the Elb of the Gauts

(gen. elfar, dat. and acc. elfi), f. river; esp. as prop. name in Saxelfr, the Elbe; Gautelfr or Elfr, the river Gotha (in Sweden); Raumelfr (in Norway).

* * *

f., gen. elfar, acc. dat. elfi,

1. a pr. name of the three rivers called Elbe, Lat. Albis, viz. Gaut-Elfr, the Elb of the Gauts (a Scandin. people) = the River Gotha of the present time; Sax-E., the Elb of the Saxons, the Elbe; Raum-E., the Elb of the Raums (a people in Norway), i. e. the present Glommen and Wormen, Bær. 3, Nj. 42. Fms. i. 6, ii. 128, iii. 40, iv. 121, ix. 350, 393, 401, x. 292: Elfar-bakki, the bank of one of these Elbes, Bær. 3, Fms. ix. 269, 274; Elfinar-bakki, Fms. i. 19;, of the river Ochil in Scotland, is a false reading = Ekkjals-bakki, vide Orkn. 12.

COMPDS: Elfargrímar, Elfarkvíslir, Elfarsker.

2. meton. used of any great river, (rare in Icel. but freq. in mod. Dan.)