Þul Óðins 1III/5 — Kjalarr ‘Kjalarr’
Nú skal yppa Óðins nǫfnum:
Atríðr, Auðun, ok Aldafǫðr,
Gizurr, Kjalarr, Gautr, Viðrímnir,
Gǫllorr, Grímnir, Ginnarr, Hnikuðr.
Nú skal yppa Óðins nǫfnum: Atríðr, Auðun, ok Aldafǫðr, Gizurr, Kjalarr, Gautr, Viðrímnir, Gǫllorr, Grímnir, Ginnarr, Hnikuðr.
Now I shall announce Óðinn’s names: Atríðr, Auðun and Aldafǫðr, Gizurr, Kjalarr, Gautr, Viðrímnir, Gǫllorr, Grímnir, Ginnarr, Hnikuðr.
notes
[5] Kjalarr: The name is of obscure origin (cf. ÍO: Kjalar(r)). In Grí 49/4-5 (NK 67) it is associated with kjálki m. ‘sledge’ and interpreted as ‘sledge-puller’ (enn þá Kialar, | er ek kiálca dró ‘and then [they called me] Kjalarr when I pulled the sledge’). The account of the construction of Ormr inn langi ‘The Long Serpent’, the famous ship of King Óláfr Tryggvason (Flat 1860-8, I, 433-4), shows that, in folk etymology, Kjalarr was alternatively derived from kjǫlr m. ‘keel’ (on the connection between kjálki and kjǫlr, see AEW: kjalki). According to that story, a stranger named Forni (= Óðinn) was the one who found a tree-trunk of desired length for a keel. Falk (1924, 22) assumes that this episode could have been motivated by the Óðinn-name Kjalarr. However, the name is more likely to have been connected etymologically to a weak verb *kjalask ‘take care of’ (cf. ModIcel. kjalast). According to de Vries (AEW: Kjalarr), the original meaning of *kjala was ‘feed’; cf. ON kilja f. ‘nutrition’. Thus Kjalarr could be the one who feeds the beasts of prey (so Falk 1924, 22). Other than in Grí and in the present stanza, the name appears in Gylf (SnE 2005, 22) and in skaldic poetry (see ÞSjár Frag 3/3).