Þul Á 3^III

Tifr, Durn, Vína,         Tems, Vǫnd ok Strǫnd,
Mǫrn, móða, þrym,         Morn ok Gautelfr,
alin, uðr, Alkoga         ok Eufrátes,
ógn, eiðrennir         ok Apardjón.

Tifr, Durn, Vína, Tems, Vǫnd ok Strǫnd, Mǫrn, móða, þrym, Morn ok Gautelfr, alin, uðr, Alkoga ok Eufrátes, ógn, eiðrennir ok Apardjón.

Tiber, Durn, Dvina, Thames, Vǫnd and Strǫnd, Marne, loamy stream, noise, Marne and Götaälv, nourished one, wave, Alkoga and Euphrates, terror, isthmus-runner and Aberdeen.

Mss: R(43v), Tˣ(45v), C(12v), A(19r), B(9r), 744ˣ(73r-v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Durn: dyrn A, B    [2] Vǫnd: vind A, vinn B;    Strǫnd: strind A, B    [3] Mǫrn: so Tˣ, A, B, ‘mavra’ R, ‘maura’ C;    móða: ‘modera’ C, ‘m[…]a’ B, ‘moda’ 744ˣ;    þrym: ‘[…]’ B, ‘þrým’ 744ˣ    [4] Morn: ‘morm’ C, ‘[…]’ B, om. 744ˣ;    ok: om. Tˣ, C;    Gautelfr: ‘g[…]fr’ B, ‘gautelfr’ 744ˣ    [5] alin: alm C, A;    uðr: auðr C;    Alkoga: olga A, 744ˣ, ‘[…]ga’ B    [6] ok: om. Tˣ    [7] eiðrennir: ‘eidrænir’ C, ‘æiðr æimir’ A, ‘eidr eimir’ B    [8] ok: om. Tˣ;    Apar‑: avar‑ B

Editions: Skj AI, 669-70, Skj BI, 666, Skald I, 331; SnE 1848-87, I, 576-7, II, 480, 563, 622-3, SnE 1931, 206, SnE 1998, I, 125.

