Eyv Hák 1I/4 — ættar ‘of the kin’
Gǫndul ok Skǫgul sendi Gautatýr
at kjósa of konunga,
hverr Yngva ættar skyldi með Óðni fara
ok í Valhǫll vesa.
Gautatýr sendi Gǫndul ok Skǫgul at kjósa of konunga, hverr ættar Yngva skyldi fara með Óðni ok vesa í Valhǫll.
The god of the Gautar [= Óðinn] sent Gǫndul and Skǫgul to choose among kings, which of the kin of Yngvi should go with Óðinn and live in Valhǫll.
notes
[4] ættar Yngva ‘of the kin of Yngvi’: Yngvi is the eponymous progenitor of the Swedish Yngling dynasty at Uppsala and hence of the Norwegian branch of the dynasty (see Introduction to Þjóð Yt, and Heusler 1908, 143-5 on the Yngling genealogy). He has been identified with the god Freyr, partly because Yngvi-Freyr is a name for Freyr (e.g. LP: Yngvi 1, Yngvifreyr), but this identification is by no means certain. It is also uncertain whether ætt Yngva has specific genealogical reference. Yngvi is plainly a generic ruler-heiti in some contexts (see SnE 1998, I, 104-5 for Yngvi and Ynglingr, and LP: Yngvi 2), and some scholars (Baetke 1964, 111-12; Koht 1955, 23-4) see most references to ‘Yngvi’s kin’ and such as generalized kennings for rulers. The use of ætt ‘kin’ does not help to disambiguate the reference of Yngvi/yngvi here since it occurs both with gen. pl. nouns meaning ‘of men, rulers’ etc. and with personal names in the gen. sg. (see LP: ætt). The same problem arises with ungum ynglingi ‘young king’, used of Haraldr hárfagri in Þhorn Harkv 4/7; see Note.