Other Definitions
nr (enc)
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NrNr (Old Norse Nrr) or Nori is firstly a merchantile title and secondly a Norse boy name. It is in Norse sources stated that Nr is the founder of Norway (i.e. 'Nr's way' or Norge, 'Nr's kingdom') from which the land supposedly got its name. Some have proposed, althought very speculative, that the story about the two brothers Nr and Gr in Old Norse legends represents a racial contrast and hints how the country were peopled by two ancestors, Nr and Gr. Chronicon Lethrense The Chronicle of Lejre (Chronicon Lethrense) written about 1170 introduces a primeval King Ypper of Uppsala whose three sons were Dan who afterwards ruled Denmark, Nori who afterwards ruled Norway, and sten who afterwards ruled the Swedes. But the account then speaks only of the descendants of Dan. Icelandic accounts Sources Parallel but not quite identical accounts of Nr the eponym of Norway appear in Fundinn Noregr ('Norway Found'), hereafter called F, which begins the Orkneyinga saga, and in Hversu Noregr byggdist ('How Norway was Settled'), hereafter called B, both found in the Flatey Book. About Thorri King Thorri (orri 'fozen snow'), king of Gtaland, Finland, and Kvenland in B, was son of Snr ('Snow') the Old, a descendant of Fornjt (ruler of Finland and Kvenland in F). See Snr and Fornjt for further information. Both accounts state that great sacrifice was made yearly at mid-winter, either offered by Thorri (F) or offered by the Kvens to Thorri (B), whence was derived both the name of the mid-winter sacrifice and the name of the winter month Thorri corresponding to late January and early February in the Roman calendar.. Thorri was father of two sons named Nr and Gr (Grr) and a daughter named Gi ('thin snow, track-snow'). The story of Nr One year, at the time of Thorri's Sacrifice, Gi the daughter of King Thorri suddenly vanished. Thorri held a second feast the following month hoping to learn what had become of Gi. That sacrifice was afterward also observed regularly and known as Gi's Sacrifice and the name of the month was thence named Gi. When Gi was still not found after three years, her brothers Nr and Gr set out separately in search of her with many folk in their following, Nr and his folk going by land on skies while Gr went by ship and searched the islands and skerries. Eventually Nr and his following came to the Kjlen Mountains (the Keel) and passed into was later to be called Norway, defeating any who opposed him. F relates in paricular that Nr defeated the folk around what as later called the Trondheim fjrd, that Nr also took possession of the eastern lands near Lake Mjors (modern Lake Mjsen), then slew King Sokni, the eponym of Sokna Dale (modern Sogndal) and Sognefjrd (modern Sognefjorden) and took possession of his kingdom. But B mentions instead the defeat of four kings named Vi, Vei, Hunding (Hundingr), and Heming(Hemingr). Then, in Heidemark (approximately the modern region of Hedemarken in the more extensive province of Hedmark), Nr met with King Hrlf of the Hill (Hrlfr Bergr). Hrlf was son of the giant Svadi (Svai) from Dovre Mountain in the north. According to B Hrlf's mother was shild (shildr) daughter of King Eystein of Heidemark. It was this Hrlf who had taken Gi captive and had then made her his wife. Nr and Hrlf came to terms (after a long single combat according to F). Hrlf kept Gi as his wife and Nr aftewards married Hrlf's sister (called Hdd in B) and became Nr's man. Both accounts relate that Gr eventually joined Nr and the two brothers made an agreement that Nr would rule all the mainland but Gr would rule all islands around the mainland, that he would be lord over any island that was separated from the mainland by a channel through which a ship with a fixed rudder was able to pass. The mainland was then named Norway (Noregr) after Nr. Nr's new kingdom is now said to have been what is south-eastern Norway today, as it extended from Jtunheim mountains in the north to what was later known as lfheim (roughly the modern