Notes: [All]: Some of the geographical names listed here are also mentioned in other Old Norse learned sources. In Heimslýsing (Hb 1892-6, 150), four names recorded in the present stanza are listed among the great rivers of the world: Tifr, the Tiber (also spelled Tipr, Tibur) (l. 1), Vína, the Northern Dvina (l. 1), Olkoga (see Alkoga in l. 5 and Note there) and Eufrátes, the Euphrates (l. 6). Only a few of the remaining heiti can be identified with certainty, namely, Tems, the Thames (l. 2) and Gautelfr, the Götaälv (l. 4). — [1] Durn: Or Dyrn (so A, B). This could be Durn Water in Scotland (CVC 780). Both Rygh (1904, 36) and Finnur Jónsson (1933-4, 265) adopt the A, B variant dyrn, which Rygh tentatively derives from dyrr ‘door’. The name is not found elsewhere. — [1] Vína (f.) ‘Dvina’: The Northern Dvina (cf. Dýna in st. 2/3; see also Note to Vín in st. 4/5). In Old Norse sources, Vína denotes several different rivers. In Grí 28/1 and Gylf (SnE 2005, 33) it is a mythical river. Because this name is spelled Vín á in the Codex Regius version of Grí, Sijmons and Gering (S-G I, 198) interpret it as ‘wine stream’. This river is also mentioned in the fornaldarsögur (Ǫrvar-Odds saga, ch. 4, FSN II, 174; Sturlaugs saga starfsama, ch. 18, FSN III, 626) and historical sagas (cf. ÓHHkr, ÍF 27, 229), where it is a river in Bjarmaland near the White Sea. In Eg (ch. 45, ÍF 2, 142) it could be the Old Norse name for the Wen, a small river in Gwynned, Wales (see SnE 1998, II, 518). The river-name is used in kennings both in skaldic poetry and in the later rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: Vína). — [2] Vǫnd ok Strǫnd ‘Vǫnd and Strǫnd’: The same pair of names, Vǫnd oc Strǫnd, occurs in Grí 28/9 (NK 63). Vǫnd is most likely a f. form of the adj. vandr ‘difficult’. Hale (1983, 181) proposes that Vǫnd could be related to ON vǫndr m. ‘wand, switch’ (cf. river names with the stem gand- from Norwegian dialects gand ‘thin stick’ and stav- from ON stafr ‘stick, stave’ mentioned in Rygh 1904, 63, 245). If so, Vǫnd could refer to a river that flows in a straight line. The river name Strǫnd f. ‘beach’ is difficult to interpret unless this heiti denotes a river that forms shores or banks when flooding (so Hale 1983, 181). Because Strǫnd is also found in st. 5/7 below, Finnur Jónsson (1933-4, 263 and Skj B, followed by Skald) adopts the A, B variant strind f. ‘river bank’. — [3] Mǫrn (f.) ‘Marne’: So Tˣ, A, B. Either the Marne in France or the Norwegian Mandalselva; cf. the Modern Norwegian town Mandal (< ON Marnadalr; see ÍO: Mörn 2, Rygh 1904, 155 and Morn in the next line). Mǫrn is also the name of a giantess (Þjóð Haustl 6/4 and 12/8), and it is not clear if there is a connection between the river-heiti and the name of the giantess (see AEW: Mǫrn). The R, C variant mǫra (‘maura’) could be the Old Norse name for Strath More in Scotland (CVC 780). — [3] þrym (f.) ‘noise’: A f. formation to the m. noun þrymr ‘noise, din’. Bugge (1875, 223) identifies this heiti as present-day Trim Water, a small river that flows into the Spey in Scotland. Þrym does not occur elsewhere in poetry as a heiti for ‘river’. — [4] Morn ‘Marne’: Perhaps a variant of Mǫrn ‘the Marne’. See Note to Mǫrn in l. 3 above. Cf. the river-name Sæmorn in HHj 5/6 (NK 141). — [4] Gautelfr (f.) ‘Götaälv’: See Note to st. 1/7 above. The name also occurs in this form in Sturl Hrafn 1/7^II. — [5] alin (f.) ‘nourished one’: Not otherwise attested as a river-name and probably the f. nom. sg. form of the p. p. of the strong verb ala ‘feed’ (Finnur Jónsson 1933-4, 264: den svulmende ‘the swelling one’). Alternatively, Alin has been identified as the River Alne or Aln in North Yorkshire (CVC 780; Bugge 1875, 220). The C, A variant alm (m. acc. sg. ‘elm’) must be a scribal error. — [5] Alkoga (f.): Or Álkoga. Possibly the same as Olkoga mentioned in Heimslýsing (Hb 1892-6, 150). The latter name has been identified as the river Volhov in north-western Russia (Pritsak 1981, I, 549). Pritsak (1981, I, 297) adopts the A, B (744ˣ) variant Olga, which he takes to be the Volga in Russia, the longest river in Europe. As a river-name, Olga or Ólga could also be the f. form of ólgr ‘noise-maker’ (cf. þrym ‘noise’, l. 3 above), a heiti with different referents in the þulur (cf. Þul Elds 3/1, Þul Óðins 6/7, Þul Øxna 3/5 and Þul Hauks 2/7; on this and similar heiti, see Gurevich 1992c, 41-4). — [6] Eufrátes ‘Euphrates’: See Note to [All] above. — [7] ógn (f.) ‘terror’: See st. 2/3 above and Note there. — [7] eiðrennir (m.) ‘isthmus-runner’: A hap. leg. from eið n. ‘isthmus’ and rennir, a nomen agentis from the strong verb renna ‘run’ (cf. merkriða ‘boundary-crosser’, st. 2/7). This heiti is peculiar because of its m. form, while other river-names are f. The A, B variant (normalised) ‘eiðr eimir’ cannot be construed to make any sense. — [8] Apardjón (f.) ‘Aberdeen’: Cf. Gaelic Abberdeon, the modern town of Aberdeen, Scotland (cf. Hkr, ÍF 28, 328), and it could be that the name of the settlement was confused with the river Don itself. The p. n. Apardjón is mentioned in ESk Run 5/4^II.

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. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. 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.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
7. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
8. Gurevich, Elena A. 1992c. ‘Þulur in Skáldskaparmál: An Attempt at Skaldic Lexicology’. ANF 107, 35-52.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
12. ÍF 2 = Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar. Ed. Sigurður Nordal. 1933.
13. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
14. Bugge, Sophus. 1875. ‘Biskop Bjarne Kolbeinssøn og Snorres Edda’. ÅNOH, 209-46.
15. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
16. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
17. Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
18. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
19. S-G = Gering, Hugo. 1927-31. Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda. Nach dem Tode des Verfassers herausgegeben von B. Sijmons. I: Götterlieder. II: Heldenlieder. Halle: Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
20. Finnur Jónsson. 1933-4. ‘Þulur’. APS 8, 262-72.
21. Hale, Christopher. 1983. ‘The River Names in Grímnismál 27-29’. In Glendinning et al. 1983, 165-86.
22. Pritsak, Omeljan. 1981. The Origin of Rus’. I: Old Scandinavian Sources Other Than the Sagas. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
23. Rygh, Oluf. 1904. Norske elvenavne. Efter offentlig foranstaltning utgivne med tilføiede forklaringer af K. Rygh. Kristiania (Oslo): Cammermeyer.
24. Internal references
25. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Heimskringla’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=4> (accessed 24 April 2024)
26. 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar’ 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, pp. 162-389. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=14> (accessed 24 April 2024)
27. 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 24 April 2024)
28. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Sturlaugs saga starfsama’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 781. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=78> (accessed 24 April 2024)
29. (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 24 April 2024)
30. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Óláfs saga helga (in Heimskringla)’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=152> (accessed 24 April 2024)
31. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Óðins nǫfn 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 746.
32. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Øxna 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. 888.
33. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Elds 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. 924.
34. 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.
35. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Runhenda 5’ 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, pp. 554-5.
36. Not published: do not cite ()
37. Not published: do not cite ()
38. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hrafnsmál 1’ 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. 728.
39. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 440.