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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þul Hvala 1III/2 — hafgufa ‘sea-fumer’

Hafrhvalr, geirhvalr         ok hafgufa,
hnísa, hafstrambr         ok hnýðingar,
reyðr, reyðarkalfr         ok rauðkembingr,
búrungr, rostungr         ok blæjuhvalr.

Hafrhvalr, geirhvalr ok hafgufa, hnísa, hafstrambr ok hnýðingar, reyðr, reyðarkalfr ok rauðkembingr, búrungr, rostungr ok blæjuhvalr.

Buck-whale, minke whale and sea-fumer, porpoise, hafstrambr and long-finned pilot whales, rorqual, rorqual-calf and red-crest, sperm whale, walrus and nordcaper.

readings

[2] hafgufa: ‘h[…]fa’ B, hafgufa 744ˣ

notes

[2] hafgufa (f.) ‘sea-fumer’: This is the name of a legendary sea-monster described in Kgs (Holm-Olsen 1983, 17) as a fish of incredible size that looks more like an island than a fish (see also Larson 1917, 125; Ǫrvar-Odds saga, ch. 21, FSN II, 249). The second element of the cpd (-gufa ‘fume, steam’) refers to the foul vapour emitted by the creature (see Fritzner: hafgufa and the discussion there). Nordgaard (1920, 113-15) argues that there could be true accounts of some kind of ray, a giant manta or ‘sea-devil’, behind the fantastic image of this sea-monster (cf. ModDan. sjødjevle ‘sea-devils’ and djevlerokker ‘devil-skates’).

grammar

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