Bahusia) in the south, the southern border of Nr's land being what is now the Glomma river whose southwestern course is not very far inside the southeastern border of modern Norway. The sons and grandsons and later descendants of Nr continually divided their inheritances among themselves so that Norway became filled with many small kingdoms and lordships. Descendants of Nr Sons of Nr According to B, Nr's sons by Hdd were Thrnd (rndr) and Gard (Garr). B later brings in another son of Nr named Raum (Raumr). Presumably either Raum had another mother than Hdd or Raum's name has accidently dropped out from the earlier listing of Hdd's sons. Thrnd Thrnd ruled Trondheim (rndheimr) which was named after him and refers approximately to Sr-Trndelag the most southern parts of Nord-Trndelag rather than to the city now called Trondheim. Eireks saga vfrla ('The Saga of Eirek the Traveller') also brings in Thrand as the first king to regin of Trondheim. Thrand's ancestry is not given here, but he is the father of Eirek the Traveller (Eirekr inn vfǫrli) the hero of the saga. Hlfdanar saga Eysteinssonar ('Saga of Halfdan Eystein's son') states instead that Trondheim was named from King Thrnd, the father of Eirek the Traveller, but also states that Thrand was son of King Sming of Hlogaland, son of Odin, and that Thrnd's mother and Sming's wife was Nauma after whom Naumu Dale was named. For more on Sming see Sons of Odin. Thrand's wife is here said to be Dagmr sister of Svanhvt the wife of Hrmund Grip's son, the protagonist of Hrmundar saga Gripssonar. The saga says that Eystein, son of Thrand and Dagmr, married sa, a daughter of Sigurd Hart (the maternal grandfather of Harald Fairhair), and she bore him Halfdan, the hero of the saga. This places Thrand just three generations back from Harald Fairhair. But this saga seems to be a late and untraditional creation, dating only to the early 14th century. Gard Gard son of Nr was also called Gard Agdi (Garr Agi), apparently as ruler of Agdir (Agir): the modern counties of Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder. Gard Agdi's descendants ruled the southwestern regions of Norway. See Gard Agdi for details. Raum the Old Raum inherited south-eastern Norway and also the northwestern valley of the Rauma river to the western sea which waters the region called Raums Dale (modern Romsdal). Raum in this account also ruled the land of lfheim to the south. See Raum the Old for further details on Raum and his descendants. Descendants of Gr Gr had sons named Heiti and Beiti (and according to B two other sons named Meitir and Geitir). Heiti and Beiti often made war against the sons of Nr. Beiti the sea-king had one of his ships put on sledge runners and so passed in the ship over the snow-covered land starting from what was afterwards called Beitstad on Beitstadfjrd from Beiti's named and passing north across Ellidid (Ellii 'Galley-neck') to Naumu Dale (Naumudal) with his father Gr in the ship with his hand on the tiller. So, by the agreement that had been made between Nr and Gr, the land between the path of the ship and the sea became Beiti's. The names of Beiti's descendants are missing from B. Heiti the sea-king was the father of Svadi (Svai). Geitir was father of Glammi and Gylfi; and Meitir the sea-king was father of two sons named Mvil and Myndil (Myndill), Myndil being father of two sons named Ekkil (Ekkill) and Skekkil (Skekkill). But F speaks only of Nr's son Heiti as the father of Sveidi (Sveii) the father of Halfdan the Old, who confusingly is named identically to Halfdan the Old who is a descendant of Nr. But it is from Halfan the Old who is called a descendant of Gr from whom springs at last the Jarls of Orkney who are the subject of the Orkneyinga saga. See Halfdan the Old to follow this lineage further. Alternative spellings Alternative Anglicizations are: Gli: Gloi ; Gr: Gorr ; Hrlf: Hrolf, Rolf ; Nr: Norr ; Forniot, Forniotr ; Hlr: Hler ; Jkul: Jokul, Ikul ; Kri: Kari ; Snr: Snaer, Snœr, Snow ; Vi: Vee.
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