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synonyms, archaic words or "poetic" on other grounds.
In this category we findjold, earth (ro),juni, fire (26), barr,
seed, corn (32, d. English 'barley'),4 veig bi6rr, ale (34),
all unknown or rare outside the poetic language. The
first four (fold, juni, barr and veig) are archaisms. Bi6rr
is thought to be a loan from West Germanic (d. Eng.
'beer'), borrowed in connection with the introduction of
hops in brewing. If so, the loan may be an old one, for
one often finds bi6rr in the Edda, in V plundarkvioa and
Atlakvioa, for example, both of which are thought to be
among the oldest poems in the Edda. One can therefore
hardly describe bi6rr as "ein junges Lehnwort", as
Hermann Giintert does in connection with its occurrence
in Alvissmdl. 5 The native word, pI, was doubtless the
most common. It is possible that bi6rr signified a better
quality ale, prepared with hops, and that this - as
Giintert suggests - is the reason why the word is put into
the mouth of the gods. However, the word's relative
rarity may by itself have caused its inclusion in the
language of the gods.
Another of the simple synonyms, sunna, the gods' word
for 'sun' (r6), is of special interest. Those who have
investigated the language of Alvissmdl, like Giintert,
Finnur Jonsson and Jan de Vries, include sunna in the
group of very old Nordic-Germanic words, which were on
their way to becoming archaic at the time of the
• H. Wagner, in 'Irisches in der Edda', Eriu XX (1966), 178-82, suggests that
barr, 'corn', and ni6l, 'night', in the gods' language (strophe 32, 30), came into
Icelandic from Irish. There seems something to be said for this in the case of
ni6l, but hardly in the case of barr. The theory that barr is a loan-word rests
on two assumptions: Scand. barr means only 'needles' (of conifers), and the
meaning 'corn' is only attested in Aluissmdl, It is true that barr in the
Scandinavian languages usually only means 'needles' (of conifers). But
Aasen and Ross give a Norwegian dialect word barlog, 'malt-water, the water
grain is softened in for malt', apparently compounded with a bar(r) whose
meaning corresponds closely to that of barr in Aluissmdl. C. Vidsteen,
Ordbog. over Bygdemaalene i Sendhordland (1900), has bar n., 'all the grains in
an ear, especially of oats'. We find, moreover, from Lexicon poeticum (1931),
S.V. barr (2), that the meaning 'grain, food' is not unique in Alvissmdl (references
there to Helgakvioa Hundingsbana I, Arn6rr lJ6ri\arson, lJi6Mlfr Arn6rsson).
How to account for the origin of the two meanings of barr in West Norse is
a problem that I must leave for the present.
• H. Giintert, op, cit., 153; ct. N. von Hofsten, Eddadikternas djur ocll
vtixter (1957), 55.