--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Eysteinn Bjornsson"
<eysteinn@...> wrote:

>
> --- "llama_nom" wrote:
>
> > Bizarre... I keep spotting minor things, mainly erratic use of

accents and special Icelandic letters, but also some more substancial
errors, such as in the entry for 'þulr', Gothic 'þulan' -- cognate
with and having the same meanings as Icelandic 'þola' -- is
translated "lift". But I haven't seen the original, so I don't know
what it has here.

>
> This must be in the original, as it is also in the
> Icelandic version. However, there seems to be some
> vague relevance here. Consulting ÁBM, under 'þola',
> he does mention the Gothic cognate, and relates both
> to an IE root meaning "lift, bear" which also appears
> in the Latin tollere 'lift', and tolerare 'bear'.
> The semantic fields of verbs meaning "lift" and verbs
> meaning "tolerate, endure" seemingly intersect to a
> large degree. Holding something up in the air and
> keeping it there is a feat of endurance. "I can't
> bear this". In Scotland, I've heard them say "I can't
> thole it".
>
> But how this relates to the function of the "þulr"
> is anybody's guess, since Simek chooses not to explain
> his train of thought here. Maybe the þulr had to hold a
> copy of the Codex Regius aloft while he recited the
> complete Hávamál? Ouch! ;-)
>
> E.

;) Well, he would, of course, have been working within a largely
oral tradition. Here is a Danish inscription, commemorating a þulr's
son (the only one that I know of that mentions a þulr, although
several commemorate goðar, heathen priests):

kunuAlts stAin sunaR ruHalts þulaR A salHauku(m)
gunnvalds steinn sunar hróalds þular á salhaugum
gunnvalds stone son of hróaldr the þulr on hall-mounds

S-Gørlev runetype, grabite stone, Sjælland, Denmark
stone includes 2 symbols: sunwheel & suncross (swastika)
the large letters are for transitional runes on the way to the
standard viking-age Danish model(old H for non-nasal A and H)

The Gørlev-group of stones is very early viking age and loaded with
heathen references, like this one. The amount of heathen symbolism,
references and functions found in theses stones (but also in the Fyn-
group, also Denamrk) would the þulr, amonst others, had high social
position in the heathen society of the time. Most readers familiar
with Icelandic saga-literature are probably aware that a powerful
chieftain is sometimes called a goði, while they might never have
heard of a þulr, as his place was taken by the Bible in the society
of the saga-writers. Furthermore, the idea that a goði originally
was not a chieftain, but a priest, might be unfamiliar to some. Of
course, this is the case. ON goði is from Proto-N gudja (attested
from about 400AD with extra Sievers: gudija, wich matches the Gothic
term gudja, meaning the same thing. So the goði is a priest in the
Norse ethnic religion, who inherits the priesthood, called a goðorð,
from his father, etc.. His world would include technical knowledge
of the priestly type (the technique of sacrificing, prayers/formulae
and administering sacred oaths, etc.), and he would be compelled by
law, amongst others things, to admister sacrifices at the appointed
times on behalf of his folk. Now how about the þulr? Well, the name
is related to the ON verb þylja, which means to recite. In the oral
society of the Norse, the þulr would be responsible for reciting the
folk's tradition - for memorizing the tradition and reciting parts
of it at the appointed times from memory, much as the lögsögumaðr
was required to memorize and recite the folk's laws. In old Iceland,
he said the whole law over a period a 3 years, although practices
likely varied from one region to another. Likewise, the þulr would
be required to recite the folk's tradition, which would include
things like their origin-story, heroic poetry, ancestry-lists, and
of course, in the Norse tradition, Hávamál, the folk's wisdom and
philosophy from Óðinn, their high God. Now, what parts he recited
and when, I cannot say. But his job in an oral society seems clear,
especially with reference to story-telling/epic-singers in other
oral societies. Old Danish kings were crowned on a sacred stone,
where their fathers were likewise crowned. It is a Germanic practice
and of even wider province than just Germania. I suspect, but do not
know, that a þulr was originally required to make public recitation
of traditional material on a stool(HM), grave-mound, or other raised
platform of some kind. Like the lawspeaker, he could hardly have
been required to recite the folk's entire tradition at any given
time (even the idea here - complete redaction - is hopelessly modern
and manuscript-oriented). Likely, he recited parts of A and parts of
B, and then other parts of B and some of D at another time, etc.. CR
has its Hávamál-fragments in a rough order that suggests sections,
something which has caused modern literary-oriented scholarship to
imagine these fragments as belonging to different 'poems', as if we
were talking about modern, individual 'poets' instead of tradition.
The more likely reason for the sectional nature of Hávamál is that
is was not recited as a whole, but rather in sections, each with its
typical intro and contents, etc., and at different times. Individual
community members would also have known parts of, for instance, the
Hávamál by memory, a check against the sole memory of the þulr. Now,
I do imagine that moderns would have very different ideas, indead,
about the nature, and contents, of norse tradition, if we could just
go back and hear even one þulr's recitation, one time. I'm sure that
they were damn good at what they did. I'd also bet that the textual
material extant today is nothing but the shadow of the þulr. Thus,
one can understand why Óðinn is a 'þulr' in Hávamál.

Regards,
Konrad