--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Higgins" <asthiggins@...>
wrote:

>
>
> Greetings All
>
> I am working on the prologue to Snorri's Edda and came across an
> interesting line about elephants. It is when the Trojan prince Thorr
> is being described (lines 38-40) - where he is described as
>
> "Sva var hann fagr alitum er hann kom meth othrum monnum sem tha er
> fils bein er grafit i eik"
>
> Which I translate as
>
> He was so fair in appearence that he came among other people as if he
> were like the ivy of the elephant inlaid with oak (strong, towering?)

I think the comparison is rather to the more precious material, ivory,
"inlaid in oak", so that his fairness stands out clearly surrounded by
the dullness of other people. As for elephants... The word 'fíll' is
Persian in origin (from the same source as 'alfil', the Spanish name
for the bishop in chess). It appears in a number of other medieval
sources. The Orðabók Háskólans text database has this example from
Heimskringla: Elefans heitir dýr á latínu en á óra tungu fíll. Þat er
haft í orustum á útlöndum. "There is an animal called elephant in
Latin, and fíll in our language. It is used in battles in foreign
lands." Elephants are mentioned also in a few of the late legendary
sagas. A chimerical creature called a finngálkn is described in
Hjálmþés saga ok Ölvis as having the tail of either a horse or an
elephant (the prose says horse, an embedded verse says elephant).
Then there's a gigantic warrior in Sörla saga sterka who rides an
elephant into battle. In Þorleifs þáttr jarlaskálds, the word is even
used in a kenning, öldu fíl 'wave's elephant', meaning "ship". It's
quite traditional in Old Norse poetry to refer to a ship in terms of
an animal; it's just the choice of animal here that's exotic.

There's a curious incident in Yngvars saga víðförla -- a fantastical
tale of exploration at the eastern edge of the Viking world based
loosely on historical events -- in which the adventurers find natives
leading a strange creature on a rope. The animal has a wooden tower
on its back and it takes ten men to lead it, but the vikings don't
know what it is or what it ate, so they kill it. The saga is supposed
to be an early translation from a 12th century Latin original, written
in Iceland, and claims to be based (in part at least) on oral stories.
I'm guessing the saga audience would be in on the joke, and aware
what this mysterious beast was.

LN

> "fils" in Zoega is translated as elephant - does anyone know the
> origin of this word.
>
> Is there any other instance of fils being used in the eddas or sagas?
>
> Thanks, Andy
>