The Saga of Vanadís, Völva and Valkyrja

(1995, p. 63) and some others (Titchenell, 1985, p. 94) define her name as ‘thirsty for
gold or drunk of gold’.
My most often trusted, etymologist Ásgeir B. Magnússon (1989) comes to the
rescue once more and gives me the obvious meaning of Gullveig’s name, without being
aware of it himself. The gull-part has never been complicated, it means gold, it’s the –
veig part we can’t agree on. According to Ásgeir, veig has at least three or four meanings.
One is ‘power’, ‘weight’, another is ‘strong beverage’ and third is ‘thread’, ‘golden
thread’, ‘plait’; from the IE root *uei-k- ‘to bend or turn’. From this version of the word
we have the old adjective veigaðr (woven with golden threads) and the word veigarr (a
sword with a gold-threaded knot). It is also tempting for my dreaming womb to jump at
another of Ásgeir’s suggestions and relate Gullveig’s name to the Old English wæge and
Old Saxon wégi (chalice) and Old Germanic bah-weiga (bowl), all likely derived from
the IE *uei-k- above (see dream above). So from this point of view Gullveig could be ‘the
one with the golden hair’ or ‘wearing golden garments’ or she could even be ‘the golden
chalice or bowl’, i.e. the great womb or völva.
Sigurður Nordal, and the others mentioned above, seem stuck in the view of
Gullveig as a personification of the destructive power of materialism and greed,
disturbing the peace in Ásgarður, and thus causing the world’s first war. According to
them, the Æsir seem to have been innocent beings in a golden age, until this witch of the
Vanir entered the hall of Óðinn with her temptations and destructive power. Gold is
mentioned several times in Völuspá 86 , and every time it has a positive meaning to it, it is
a symbol of perfection. Why then should a woman whose name means ‘Golden one’ or
even ‘Power of gold’ or ‘Golden drink’, be seen as a negative or destructive being?
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