''Reginnaglar'' (singular ''reginnagli'') is a word occurring twice in surviving

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

writings. Its meaning is unclear but it is a compound of ''reginn'', "powers/rulers/gods/sacred" and ''naglar'', "nails". Despite its rarity, the word has occasioned quite extensive scholarly debate because it may give insight into

Old Nordic religion Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, is a branch of Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into distinct branches. It was replaced by Christianity and forgotten ...

''Glælognskviða''

The first attestation is in a rather cryptic

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech, a figuratively-phrased compound term that is used in place of a simple single-word noun. For instance, the Old English kenning () means , as does (). A kenning has two parts: a base-word (a ...

in stanza 10 of the

skaldic poem A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

''Glælognskviða'' by Þórarinn loftunga, thought to date from 1030×34. In it, Þórarinn advises King Svein Knutsson of Norway, encouraging him to pray to his predecessor,

Olaf II of Norway Saint Olaf ( – 29 July 1030), also called Olaf the Holy, Olaf II, Olaf Haraldsson, and Olaf the Stout or "Large", was List of Norwegian monarchs, King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. Son of Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold, Norway, he w ...

; the poem is among our earliest evidence for Olaf's status as a saint in Norway. One of the exhortations to Sveinn to pray runs ::þás þú rekr ::fyr reginnagla ::bóka máls ::bænir þínar which appears literally to mean 'when you perform/present your prayers in front of the sacred nail(s) 'reginnagla''of the language/speech/measure/inlaid decoration of books'. The main interpretations of the phrase 'reginnagla bóka máls' have been: # 'altar' or 'shrine' (taking the 'sacred nails of the language of books .e. Latin as a metonymy for the whole object) # 'priests' or 'St Olaf' (taking the 'sacred nail(s) of the language of books .e. Latin as a kenning either for priests generally or Olaf specifically) # 'liturgical book' (taking the 'sacred nails of the language/inlaid decoration of books' to refer to an ornamented book cover). Of these, 'Olaf' has historically been the most common and 'liturgical book', suggested by

Margaret Clunies Ross Margaret Beryl Clunies Ross (born 24 April 1942) is a medievalist who was until her retirement in 2009 the McCaughey Professor of English Language and Early English Literature and Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of S ...

, the most recent (as of 2014).

''Eyrbyggja saga''

The other attestation of ''reginnaglar'' is in the Icelandic saga '' Eyrbyggja saga'', which relates the use of reginnaglar in the construction of a temple by Þórólfur Mostrarskegg (Thorolf Most-Beard): :Thereafter Thorolf fared with fire through his land out from Staff-river in the west, and east to that river which is now called Thors-river, and settled his shipmates there. But he set up for himself a great house at Templewick which he called Templestead. There he let build a temple, and a mighty house it was. There was a door in the side-wall and nearer to one end thereof. Within the door stood the pillars of the high-seat, and nails were therein; they were called the Gods' nails. Here, the nails clearly represent some kind of metal, nail-like decorative feature of the high-seat pillars, and Clunies Ross sees it as plausible that despite the lateness of the source, it does represent a feature of pre-Christian material culture.Margaret Clunies Ross, ' ''Reginnaglar'' ', in ''News from Other Worlds/''Tíðendi ór ǫðrum heimum'': Studies in Nordic Folklore, Mythology and Culture in Honor of John F. Lindow'', ed. by Merrill Kaplan and Timothy R. Tangherlini, Wildcat Canyon Advanced Seminars Occasional Monographs, 1 (Berkeley, CA: North Pinehurst Press, 2012), pp. 3-21 (pp. 14-17); .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reginnaglar Norse mythology Old Norse Viking practices Nail (fastener)

''Glælognskviða''

''Eyrbyggja saga''

See also

References