GLOSSARY TO THE PROSE EDDA. BY THE EDITOR. WISHING to render this work as complete as possible, we undertook the laborious task of searching for the etymologies of all the proper names (upwards of 400) that occur in the Prose Edda. We intended at first to have copied the etymologies given in the Glossaries to the Poetical Edda, but we soon found that in numerous instances they could not be relied on, were in fact merely conjectural. We had, therefore, recourse to that truly admirable work, the "Deutsche Mythologie," in which Jacob Grimm has shown, as he had previously done in his Deutsche Grammatik, such a profound knowledge of the Teutonic languages, that he may be safely followed as an unerring guide in such inquiries. Grimm, however, had not occasion to mention above half of the words whose etymology we were in search of; we therefore consulted, for the remaining ones, the Glossaries of the Poetical Eddat, as well as Finn Magnusen's Lexicon Mythologicum, and his Eddalæren, and several glossaries appended to the editions of various Sagas, making our selection, however, with due precaution, omitting from forty to fifty names, the derivations given of which appeared to us to be quite undeserving of attention, and qualifying those of several others, regarded by the learned editors of the Edda as undoubted, with the words perhaps and probably, words which cannot be too frequently made use of, when etymology is not founded on scientific principles. Conjectural etymology, that is to say, etymology grounded on mere similarity of sound, or of orthography, was formerly quite in vogue, and is in fact still indulged in by several of our own writers, as well as by Finn Magnusen, to a degree which often borders on the ludicrous. The philologists of the German school have however done away with this futile method; and at the pre "Deutsche Mythologie von Jacob Grimm," German, or more properly speaking, Teutonic Mythology by Jacob Grinim, is the simple title of this excellent work ;-we have made use of the second edition, published at Göttingen in 1844. The edition published by the Arni-Magnæan Commission, (see page 363,) of which Finn Magnusen's "Lexicon Mythologicum in vetusta septentrionalium carmina quæ in Edda Sæmundina continentur," fills nearly the whole of the third volume. "Eddalæren og dens Oprindelse," 4 vols. 12mo, Copenh. 1825. sent day, when a Grimm and a Bopp wish to show that words are cognate, they trace them through all their grammatical variations, in order to arrive at their radical affinities. This of course presupposes an intimate knowledge of languages, of the principles that regulate the permutation of consonants and vowels, of analogical glossology in a word, which few possess and which can only be acquired by years of intense study. Derivations established in this manner may be regarded as demonstrated facts; all others either as more or less plausible conjectures, or as amusing instances of learned aberration. It may not be irrelevant here to say a few words respecting the orthography we have adopted for the proper names that occur in this work. As it was our intention to give the correct orthography of these names in the following Glossary, we purposely abstained from accenting the vowels in several of them, and in most instances substituted d for . Not wishing to depart too much from established usage, we also retained the common orthography of names, such as Odin, Thor, &c., which have long been familiar to the public, taking care, however, to avoid falling into the error of giving the Danish terminations in e and er (as Loke, Brage, Diser, Niflunger, for instance), instead of the Old Norse in i, ir, and ar (Loki, Bragi, Dísir, Niflúngar). We also omitted, as a matter of course, the final which is frequently found in Norse proper names, this being merely the sign of the nominative case sing. masculine, (Rask's second declension,) and as Leif, for instance, is pronounced the same, whether written Leif or Leifr, and as the latter would only be strictly correct when in the nominative case, the r, when such words are used in English, or any other language than Old Norse, is superfluous. In order that the reader may form some idea of the Old Norse language in this respect, we give the declension of the masculine noun, brandr, (a brand, either a firebrand, or poetically a sword,) and the feminine noun, strönd, strand, shore. SINGULAR. Nom. brandr strönd Gen. brands strandar PLURAL. brandar strandir. As Scandinavian words may not be familiar to the generality of our readers, it will be necessary to say something respecting their pronunciation. Were we, however, to attempt to give the correct pronunciation of all the words that occur in this Glossary, we should have to write a treatise on the orthoepy of the Teutonic languages. We shall therefore merely lay down a few general rules, which will enable the English reader to pronounce most of * Or, more properly speaking, retained the d-this letter having been replaced by only in editions of recent date. these words, if not quite accurately, at least in a manner that would render them intelligible, and which will, at the same time, show that cognate words frequently differ more in orthography than in pronunciation. We may remark as a general rule-there being of course no rule without its exceptions that the reader will not greatly err by pronouncing the vowels in all the Indo-European languages-we might indeed say in almost every civilized language, except our own †, as follows: In some languages the long vowels are accented, as they ought to be in all. It will be more difficult to give rules for the pronunciation of sounds that are foreign to the English language; discarding, however, nice distinctions which can only be acquired by the ear, we may remark that the Old Norse and the Anglo-Saxon y, the German ü, and the French a have much the same sound. Thus the Old Norse and the Ang.