Þul Øxna 4III/3 — humbla ‘humbla’
Kýr heitir skirja, kvíga ok frenja
ok Auðhumbla; hon es œzt kúa.
Kýr heitir skirja, kvíga ok frenja ok Auðhumbla; hon es œzt kúa.
A cow is called young cow, heifer and lower and Auðhumbla; she is the noblest of cows.
readings
[3] ‑humbla: ‑umbla Tˣ, C, A, ‘‑kumla’ B
notes
[3] Auðhumbla: Or Auðhumla. In Gylf (SnE 2005, 11), this is the name of the mythical cow whose milk feeds Ymir, the primeval giant. The name may mean ‘wealthy hornless cow’, from auðr m. ‘wealth’ (here most likely implying that this cow had plenty of milk) and ‑humla f. derived from the adj. *humala-, humula-, cf. ModEngl. humble ‘hornless’ (AEW: Auðhumla, Auðumla, Auðhumbla; Noreen 1918, 169-72; Olsen 1938b, 71). Alternatively, the second element may be the same word as humla f. ‘hop’, a plant used during beer-brewing (Toporova and Uspensky 1999, 132-3). This heiti is not found in poetry.