SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Saga-Book of the Viking Society
testimony about the sacred grove in Uppsala, but also
because trees, probably cult trees, are clearly seen in the
Swedish Bronze Age rock carvings. Should this, I admit
rather bold, hypothesis be correct, we would have less
difficulty in understanding why gods' names are also used
as an abstract base in kennings, male gods for men,
goddesses for women. Otherwise such a usage would be
extremely hard to understand, and I am not aware that
anyone has so interpreted it, though Einar 01. Sveinsson
in one place suggests that it might be due to religious
trance (leiozla) or mystic consciousness in which men
imagined themselves to be gods.
It is a well known fact, though unexplained, that
Njor6r (28), Tyr (ro). Freyr (I6) and Baldr (I4) were most
commonly used as abstract bases for kennings, while
06inn and Parr, Heimdallr and Loki were used practically
not at all. Likewise Parr is extremely common in
Iceland as a first element in proper names while 06inn is
not. Finally the attitude towards sacred Christian
names is quite different among Protestants and Catholics.
Protestants can use Maria only as proper name for a girl,
but Catholics can use Jesu Maria for a boy! We have no
way of penetrating the meanings of these differences in
the old kenning use of gods' names, but we guess that
underlying them there must have been different religions
attitudes or tabus.
But the story of the abstract base names is not yet fully
told. Snorri tells us iSkaldskaparmal, chapter 40) that
instead of gods' names you could use elves' names (tilfa
nofn) and that such a usage would be quite correct. But
if you used the names of giants or trolls, you would be
aiming at intentional satire or calumny in your poetry.
Such usage was not unknown in the skaldic poetry and
grew increasingly common in the rimur in describing the
villain of the story. One such description, which lingers
in the memory of every Icelander, even our Nobel-prize-
I O
ro In his 'Drottkvreoa pattur", see note 5 above.