ABSTRACT
pattr (pl. paettir) in modem usage refers to short narratives in Old Norse-lcelandic. Scholars have yet to explain fully its etymology, but Germanic cognates mean “wick, loop, strand of rope,” and the latter is the primary meaning in Old Norse. Even some of the earliest attestations, however, are metaphorical, in that they use the term to refer to members of a family (e.g., Egill Skalla-Grimsson, Lausavisa, st. 24, Sonatorrek, st. 7; also the eddic Hamdismàl, st. 4). More broadly, pàttr meant simply “part of a whole,” a meaning attested in laws and through centuries of skaldic poetry and often used in literary contexts, meaning “part of a text.” Metonymy gradually extended the meaning to more or less independent parts of larger compilations, perhaps especially MSS.