-Sax. word fýr, fire, would be pronounced much in the same manner as the German word für, for, and the French word fur in the phrase à fur et mesure, or more correctly, au fur et à mesure; and the Norse dýr, an animal, like the first syllable of the Gerariman dür-re, aridity, and the French dure, hard, solid. The Norse and Ang. Sax. y, however, gradually lost this sound, and acquired that of i. The reader may therefore pronounce the y in words from these languages either as the French u, or as i; when short y, as i in bill, when long ý, as ee in peel. The French u, for instance, would form an exception. It has long been remarked that our orthography stands in need of a thorough revision. It were indeed "a consummation devoutly to be wished" that a congress could be held, not to determine the fate of dynasties nor the partition of kingdoms, but, under the superintendence of some learned German philologist, to devise a uniform standard orthography for all the Teutonic languages. The task would in fact be far less difficult than might be supposed; our own language would, no doubt, be found the most refractory to deal with, and would probably demand and obtain an exemption from some of the laws that might be framed for the better regulation of its cousins. There are certain shades in the pronunciation of the Norse a, c, the Ang.Sax. a and the German, Swedish and Danish ä, which we will not attempt to indicate. Rask observes that the Ang.-Sax. seems to have repre At all sented a peculiar, simple, and very open sound, approaching to a." events the reader must avoid pronouncing œ and ä, like we (most barbarously) pronounce the œ in the word Cæsart. The a in paper would be the nearest equivalent. For the sound of ö we have no equivalent in our language. To these general rules we subjoin a few observations respecting the pronunciation of certain letters in the Old Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and German languages. OLD NORSE. ó, has a broad sound, much broader than the o in fore. á, has a peculiar sound, something between au in aurora and oa in broad. Rask makes it equivalent to the Italian au in the word aura; hence hár, hair, would be pronounced haur with a clear a. The reader, however, will not be far from the true pronunciation by giving the Old Norse á the Swedish &, and the Danish aa, the sound of oa in broad, or that of a in warm. au, has much the same sound as ou in house. ei, something like ei in weight, never like the German ei. ey, approaches the German eu, that is to say, has a broader sound than that of the English word eye-is pronounced, in fact, much in the same manner as the pronoun I in several of our provincial dialects-in the North Staffordshire dialect for instance. j, invariably like y in yard. g, invariably its pure sound, as g either in go or in give, never as g in gem, gentle. s, always hard, as ss in Miss. z, (which is a mere etymological sign,) as s. th, (which we have substituted for þ,) always hard, as in think. D, , always soft, as th in this, father, bathe. In his Anglo-Saxon Gram., page 9. + In this reforming age, when rotten boroughs, and corn laws, and divi divi have gone to the wall, it is to be hoped that ere long we may be induced to abandon our most barbarous pronunciation of the Latin vowels, owing to which any of the ancient Roman worthies, if they might quit the Elysian fields and visit our universities, would be as much puzzled as learned foreigners are, to understand the congratulatory Latin discourses addressed to them. In his "Vejledning til det oldnordiske Sprog," Copenh. 1832. c and q, as k. ANGLO-SAXON. p, (for which we have substituted th,) as in Old Norse. , as in Old Norse. When it is between sound of y in yard. g, always its pure sound, either as in go or in give. two of the letters æ, e, i, y, it has, however, the Thus brægen, brains, is pronounced bræyen. According to Rask *, e was used before a and o, and i before e and u, to mark the same sound. Thus Eorl, Earl, was pronounced like the Old Norse Jarl, viz. Yarl, Yorl. Eótaland, Old Norse Jótland, Jutland, as Yótaland; iett as yet, of which it has the signification.—The Ang.-Sax. iett and the English yet, would therefore only differ in orthography. In respect to the peculiar sounds in this language, besides those already mentioned, we may remark that ch, should never be pronounced like ch in cheese, nor as k-but in variably as an aspirated k or kh, like the Greek x. g, has always its pure sound, either as in go or give. ei, has the same sound as the English word eye, or as the pronoun I. ai, a somewhat broader sound, or one in which the a is heard. eu, a still broader sound, for which we have no equivalent, except in our provincial dialects. au, as ou in house-the English word house and the German haus having the same sound and signification. ie, as ee in peel-viel, many, for instance, being pronounced like the English word feel, and the name of the celebrated Liebig, Leebig. The Germans, instead of accenting their long vowels, generally lengthen them by adding h, thus ih, eh, ah, oh, uh, are equivalent to the long i, e, a, o, u, and have the sounds indicated in the above table of vowels. Anglo-Saxon Gram., pages 10 and 11. N N |