StarkSt Vík 7VIII (Gautr 15)/4 — úlfliða ‘the wrists’
Hann mældi mik mundum ok spönnum,
alla arma til úlfliða,
… …,
vaxit hári á höku niðri.
Hann mældi mik mundum ok spönnum, alla arma til úlfliða, … vaxit hári á höku niðri.
He measured me with hands and hand-breadths, all my arms to the wrists … grown with hair down on my chin.
notes
[3-4] alla arma til úlfliða ‘all my arms to the wrists’: I.e. ‘my arms from the top down to the wrists’. There may be another allusion to Starkaðr’s original six or eight arms here (see Note to Gautr 13/2 and Gautr 40 Note to [All]). — [4] úlfliða ‘the wrists’: Lit. ‘the wolf-joints’. The cpd úlfliðr ‘wolf-joint’ (cf. Arn Frag 4/3III) is explained by Snorri Sturluson in Gylf (SnE 2005, 25), doubtless basing himself on popular etymology, as derived from the story of how the gods persuaded the wolf Fenrir to be bound with the fetter Gleipnir. Týr placed his hand in the wolf’s mouth as a pledge of the gods’ good faith, but, when they later refused to release the wolf, he bit Týr’s hand off at the wrist, and that is why the wrist may be called úlfliðr. The first element in this cpd probably derives from ǫln ‘forearm’; cf. Þul á hendi l. 5 and Note.