Anon Sól 79VII/3 — dætr ‘daughters’
Hér eru þær rúnir, sem ristit hafa
Njarðar dætr níu,
Böðveig in elzta ok Kreppvör in yngsta
ok þeira systr sjau.
Hér eru þær rúnir sem níu dætr Njarðar hafa ristit, Böðveig in elzta ok Kreppvör in yngsta ok sjau systr þeira.
Here are the runes which the nine daughters of Njǫrðr have carved, Böðveig the eldest and Kreppvör the youngest and their seven sisters.
notes
[3] níu dætr Njarðar ‘Njǫrðr’s nine daughters’: The only daughter of the sea-god Njǫrðr known by name from ON myth is Freyja. Ægir, a sea-deity like Njǫrðr, is however said to have nine daughters in SnE (1998, I, 36); these are normally regarded as personifications of the waves. It is likely that Ægir and Njǫrðr have been assimilated to one another here. Björn M. Ólsen (1915, 62-3) and Njörður Njarðvík (1991, 105) suggest the daughters are the Deadly Sins, usually thought of as seven in number, but given as nine both in the Alexandreis X, ll. 32-57 (Colker 1978, 254-5) and in Alex (Unger 1848, 152-3). This fits the pagan associations of the number nine elsewhere in the poem. Falk (1914a, 52-3) and Björn M. Ólsen (1915, 61-2) assume that the daughters of Njǫrðr have carved runes on the horn of salvation; Njörður Njarðvík (1991, 105) objects to such pagan lettering on a Christian symbol, while Tate (1985, 1032-3) thinks that the runes of this st. are not carved on the hart’s horn (which would surely carry a Christian message in himna skript ‘heavenly script’), but must be some other runes.