(d) Ynglingatal (Ynglingasaga, ch. 20). Of King Dygve, who died from disease, it is said that jódis Narva (jódis Nara) chose him. The right to choose those who die from disease belongs to the norns alone (see No. 69). Jódis, a word doubtless produced by a vowel change from the Old Germanic idis, has already in olden times been interpreted partly as horse-dis (from jór, horse), partly as the dis of one's kin (from jod, child, offspring). In this case the skald has taken advantage of both significations. He calls the death-dis ulfs ok Narva jódis, the wolf's horse-dis, Narve's kin-dis. In regard to the former signification, it should be remembered that the wolf is horse for all giantesses, the honoured norns not excepted. Cp. grey norna as a paraphrase for wolf.
Thus what our mythic records tell us about Narve is:
(a) He is one of the oldest beings of theogony, older than the upper part of the world constructed by Bur's sons.
(b) He is of giant descent.
(c) He is father of Nat, father-in-law of Nagelfar, Onar, and of Delling, the elf of the rosy dawn; and he is the father of Dag's mother, of Unnr, and of the goddess Jord, who becomes Odin's wife and Thor's mother. Bonds of kinship thus connect him with the Asas and with gods of other ranks.
(d) He is near akin to the dis of fate and death, Urd and her sisters. The word nipt, with which Urd's relation to him is indicated, may mean sister, daughter, and sister's daughter, and consequently does not state which particular one of these it is. It seems upon the whole to have been applied well-nigh exclusively in regard to mythic persons, and particularly in regard to Urd and her sisters (cp. above: Njörva nipt, nipt Nara, nipt Nera), so that it almost acquired the meaning of dis or norn. This is evident from Skaldskaparmal, ch. 75: Nornir heita thær er naud skapa; Nipt ok Dis nú eru taldar, and from the expression Heil Nótt ok Nipt in the above-cited strophe from Sigrdrifumal. There is every reason for assuming that the Nipt, which is here used as a proper noun, in this sense means the dis of fate and as an appellation of kinship, a kinswoman of Nat. The common interpretation of heil Nótt ok Nipt is "hail Nat and her daughter," and by her daughter is then meant the goddess Jord; but this interpretation is, as Bugge has shown, less probable, for the goddess Jord immediately below gets her special greeting in the words: heil sia in fiolnyta Fold! ("hail the bounteous earth!")
(e) As the father of Nat, living in Mimer's realm, and kinsman of Urd, who with Mimer divides the dominion over the lower world, Narve is himself a being of the lower world, and the oldest subterranean being; the first one who inhabited Jotunheim.
(f) He presided over the subterranean fountain of wisdom and inspiration, that is to say, Mimer's fountain.
(g) He was Odin's friend and the binder of Odin's foes.
(h) He died and left his fountain as a heritage to his descendants.