Kögurr

Meaning of Old Norse word "kögurr" (or kǫgurr)

As defined by the Cleasby & Vigfusson Old Norse to English dictionary:

kögurr (kǫgurr)

m., dat. kögri, pl. kögrar:—a quilt with fringe, a counterpane; hann lét göra grind um legstaðinn ok breiða yfir kögur, FmS. viii. 237; er leg hans í miðju kirkju-gólfi, ok breiddr yfir kögurr, Hkr. iii. 376, FmS. x. 128, 150: of a church inventory, kögrar þrír, Dipl. iii. 4, Pm. 34: a bed-cover, hann bjó þegar rekkju ok yfir breiddi einn kagur, Str. 45; sonr á setklæði öll, … bekk-klæði ok kögra, n. G. l. i. 211; kögur ok handklæði, Vm. 92: of dress, vaða ok væta kögur minn, Hbl. 13: the vellum has gur, but the emendation into kögur is received by Editors; and is made certain by ‘kögur-sveinn’ in the same verse; but the sense and origin of kögurr in this place have been missed by the interpreterS. It is indeed a well-known Teut. word. A. S. cocur, O. H. G. chochar. Germ. kocher, Dutch koker; the Dan. kogger is prob. borrowed from the Germ., as is the Icel. koffur from Luther’s Bible; once on a time it was also a Scandin. word, which was since displaced by the compounded örva-malr or ör-malr, q. v.; this passage being the only place where it occurs in an uncompounded form, but it remains in kögur-sveinn, a quiver-boy, who carried the hunter’s quiver (?); and in kögur-barn, Norse kogge-barn. Prof. Bergmann has, with his usual insight in Eddic matters, divined the sense when he says, p. 123, ‘über den Sund zu schwimmen und dabei seinen feurigen Donner-und blitz-keil, … im Wasser zu netzen und abzukühlen.’ The fact is, Thor is here represented carrying a quiver full of thunder-bolts on his back, and so the poet makes the mighty thunder-god stop at the Sound, embarrassed, and begging to be ferried over, as he could not wade over from fear of wetting his quiver and quenching the fire, for he must ‘keep his powder dry:’ although in Gm. and Þd. Thor is not much afraid of the water. Whether kögurr, a quilt, be any relation to kögurr, a quiver, we cannot tell, prob. not; if so, this word should be placed under a separate head; in mod. usage of fringe or fringed cloth: a nickname, Landn.; munu jarðlýsnar synir Gríms kögurs, verða mér at bana? 146: botan. the thyrsus, Hjalt.

Orthography: The Cleasby & Vigfusson book used letter ö to represent the original Old Norse vowel ǫ. Therefore, kögurr may be more accurately written as kǫgurr.

Possible runic inscription in Younger Futhark:ᚴᚢᚴᚢᚱᚱ
Younger Futhark runes were used from 8th to 12th centuries in Scandinavia and their overseas settlements