Þul Orma 1^III

Skal ek eitrfáa         orma telja:
óinn ok Ófnir,         œlir, japra,
fúrr, flugdreki,         Fáfnir, óri,
fræningr ok áll,         feginn ok ornir.

Ek skal telja eitrfáa orma: óinn ok Ófnir, œlir, japra, fúrr, flugdreki, Fáfnir, óri, fræningr ok áll, feginn ok ornir.

I shall enumerate venomous serpents: fearful one and Ófnir, feeder, japra, fire, flying dragon, Fáfnir, raver, flashing one and eel, cheerful one and one warming itself.

Mss: A(20v), B(9v), 744ˣ(85r-v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Skal: ‘[…]kal’ B, Skal 744ˣ    [3] óinn: ornir B    [4] œlir (‘ø̨lirr’): ‘[…]lítr’ B, ‘olítr’ 744ˣ;    japra: ‘[…]apra’ B, japra 744ˣ    [5] fúrr: fyrr B    [6] óri: ‘orre’ B    [7] fræningr: ‘fre᷎[…]inngr’ B, ‘fre᷎ninngr’ 744ˣ;    ok: om. B    [8] feginn ok: ‘‑feg[…]’ B, ‑feginn 744ˣ;    ornir: óinn B

Editions: Skj AI, 684, Skj BI, 675, Skald I, 339; SnE 1848-87, II, 486-7, 570.

Notes: [All]: Most of the poetic names listed in this stanza (óinn m. ‘fearful one’ l. 3, œlir m. ‘feeder’ and japra l. 4, fúrr m. ‘fire’ l. 5, óri m. ‘raver’ l. 6, áll m. ‘eel’ l. 7, feginn m. ‘cheerful one’ and ornir m. ‘one warming itself’ l. 8) do not appear as heiti for ‘serpent’ in other sources, and none of these heiti is given in the list recorded in LaufE. — [3] óinn (m.) ‘fearful one’: Cf. the weak verb óask ‘dread, fear’, óan (or óun) f. ‘fear, distress’. This word is not found elsewhere as a serpent-heiti, but Óinn is the name of a dwarf (Þul Dverga 3/8). — [3] Ófnir: One of the mythical serpents that destroy the roots of the ash Yggdrasill (Grí 34/7; SnE 2005, 19). The root vowel is either long (Ófnir lit. ‘instigator’) or short (Ofnir lit. ‘weaver’). Ófnir is also an Óðinn-heiti (Þul Óðins 7/4; for a discussion of this word, see Note there). In poetry, the name is used as a heiti for ‘serpent’ in general. — [4] œlir (m.) ‘feeder’: Or œlirr (ms. A has ‘ø̨lirr’). A hap. leg. and an obscure word. It could be related to the adj. œll ‘one that deserves to be fed’ (cf. ModIcel. ælilegur) and the strong verb ala ‘feed’ (hence perhaps ‘feeder’). — [4] japra: A hap. leg. and the f. form of m. japr, a term for ‘serpent’ known only from this þula (see st. 4/1 below), but cf. ModIcel. japi ‘snake’. The origin and the sense of this word are unclear. The heiti could be related to ModIcel. japla ‘chew’, MLG japen ‘gape’ and mean ‘biting one’ or ‘gaping one’ (AEW: japr, japra; ÍO: japi). — [6] Fáfnir: Lit. ‘embracer’, from Proto Nordic *faðmnir (cf. faðmr m. ‘embrace’; see AEW: faðmr). A mythical dragon, the guardian of the gold known as the hoard of the Niflungar (Nibelungs). The name is also listed among other heiti for ‘serpent’ in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 90) as well as in Þul Sverða 9/2. — [6] óri (m.) ‘raver’: Most likely related to the adj. œrr ‘mad, furious’, the weak verb óra ‘be quarrelsome’ and órar f. pl. ‘fits of madness’. The word does not otherwise occur as a heiti for ‘serpent’, but it is a dwarf-name (see Note to Þul Dverga 4/2). — [7] fræningr (m.) ‘flashing one’: Derived from the adj. fránn ‘gleaming, flashing’, which is a poetic epithet for serpents (cf. Vsp 66/3 (NK 15) naðr fránn ‘gleaming adder’, Fáfn 26/5 (NK 185) inn fráni ormr ‘the gleaming serpent’ and LP: 2. fránn 3). The nominalised form fránn m. ‘serpent’ is attested in skaldic verse but omitted in the present þula. Fræningr is also a poetic term for ‘spear’ (= naðr; LP: fræningr). — [7] áll (m.) ‘eel’: This word does not occur in poetry as a term for ‘serpent’. Because áll (like other terms for ‘fish’) is used as a base-word in kennings for ‘serpent’ (e.g. Grett Lv 19/2, 3^V (Gr 34) áll lautar ‘eel of the land’), the heiti could be a half-kenning. However, it is also possible that áll was included in the present list because an eel resembles a snake physically. — [8] ornir (m.) ‘one warming itself’: A hap. leg. most likely derived from the weak verb orna ‘get warm’. The name could allude to a serpent’s habit of basking in the sun. The length of the root vowel is not certain, however, and the correct form could be órnir (cf. óri ‘raver’ in l. 6; see also ÍO: Órnir). Holthausen’s (1948, 217) assumption that ornir could be related to ormr ‘snake’ is unlikely.

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
5. 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.
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. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. Internal references
11. (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)
12. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga 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. 697.
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga 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. 699.
14. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Óðins nǫfn 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 748.
15. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 9’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 806.
16. Not published: do not cite ()
17. Not published: do not cite ()
18. Not published: do not cite ()
19. Jonathan Grove (ed.) 2022, ‘Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar 34 (Grettir Ásmundarson, Lausavísur 19)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 717.
20. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ 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=10928> (accessed 19 April 2024)