A heiti (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

''heiti'' ,

Modern Icelandic Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely re ...

, pl. ''heiti'' "name, appellation, designation, term") is a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...

used in

Old Norse poetry Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in Old Norse, during the period from the 8th century (see Eggjum stone) to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Most of the Old Norse poetry that survives was preserved in Iceland ...

in place of the normal word for something. For instance, Old Norse poets might use ''jór'' "steed" instead of the prosaic ''hestr'' "horse".

Kennings

In the modern sense, heiti are distinguished from

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English ...

s in that a heiti is a simple word, whereas a kenning is a circumlocution in the form of a phrase or compound word; thus ''mækir'' is a heiti for "sword" (the usual word in prose is ''sverð''), whereas ''grand hlífar'' "bane of shield" and ''ben-fúrr'' "wound-fire" are kennings for "sword". However,

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

, writing in the 13th century, understood heiti in a broader sense that could include kennings. Snorri termed simple words, poetic or otherwise, ''ókend heiti'' "unqualified terms". These he distinguished from circumlocutions, ''kend heiti'' "qualified terms" (i.e. kennings).Faulkes (1998 a), p. xxxiv.

Types

Some heiti are words not normally found outside verse, e.g. ''fírar'', one of numerous synonyms for ''menn'' "men, people". Others are common enough in prose but used by the poets in some specialised sense, such as ''salt'' "salt" to mean ''sjár'' "sea". Heiti had a variety of origins. Some were archaic words: ''jór'' "steed", some loanwords: ''sinjór'' "lord" (from Latin ''senior'', probably via

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...

''seignor''). Several kinds of

synecdoche Synecdoche ( ) is a type of metonymy: it is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something is used to refer to the whole ('' pars pro toto''), or vice versa ('' totum pro parte''). The term comes from Greek . Examples in common E ...

and

metonymy Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name ...

were employed: ''barð'' "part of the prow of a ship" for "ship" as a whole; ''gotnar'' "Goths" for "men" or "people" in general; ''targa'' "targe" (a type of shield) for "shield" in general; ''stál'' "steel" for "weapons, warfare". A few heiti were metaphorical: ''hríð'' "storm" for "attack, (onset of) battle". Some were originally proper names: ''Hrotti'', ''Laufi'', ''Mistilteinn'' and ''Tyrfingr'' were all swords owned by legendary heroes. There were also heiti for specific individuals, especially gods (e.g. ''Grímnir'', ''Fjölnir'', ''Viðrir'' and many more for

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, ...

). There were a great many heiti for certain concepts which the poets often dealt with, such as "man", "woman", "leader", and terms for weapons. Names of ''sækonungar'' "sea-kings" (legendary pirate leaders) constitute another large category. From these were formed kennings for "sea" and "ship", e.g. ''Rakna bifgrund'' "Rakni's shaking ground" = "the sea"; ''Þvinnils dýr'' "Thvinnil's beast" = "ship".

Parallels

Analogous, and in some cases

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...

terms, are found in the poetic traditions of other early Germanic languages, e.g.

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

''guma'', ''secg'': Old Norse ''gumi'', ''seggr'' "man"; Old English ''heoru'', ''mēce'': Old Norse ''hjǫrr'', ''mækir'' "sword". Many other languages, ancient and modern, have possessed a specialised poetic vocabulary more or less removed from everyday speech, often derived in similar ways to Old Norse heiti.

Notes

References

* Faulkes, Anthony (1998 a). ''Edda: Skáldskaparmál: 1. Introduction, Text and Notes''. Viking Society for Northern Research. * Faulkes, Anthony (1998 b). ''Edda: Skáldskaparmál: 2. Glossary and Index of Names''. Viking Society for Northern Research.

External links

Nafnaþulur
Lists of heiti appended to

Snorri's Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been ...

. {{Norse mythology Old Norse poetry