ǪrvOdd Ævdr 62VIII (Ǫrv 132)/8 — Kvillánus ‘Kvillánus’
Fleiri hefir mína fóstbræðr drepit,
Garðar ok Sírni; gekk skegg af flagði.
Var hann engum líkr at yfirliti,
ok kallaðr síðan Kvillánus blesi.
Hefir drepit fleiri fóstbræðr mína, Garðar ok Sírni; skegg gekk af flagði. Hann var engum líkr at yfirliti, ok kallaðr síðan Kvillánus blesi.
He has killed more of my foster-brothers, Garðarr and Sírnir; the beard left the ogre. He was like no one in appearance, and was afterwards called Kvillánus blesi (‘Blaze’).
notes
[8] Kvillánus blesi ‘Kvillánus blesi (“Blaze”)’: Lines 7-8 allude to the last encounter between Oddr and Ǫgmundr Eyþjófsbani, which takes place, according to the younger mss, after Oddr has returned from Bjálkaland and married King Herrauðr’s daughter Silkisif (Ǫrv 1888, 186-90). A mysterious masked king named Kvillánus has appeared in Novgorod (Hólmgarðr), whose origin nobody knows. He has mustered an enormous army and Oddr decides to challenge him to a tournament. When they meet, Kvillánus unmasks himself and Oddr recognises him as Ǫgmundr. His face had healed but Ǫgmundr had lost all hair on it, signifying how he had lost personal power. The nickname Ǫgmundr/Kvillánus is said to have acquired, blesi ‘Blaze’, indicates his hairless status, and contrasts with the nickname he used to have, flóki ‘Matted Hair’, which referred to a tuft of black hair that hung down right over his face so nothing could be seen of it except the teeth and eyes (Ǫrv 1888, 126). The cognomen blesi is attested in Ldn (see ONP: blesi). The name Kvillánus is otherwise unattested, but may possibly be connected with the noun kvilla ‘sickness’ that appears in Anon Run 3/1VI and in Anon RunIVI.