Talk:Gríðr

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Staff[edit]

Deleted the reference to the staff being made of rowan. In Skáldskaparmál this actually refers to a clump of rowan used by Thor to pull himself from the river Vimur (in the tale of his battle with Geirröd). Cerdic 07:35, 30 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Do not confuse grið and gríð[edit]

This article is rapidly deteriorating.

Please note that grið and gríð are different words with entirely different meanings. In An Icelandic-English Dictionary by Richard Cleasby and Guðbrandur Vigfússon you will find grið on page 214, at the bottom, continuing on page 215. At the bottom of page 215 you will also find gríð – it comes after the word gripr because in Icelandic i and í are different letters – and gríð continues on page 216. This is Vigfússon's translation of gríð:

GRÍÐ, f. frantic eagerness; í gríð, eagerly: gríðar-liga (gríðu-liga, Mag. 99, Ed.), adv. eagerly: gríðar-ligr, adj. eager.II. mythol. Gríðr, f. a giantess; (---)

Although the words grið and gríð look similar they are morphologically different, so there is no doubt that the name Gríðr derives from gríð (frantic eagerness) – not from grið. The name Gríðr occurs in several kennings, especially in kennings for ”wolf”. Hence we can deduce that Gríð's ”horse” was a wolf, or that she was leading ”a pack of wolves” (gránstóð Gríðar). But note the genitive: Gríðar. If the name had derived from grið the genitive would have been Griða, or simply Grið.

A major work on kennings is Finnur Jónsson's Lexicon Poeticum. Here is his entry gríð and Gríðr. (Remember that i and í are different letters: gríð comes after Grislupollar.) Here is his entry grið.

I don't think it was necessary to remove the section about Gríðr lending Thor her belt of power, an iron gauntlet and a stave called gríðarvǫlr. This is told in Skáldskaparmál 18, although the story was probably invented by Snorri. Rudolf Simek comments on this: ”As these objects are basically the same as those which he [Thor] – according to Snorri – already possessed, there would appear to be some confusion in Snorri's account.” (Rudolf Simek (2007), Dictionary of Northern Mythology, D.S. Brewer, headword: megingjǫrð, page 210. ISBN 978-0-85991-513-7) Simek's translation of the name Gríðr is ”greed, vehemence, violence, impetuosity”. (page 117) //Srv.rosen (talk) 14:11, 11 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The same person?[edit]

The claim that Saxo “refers to her as Grytha, the wife of the legendary king Dan I of Denmark”, is based on two assumptions: 1) that Grytha and Gríðr is the same name, and 2) that all persons with the same name are (or is) the same person.

Here is Saxo's text: Gesta Danorum, 1.1.3. Verum a Dan (ut fert antiquitas) regum nostrorum stemmata, ceu quodam derivata principio, splendido successionis ordine profluxerunt. Huic filii Humblus et Lotherus fuere, ex Grytha summae inter Theutones dignitatis matrona suscepti.

Saxo says no more than that. //Srv.rosen (talk) 13:28, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]