Embla
Old Norse Dictionary - embla
Meaning of Old Norse word "embla"
As defined by the Cleasby & Vigfusson Old Norse to English dictionary:
- embla
- (in Ub. spelt Emla), u, f. a mythol. word, which only occurs in Vsp. 17; and hence in Edda (where it is said that the gods found two lifeless trees, the askr (ash) and the embla; of the ash they made man, of the embla woman), it is a question what kind of tree the embla was; some suggest a metathesis, qs. emla from ahnr, elm, but the compound emblu-askr, in one of Egil’s poems, seems to shew that the embla was in some way related to the ash.
Possible runic inscription in Younger Futhark:ᛁᛘᛒᛚᛅ
Younger Futhark runes were used from 8th to 12th centuries in Scandinavia and their overseas settlements
Abbreviations used:
- f.
- feminine.
- l.
- line.
- mythol.
- mythology, mythologically.
- qs.
- quasi.
Works & Authors cited:
- Edda
- Edda. (C. I.)
- Ub.
- Uppsala-bók. (C. I.)
- Vsp.
- Völuspá. (A. I.)