Gripla - 20.12.2018, Page 162

GRIPLA162
means ‘one who makes narrow’. In this article, it has been argued that the
meaning is rather ‘the one who saves life, lifesaver’. the interpretation is
based on comparisons with the old English word *ealdorneru, *aldorneru.
the second part of the old English compound, *-neru, is derived from a
verb that appears in old English as nerian ‘save’, with parallels elsewhere
in West Germanic and Gothic, but not in north Germanic. the mean-
ing of the Old English noun *ealdorneru is usually given as ‘life-salvation,
life’s safety, refuge, asylum’, which in a certain context can be interpreted
as ‘lifesaver’. It is concluded that aldrnari is a loanword in old Icelandic,
rather than a norse formation going back to Common Germanic. In old
Icelandic the loanword aldrnari was arguably interpreted as an agent noun
meaning ‘the one who saves life, lifesaver’. this meaning is suitable in the
context in which the word occurs in Völuspá, especially in light of Pétur
Pétursson’s reading of biblical themes in this poem. the word aldrnari is
therefore a testimony to the relationship between norsemen and anglo-
Saxons at the time when Völuspá came into being, and a further indication
of the merger of Christian and pagan ideas in the compositional history
of the poem.
B I B L I O G R A P H Y
M A N U S C R I P T S
Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, Reykjavík
GKS 2365 4to (Codex regius, Konungsbók Eddukvæða)
GKS 2367 4to (Codex regius, Konungsbók Snorra-Eddu)
Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, Institut for Nordiske Studier og Sprogvidenskab,
Københavns Universitet, København
aM 242 fol. (Codex Wormianus, ormsbók)
aM 544 4to (Hauksbók)
Universiteitsbibliotheek, Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht
traj 1374 (Codex trajectinus, trektarbók)
Uppsala Universitetsbibliotek, Uppsala
DG 11 4t0 (Codex uppsaliensis, uppsalabók Snorra-Eddu)