valr

Old Norse

FWOTD – 24 December 2013

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *walaz (corpse, body, battlefield). Cognate with Old English wæl, Old Saxon wal, Old High German wal. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welh₃- (wound, injure).

Pronunciation

  • (12th century Icelandic) IPA(key): /ˈwɑlr̩/

Noun

valr m (genitive vals)

  1. (uncountable, in the singular) the dead, slain in battle
    • Sögubrot af Fornkonungum 8, in 1829, C. C. Rafn, Fornaldar sögur Nordrlanda, Volume I. Copenhagen, page 380:
      [] ok allan þann val, sem fellr á þeima velli, gef ek Óðni.
      [] and all those slain, who fell at that field, I give unto Odin.
Declension
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Norwegian: val m

Etymology 2

Probably a contracted form of *valhaukr (carrion-hawk), from valr (the slain) + haukr (hawk).

Noun

valr m (genitive vals, plural valir)

  1. falcon, hawk
    • Grágás, in 1829, J. F. W. Schlegel, Hin forna lögbok islendinga sem nefnist Gragas, Volume II. Copenhagen, page 346:
      Vali scal eigi veiþa oc alptir oc gæs oc andir; []
      It is forbidden to hunt neither falcons nor swans nor geese nor ducks; []
Declension
Derived terms
Descendants

References

  • valr in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • valr in An Icelandic-English Dictionary, R. Cleasby and G. Vigfússon, Clarendon Press, 1874, at Internet Archive.
  • valr in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, G. T. Zoëga, Clarendon Press, 1910, at Internet Archive.
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