[In response to Kevin Hall's question on
'blacksmith' in Old Norse.]


Hello Kevin,

You are welcome to ask me about the meanings
of individual names. You could also try a list
I made a few years ago:

http://www.irminsul.org/arc/012ht.html

Blacksmith is 'járnsmiðr' in Old Norse.
(More archaic forms would be *éarnsmiðr
and *ísarnsmiðr.)

If you have a translation of Egill's saga
you should look at the end of 30th chapter;
it is about Skalla-Grímur the blacksmith.

It ends with this beautiful stanza about
the blacksmith's work. My translation would
be so inferior to the original that I won't
even attempt one. If you find a good translation
let me know :)

Mjök verðr ár, sás aura,
ísarns meiðr at rísa,
váðir vidda bróður
veðrseygjar skal kveðja;
gjalla lætk á golli
geisla njóts, meðan þjóta,
heitu, hrærikytjur
hreggs vindfrekar, sleggjur.

On second thought maybe I'll cc this to
the list. Someone out there could perhaps be
bothered to type in a translation of Skalla-Grímr's
exploits as a blacksmith.

The well made stanza above reminds me of an
even better one, also involving a blacksmith.

Varp úr þrætu þorpi
Þórr smiðbelgja stórra
hvápteldingum höldnum
hafra kjöts at jötni.
Hljóðgreipum tók húða
hrökkviskafls úr afli
glaðr við galdra smiðju
Geirröðr síu þeirri.

For a translation with a detailed commentary
see Eysteinn's excellent page:

http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/meter/snegla.html

A must read for blacksmiths!

Best regards,
Haukur