Þul Elds 2^III

Leygr, vafrlogi,         linnr ok farri,
brandr, fýr, túsi,         brími, nertill,
viti, eimyrja,         vélann, fasti,
funi, hyrr, fœðir,         fúrr ok eisa.

Leygr, vafrlogi, linnr ok farri, brandr, fýr, túsi, brími, nertill, viti, eimyrja, vélann, fasti, funi, hyrr, fœðir, fúrr ok eisa.

Flame, flickering flame, serpent and wanderer, fire, blaze, crackling one, burning, gnawing one, beacon, live coals, deceiver, fire, pyre, flare, feeder, bonfire and glowing embers.

Mss: A(20v), B(9v), 744ˣ(84v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] vafr‑: vǫfr‑ B    [4] nertill: ‘nerti[…]’ B, nertill 744ˣ    [8] fúrr ok: om. B

Editions: Skj AI, 684, Skj BI, 674, Skald I, 339, NN §105; SnE 1848-87, II, 486, 570.

Notes: [1] vafrlogi (m.) ‘flickering flame’: In Old Norse mythology vafrlogi denotes flames surrounding the hall of an enchanted princess (e.g. Brynhildr’s hall in Skm, SnE 1998, I, 48; cf. also Fj 31, Skí 8, 9 and Note to ESk Frag 1/4). In Modern Icelandic folklore, vafrlogi (or málmlogi ‘metal-flame’) is said to flicker above buried treasures (see CVC: vafrlogi). — [2] linnr (m.) ‘serpent’: A poetic term for ‘serpent’ (see Þul Orma 3/4; also listed in Þul Viðar 3/1), possibly metaphorically transferred to fire (perhaps ‘flexible’ or ‘biting’), but never otherwise attested as a heiti for ‘fire’. RE 1665 has ‘Linur’, i.e. the adj. linr ‘mild, soft, pleasant’, which makes little sense in the context. — [2] farri (m.) ‘wanderer’: An obscure word, most likely derived from the strong verb fara ‘go, move’ (hence perhaps ‘wanderer, vagrant, tramp’; see ÍO: farri 2). Holthausen (1948, 57), however, suggests a connection with Old Church Slavonic para ‘smoke’ and Gk πίμπρημι ‘burn’, while according to Alexander Jóhannesson (1951-6, 554-5), the word may be related to fors n. ‘waterfall’. Cf. also farri as an ox-heiti (though not mentioned in the þulur; LP: farri 1, 2), and the discussion of this word in Note to Þjóð Yt 14/6^I. Ms. B and RE 1665 both have fari m. ‘mover, traveller’ here. — [3] fýr (n.) ‘blaze’: Or fýrr m. Neither form is used elsewhere, but fýri m. ‘fire’ occurs in poetry. The heiti is derived from fúrr, a poetic term for ‘fire’ (see the latter word in l. 8 below). The heiti is omitted in RE 1665. — [3] túsi (m.) ‘crackling one’: Or tusi (the quantity of the vowel cannot be established with certainty). A hap. leg. Cf. New Norw. tusa, tuska ‘crackle, make noise’ (see AEW: tusi). Kock (NN §105 n.) argues that the correct form of this heiti is tussi, and that it may be related to tjǫss ‘whistling’ (hence ‘noisy’). Alternatively, the word could be related to OHG zusken ‘burn’ (so Holthausen 1942, 270). — [4] brími (m.) ‘burning’: This poetic term for ‘fire’ is related to ME brim ‘embers’ and Modern German dialects brimseln ‘burn’ (ÍO: brími). — [4] nertill (m.) ‘gnawing one’: A hap. leg. Cf. the nickname nǫrtr m. ‘one who nags’ (Finnur Jónsson 1907, 341) and the weak verb narta ‘pinch slightly’, ModIcel. narta ‘gnaw, nag’ (CVC: narta; ÍO: nertill, narta). — [6] vélann, fasti ‘deceiver, fire’: It is impossible to say whether this is a cpd or two separate heiti. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B; LP: vélanfasti) suggests vélanfasti lit. ‘fraudulent fire’, an otherwise unattested cpd. That interpretation is dubious for two reasons. First of all, vél f. ‘fraud’ normally has the form véla- when used as the first element in compounds (cf. vélaverk ‘bad trick’, vélakaup ‘fraudulent bargain’; see CVC: vél). Second, it would be natural to expect that fasti m., which is frequently used by the skalds as a poetic term for ‘fire’, should be listed as a separate heiti in Þul Elds. In RE 1665, these are treated as two separate words and not listed adjacently. Taken as an isolated word, the first heiti might be a derivation either from vél ‘treason, trick’ (vélann m. ‘deceiver, trickster’; cf. þjóðann ‘sovereign’, Þul Konunga 2/8, Herjan(n), Þul Óðins 2/5) or from vél/væl ‘wailing’ (vélann ‘wailer’). The sense ‘noisemaker’ would be paralleled in such fire-heiti as olgr ‘noise-maker’ (st. 3/1) and dunsuðr ‘thunderer’ (st. 4/5). — [7] fœðir (m.) ‘feeder’: Or ‘nourisher, breeder’. This agent noun is frequently used as a base-word in man-kennings, but it never occurs in skaldic poetry as a heiti for ‘fire’. — [8] fúrr (m.) ‘bonfire’: See Note to fýr ‘blaze’ (l. 3 above). The heiti is omitted in B, but included in RE 1665.

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. 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. Alexander Jóhannesson. 1951-6. Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2 vols. Bern: Franke.
10. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
11. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
12. Finnur Jónsson. 1907. ‘Tilnavne i den islandske oldlitteratur’. ÅNOH, 161-381.
13. Holthausen, Ferdinand. 1942. ‘Etymologisches und Grammatisches’. BGDSL 66, 265-75.
14. Holthausen, Ferdinand. 1948. Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altwestnordischen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
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 23 April 2024)
17. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Konunga 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. 689.
18. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Óðins nǫfn 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. 735.
19. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Viðar 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. 883.
20. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Orma 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. 931.
21. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Fragments 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. 151.
22. Not published: do not cite ()
23. Not published: do not cite ()
24. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Elds 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. 920. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3234> (accessed 23 April 2024)
25. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 14’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 31.