2018, Volume 15, Issue 3
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Tatyana V. Toporova Speaking Names in the Eddic Skírnismál
Voprosy onomastiki, 2018, Volume 15, Issue 3, pp. 139–153 (in Russian) Received 17 January 2018 Abstract: The paper seeks to explore the internal form of the central characters’ names in the Eddic Skírnir’s Journey. Proper names mentioned in the song are regarded as relevant markers of the plot that echoes the fertility myth. The author aims to substantiate that the genre structure of the song is shaped by semantic motivations behind character names, and to prove that the same logic extends to other genres represented in the song with their linguistic and stylistic peculiarities. “Speaking” names with explicitly expressed semantic motivations are the key to an adequate interpretation of the Eddic song Skírnir’s Journey that presents Skírnir as a “shining” mediator likened to a sunbeam, contributing to the marriage of Freyr, the god of fertility and one of the Vanir, and the giantess Gerðr of the jötunns, that personifies the “fenced-in” Earth. The cult of fertility is the most archaic layer, the mythological implication of the plot of the song. The transparency of the internal form of the names, reflecting the nature of the respective characters, attests to the semantic openness typical of “nominative” texts which serve exclusively as a verbal act illustrating the creative function of naming. These names refer directly to the creation myth as their precedent; they also determine the functions of a particular genre as part of the studied Eddic song. Keywords: Old Norse language, Elder Edda, proper name, semantic motivation of the name, nominativity, mythopoetic model of the world, genre References Babire, P. (1986). Freyr and Gerdr: The Story and its Myths. In R. Simek et al. (Eds.), Sagnaskemmtun: Studies in Honour of Hermann Pálsson on his 65th birthday (pp. 19–40). Wien: Böhlau Verlag. Dronke, U. (1962). Art and Tradition in Skírnismál. In N. Davis, & C. L. Wrenn (Eds.), English and Medieval studies presented to J. R. R. Tolkien (pp. 250–268). London: Allen & Unwin. Einarsson, St. (1957). A History of Icelandic Literature. New York: The Johns Hopkins Press for or The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Klingenberg, H. (1996). For Skírnis: Brautwerbungsfahrt eines Werbungshelfers. Alvíssmál, 6, 21–62. Lönnroth, L. (1977). Skírnismál och den Fornisländska äktenskapsnormen [Skírnismál and Old Icelandic Marital Norms]. In B. C. Jacobsen et al. (Eds.), Opuscula Septentrionalia: festskrift til Ole Widding (pp. 154–178). Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzels Boghandel. Mitchell, S. A. (1983). Fǫr Skírnis as Mythological Model: frið at kaupa. Arkiv för nordisk filologi, 98, 108–122. Motz, L. (1981). Gerðr: a New Interpretation of the Lay of Skírnir. Maal og Minne, 121–136. Olsen, M. (1909). Fra gammelnorsk Myte oc Kultus [From Old Norse Myths and Cults]. Maal og Minde, 1, 17–36. Phillpotts, B. S. (1920). The Elder Edda and Ancient Scandinavian Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Polomé, E. (1982) Indo-European Culture with Special Attention to Religion. In E. Polomé (Ed.), Indo-Europeans in the Fourth and Third millennia (pp. 156–172). Ann Arbor: Karoma Press. Polomé, E. (1987). Etymology, Myth and Interpretation: Some Comments on Skírnismál. In A. M. Simon Vandenbergen (Ed.), Studies in Honour of Rene Derolez (pp. 453–465). Gent: Gent University. Reichardt, K. (1939). Die Liebesbeschwörung in For Skírnis. Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 38, 481–495. Sahlgren, J. (1928). Sagan om Frö och Gärd [Sagas about Freyr and Gerd]. Namn och bygd, 16, 1–19. Steblin-Kamenskii, M. I. (1963). Starshaia Edda [The Elder Edda]. In M. I. Steblin-Kamenskii (Ed.), Starshaia Edda. Drevneislandskie pesni o bogakh i geroiakh [The Elder Edda. Old Norse Songs About Gods and Heroes] (pp. 181–213). Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR. Steblin-Kamenskii, M. I. (1979). Drevneislandskaia literature [Old Norse Literature]. Moscow: Nauka. Steinsland, G. (1900). Pagan Myth in Confrontation with Christianity: Skírnismál and Genesis. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, 13, 316–328. Trier, J. (1942). Zaun und Mannring. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 66, 232–264. |
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