just as one in a bridal party is called gumi (“groom”)’. — [4] drengir ‘bold men’: Pl. of drengr m., lit. ‘support’. Skm gives an exhaustive explanation of this heiti (SnE 1998, I, 106): Drengir heita ungir menn búlausir meðan þeir afla sér fjár eða orðstír … þeir ok drengir er þjóna ríkum mǫnnum … Drengir heita vaskir menn ok batnandi ‘Young men without a household of their own are called drengir while they are acquiring wealth or fame … drengir are also those who are in the service of mighty men … Bold and ambitious men are called drengir’. Most frequently the word occurs in poetry in the sense ‘bold, valiant, worthy man’. For a discussion of the word, see Goetting 2006. — [5] gotnar: Or gotar (pl. of goti), originally ‘Goths’. In Skm (SnE 1998, I, 105), however, the heiti is derived from the name of a King Goti, which is one of Óðinn’s names (see Þul Óðins 1/6). The word is frequently used in poetry as a collective term for ‘men’. — [5] rekkar ‘upright men’: Pl. of rekkr m. ‘straight, upright man’ (cf. the adj. rakkr ‘straight’), cognate with OE rinc, OS rink, OHG rinch ‘man, warrior’ (AEW: rekkr). The word is mostly used in poetry in the sense ‘hero’, ‘a king’s warrior’ or ‘man’ in general. Skm (SnE 1998, I, 105) provides the following definition of the word: Rekkar váru kallaðir þeir menn er fylgðu Hálfi konungi ok af þeirra nafni eru rekkar kallaðir hermenn ok er rétt at kenna svá alla menn ‘Those men who accompanied King Hálfr were called rekkar, and from their name warriors are called rekkar, and it is correct to refer to all men in this way’. For King Hálfr and his men, the Hálfsrekkar, see Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka (Hálf). — [6] garpar ‘champions’: Pl. of garpr m. ‘warlike man’ (cf. New Norw. dialects garpa ‘boast’; see CVC: garpr and ÍO: garpur). In Skm (SnE 1998, I, 106) this heiti is listed among other terms for ‘valiant warriors’. — [7] snillingar ‘valiant ones’: The word is derived from the adj. snjallr ‘eloquent, good, valiant’. In Þul Orma 4/3, snillingr is a heiti for ‘serpent’. — [8] sælkerar ‘affluent ones’: Cf. the weak verb sælka ‘make happy’ and the adj. sæll ‘blessed, happy’. In Modern Icelandic, sælkeri is a ‘gourmand’. The word is listed in Skm among other terms for ‘generous man’ (SnE 1998, I, 106: Ǫrr maðr heitir … sælkeri ‘A generous man is called … sælkeri’), but it is never used in poetry.

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. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
8. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. Goetting, Lauren. 2006. ‘Þegn and drengr in the Viking Age’. SS 78, 375-404.
11. Internal references
12. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 303. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=75> (accessed 25 April 2024)
13. (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 25 April 2024)
14. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Óðins nǫfn 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. 732.
15. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Orma heiti 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. 933.