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Hagen: K vasir, 133
Vatican Mythographs and Servius’ Commentary to Vergil, I
could not fail to notice that the etymological explanations
of proper names are very often cast in a form which may
best be illustrated by the following examples:
"Iris dicta quasi £Qign (Servius ad Aen. 5, 606);
”alii Mercurium quasi Medicurium a Latinis dictum volant”
(ibid., 8, 138);
”Nam ideo Mercurius quasi medius currens appellatus” (Isi-
dor. Hispal. Etymol., lib. V III, cap. X I, 19;
”Neptunus dictus quasi nube tonans” (Mythogr. Vatic.,
I, 107);
”Solem autem dicunt quasi solum” (ibid., I, 115);
”unde Tybris quasi vßQtg dictus est, id est ab injuria” (ibid.,
I, 193).
Scores, perhaps hundreds, of such etymologies might be
given and I am, I believe, reasonably well warranted in
assuming that the Norseman who first heard or read the
story of Orion, was confronted by something like this: ”Unde
Orion dicitur quasi urina”; or, ”Orion quasi urina dictus
est”; or, ”nam Orion quasi urina appellatus est”; or, ”Orio-
nem autem dicunt quasi urinam”. Having a knowledge of
Latin which reminds us of modern classrooms he failed to
understand all the words clearly, but at any rate he pro-
bably thought he understood that the divine hero Orion,
”den die Götter aus ihrem Auswurf erschaffen hatten”, was
also called ”Quasi”. Thus, by the addition of the Norse no-
minative ending -r he obtained the name Kvasir *), which
had the great advantage of agreeing well in form with such
names as Glasir, Skrýmir, Ymir, Fáfnir, etc., and its avai-
lability as over against the name Orion must have been
immediately apparent. While the formula ”quasi... dictus
est”, or the like, occurs in connection with numerous other
names, as I have already pointed out, the fact that the name
Kvasir is associated with a story which is substantially
*) With reference to the absence of î-umlaut, cf. Noreen, Altisl. u.
altnorw. G
-r.% § 306.
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