Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We apologise for any delays responding to customers while we resolve this. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
I. Sága, the Name of a Goddess. Jacob Grimm, in his Mythologie (ii, 759), interpreted the name Sága as a personification of the appellative saga ‘history, story.‘ This interpretation has now been rightly rejected because the long radical vowel a in the proper name Sága is attested by its occurrence in skaldic verse. I question, however, whether this difference in the quantity of the radical vowel in these two forms warrants the conclusion that they are not etymologically related.
1 Cf. George S. Lane, “Labiovelars before 
in Germanic,” JEGP., xxxv (1936), 25.
2 Cf. Loki's accusation against 
in Lokasenna 36,2-3:
“With thy sister thou didst beget such a son, and that is no worse than what we might expect.” Here ónu<*vónu (dat. form of *vín) clearly implies ‘expectancy’ of evil things.
3 The form Kvásir (with long vowel a) often occurs in the textual readings, but the short vowel is metrically assured by its use in skaldic poetry (cf. F. Jónsson, Lex. Poet. 1, p. 348b, s.v.).
4 Cf. Walde-Pokorny, i, 696.
5 The *ss is here simplified to single s after a long vowel.
6 Cf. Falk and Torp, Norwegisch-Dänisches Eiymologisches Wörterbuch, i, 603, Kvase 1 and 2.
7 Cf. Falk and Torp, loc. cit., Kvase 2.
8 It is possible that there existed as substantive *kvas ‘fluid (pressed out)'; cf. Dano-Norw. kvas ‘twigs (cut off)’ from an IE base *
, *guos-, *gus- (see Falk and Torp, i, 568, Kost 1). The Swed. word kvass (name of a strong drink) is borrowed from Russian kvas ‘sour dough’ and has nothing to do with Gmc *kvass- ‘crush’ (see Hellquist, Svensk etym. ordbok 2, i, 534a, s.v.).
9 Unless we accept Hugo Pipping's interpretation (Studier i nordisk filologi, xvi, No. 2 [Helsingfors, 1925], 31 f.) that 
represents a Swed. loan word 
=“den som har makten över taket,” as a designation for the ‘World Pillar’ (= Yggdrasels askr).
10 Cf. OE 
‘The War Beards.’ The name 
, denoting an individual, can hardly be equated with a tribal name or with proper names in -skegg ‘beard,’ denoting an individual from a certain locality, such as Mostrar-skegg. I find no examples of 
in which this element can be interpreted simply as an individual (such as 
in compounds).
11 Cf. the historical Langobards, who wore long beards.
12 Cf. the proper name 
(Hárb. 20,3), which may represent either sense 1 or sense 2.
13 Cf. 
‘Long Beard’ (=
ii, 19), which occurs also as a kenning for ‘sword’ (pul. iv).
14 For IE *oid- and its relation to ON eit-r:eist-a see Walde-Pokorny, i, 166, oid-; Falk-Torp, i, 185, Eiste.
15 Cf. 
, name for a goat (Grimn. 25, 1), which corresponds to OHG Chaide-runa as the name for a woman. 
describes the nature of the goat (cf. Gering, i, 197), just as Ulf- in Ulf-rún describes the nature of the wolf (i.e., ‘wolf-ish, greedy‘) ; cf. Ylgr as the name of a river in Grimn. 28,4.
16 Gering obviously believes that *loptr represents a phonetically correct “old” form for lyptr, as must be inferred from his statement “gebildet wie ortr zu yrkja,” and not an analogical re-forming of lyptr to *loptr after the pattern of ortr, which would be just as impossible.
17 Cf. the name Bleik, Bugge's emendation for the MS. reading 
38,3.
18 Cf. Reichborn-Kjennerud, “Dvergnavnet Mópsognir,” Maal og Minne (1931), pp. 116-117; and Nils Lid, “Siech und Seuche,” Norsk tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, vii (1934), 172-173.
19 Cf. Finnur Jónsson, Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie 2, i, 187-196.
20 “Tors palads, egl. der undgår (skirnir til skirr[ask]) at svigte, styrte sammen, uforgængelig stærk….”
21 In Grimn, 17,3-4, it is explicitly stated that Viparr was in his abode (Vipi) and was still a “youth” (
) when he decided to avenge his father:
of 
af mars baki
.“And there [in Vipi] the youth declares from the steed's back that he has the courage to avenge his father.”
22 As reflecting the kolbitr-type, Vip-arr, to be sure, differed ‘widely’ (=‘greatly‘) in character from the other gods, but there is no evidence that the adjective víp-r was ever used in this figurative, derived sense. Furthermore, such a figurative sense is contrary to the principle of name-giving for mythical creatures, since they belonged to the primitive, physical world.
