Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Þul Ǫrvar 2III

Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Ǫrvar 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. 820.

Anonymous ÞulurǪrvar heiti
12

Flugglǫð, flugsvinn,         Fífa ok skeyti,
geta skal fennu         ok Gusis smíðis;
Jólfs smíði es,         en øfst þura.

Flugglǫð, flugsvinn, Fífa ok skeyti, skal geta fennu ok smíðis Gusis; es smíði Jólfs, en øfst þura.

Flight-bright one, flight-swift one, Fífa and missile, I shall mention finder and Gusir’s handiwork; there is Jólfr’s handiwork and the last is whizzer.

Mss: R(43r), Tˣ(45r), C(12r-v), A(19r), B(8v), 744ˣ(70r-v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] ‑glǫð: glǫð ok Tˣ, A, B    [2] skeyti: ‘skeuti’ Tˣ    [3] geta skal fennu: om. B;    fennu: so A, fenna R, Tˣ, C    [4] smíðis: nauta C, smíði B    [5] Jólfs: so A, jóls R, Tˣ, ‘iauls’ C, ‘julfs’ B;    es (‘er’): ‘her’ A, B    [6] en: ok C, er A, B

Editions: Skj AI, 666, Skj BI, 665, Skald I, 329; SnE 1848-87, I, 570, II, 478, 561, 621, SnE 1931, 203, SnE 1998, I, 122.

Notes: [1] flugglǫð, flugsvinn ‘flight-bright one, flight-swift one’: Neither heiti occurs elsewhere as a term for ‘arrow’. The first element in the compounds is flug n. ‘flight’, and the second elements are the adjectives glaðr ‘glad, bright’ and svinnr ‘quick’. — [2] Fífa: Lit. ‘cotton-grass’, originally the name of a plant (Eriophorum) and here referring to an arrow with a plume. This is another of King Gusir’s arrows (see also Flaug st. 1/4, Hremsa st. 1/6 and smíðis Gusis ‘Gusir’s handiwork’ st. 2/4). Fífa ‘Arrow’ is also the name of a ship (see Falk 1914b, 99 and Rv Lv 8/5II). Fífa as a heiti for ‘arrow’ in general does not occur in poetry earlier than in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: fífa). — [3] geta skal fennu ‘I shall mention finder’: So A. The verb geta takes the gen. (fennu f. gen. sg.), and fenna (so R, ) is nom. sg. (unless fenna in these mss is gen. pl. or gen. of a weak m. noun fenni). The heiti is a hap. leg., probably derived from the strong verb finna ‘find’, hence ‘one that finds its target’ (AEW: fenna). However, in view of drífa ‘snow-drift’ (st. 1/3) and the traditional image of arrows as snow or hail in skaldic poetry, the heiti could be connected with the weak verb fenna ‘cover with snow’ and, if so, might mean ‘snow-storm’ (see Gurevich 1992c, 41). — [4] smíðis Gusis ‘Gusir’s handiwork’: The word smíðis n. ‘handiwork, work of smith-craft, artefact’ is in the gen. sg. (see Note to l. 3; the B variant smíði is incorrect). This is the collective name of the three arrows (see Notes to sts 1/4, 1/6, 2/2) feathered with gold which flew of their own accord from the bowstring and back again, also called nautar Gusis ‘Gusir’s gifts, Gusir’s belongings’ (cf. the C variant nauta gen. pl.) because they were owned by Gusir, the legendary king of the Saami (see Ǫrvar-Odds saga ch. 4, FSN II, 173; for nautr, see Note to Þul Sverða 11/2). — [5] smíði Jólfs ‘Jólfr’s handiwork’: The name of three legendary stone arrows (steinǫrvar) presented to Ǫrvar-Odd by Jólfr (i.e. Óðinn in disguise; see Ǫrvar-Odds saga ch. 24, FSN II, 260 as well as ǪrvOdd Lv 29/3VIII and 30/2VIII (Ǫrv 65, 67)). — [6] þura (f.) ‘whizzer’: This heiti is a hap. leg. related to the weak verb þyrja ‘sweep, rush along noisily’ (attested only in poetry; see Falk 1914b, 99 and SnE 1998, II, 437).

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
  6. Gurevich, Elena A. 1992c. ‘Þulur in Skáldskaparmál: An Attempt at Skaldic Lexicology’. ANF 107, 35-52.
  7. 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.
  8. Falk, Hjalmar. 1914b. Altnordische Waffenkunde. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter, II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1914, 6. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
  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. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ǫrvar-Odds saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=35> (accessed 28 March 2024)
  13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 11’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 809.
  14. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali Kolsson, Lausavísur 8’ 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. 585.
  15. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 65 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 29)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 880.
Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Stanza/chapter/text segment

Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.

Information tab

Interactive tab

The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.

Full text tab

This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.

Chapter/text segment

This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.