Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

In Völuspá 26 orð is employed in the sense of an established law or judgment
among the divine powers, á gengust eiðar, orð og særi, where the treaties between the
Aesir and gods, solemnized by oaths, were broken.
When orð occurs in purely mythical sources, it is most frequently connected with
judgments pronounced in the lower world, and sent from Urd's fountain to their
destination. Urðar orð is Urd's judgment, which must come to pass (Fjölsvinnsmál 47),
no matter whether it concerns life or death. Feigðar orð, a judgment determining death,
comes to Fjolnir, and is fulfilled "where Frodi dwelt" (Ynglingatal 1). Dauða orð, the
judgment of death, awaited Dag the Wise, when he came to Vorvi (Ynglingatal 8). To a
subterranean judgment refers also the expression bana-orð, which frequently occurs.
Vigfusson (Dictionary, p. 467) points out the possibility of an etymological
connection between orð and Urður. 6 He compares word (orð) and wurdr (urðr), word
and weird (fate, goddess of fate). Doubtless there was, in the most ancient time, a
mythical idea-association between them.
These circumstances are to be remembered in connection with the interpretation
of orðstírr, orðs-tírr in Hávamál 76. The real meaning of the phrase proves to be:
reputation based on a decision, on an utterance of authority.
When orðstírr had blended into a compound word, there arose by the side of its
literal meaning another, in which the accent fell so heavily on tírr that orð is superfluous
and gives no additional meaning of a judgment on which this tírr is based. Already in
Höfuðlausn (str. 26) orðstírr is used as a compound, meaning simply honorable
reputation, honor. There is mention of a victory which Erik Blood-axe won, and it is said
that he thereby gained orðstírr (renown).
In interpreting Hávamál 76 it would therefore seem that we must choose between
the proper and figurative sense of orðstírr. The age of the Hávamál strophe is not known.
If it was from it Eyvind Skaldaspillir drew his deyr fé, deyja frændur, which he
incorporated in his drápa on Hakon the Good, who died in 960, then the Hávamál
strophe could not be composed later than the middle of the tenth century. Höfuðlausn was
composed by Egil Skallagrimsson in the year 936 or thereabout. From a chronological
point of view, there is therefore nothing to hinder our applying the less strict sense,
"honorable reputation, honor," to the passage in question.
But there are other hindrances. If with orðs-tírr the Hávamál skald meant
"honorable reputation, honor," he could not, as he has done, have added the condition
which he makes in the last line of the strophe: hveim er sér góðan getur ("of him who has
earned a good one"), for the idea "good" would then already be contained in orðstírr. If in
spite of this we would take the less strict sense, we must subtract from orðstírr the
meaning of honorable reputation, honor, and conceive the expression to mean simply
reputation in general, a meaning which the word never had. 7
We are therefore forced to the conclusion that the meaning of court-decision,
judgment, which orð has not only in Ynglingatal and Fjölsvinnsmál, but also in linguistic
6 "May there not be some etymological connection between 'word' and 'weird', Icelandic orð and urðr qs.
word, wurðr? The notion of weird, doom prevails in compounds."
7 To further complicate matters, the phrase "góðan orðtírr" appears in the Droplaugarsona Saga ch. 15
(late 13 th century), meaning "good reputation."