Draupnir [drjúpa; Eng. drip; Germ. traufen; Dan. dryppe]. Odin’s ring. It was put on Belder’r funeral-pile. Skirner offered it to Gerd. Draupner.
Drómi. One of the fetters by which the Fenris-wolf was fettered. Drome.
Duneyrr, Duraprór. Harts that gnaw the branches of Ygdrasil. Duneyr; Durathror.
Durinn. The dwarf, second in degree. Durin.
Dvalinn. A dwarf. Dvalin.
Dvergr [Anglo-Sax. dweorg; Eng. dwarf; Germ. zwerg; Swed. dwerg]. A dwarf. In modern Icelandic lore dwarfs disappear, but remain in local names, as Dverga-steinn (compare the Dwarfie Stone in Scott’s Pirate), and in several words and phrases. From the belief that dwarfs lived in rocks an echo is called dwerg-mál (dwarf-talk), and dwerg-mála means to echo. The dwarfs were skilled in metal-working.
E
Edda. The word means a great-grandmother. The name usually applied to the mythological collection of poems discovered by Brynjolf Sveinsson in the year 1643. He, led by a fanciful and erroneous suggestion, gave to the book which he found the name Sæmundar Edda, Edda of Sæmund. This is the so-called Elder Edda. Then there is the Younger Edda, a name applied to a work written by Snorre Sturleson, and containing old mythological lore and the old artificial rules for verse-making. The ancients applied the name Edda only to this work of Snorre. The Elder Edda was never so called. And it is also uncertain whether Snorre himself knew his work by the name Edda. In the Rigsmál (Lay of Rig) Edda is the progenitrix of the race of thralls.
Egðir. An eagle that appears at Ragnarok. Egder.
Egill. The father of Thjalfe; a giant dwelling near the sea. Thor left his goats with him on his way to the giant Hymer. Egil.