Noregr

m., gen. Noregs; a later Noregis also occurs in Laur. S.; ‘Nurviag’ on the Jellinge stone; [mod. Norse Norge, sounded Norre]:—Norway, passim; that the word was sounded Nóregr with a long vowel is seen from rhymes in Vellekla (10th century), Nóregr, fóru; as also Nóregs, stórum, Sighvat (in a poem of 1038 A. D.); the full form Norð-vegr (with ð and w) never occurs in vernacular writers, but only in the Latinised form, Northwagia, which was used by foreign writers (North Germans and Saxons); even the v (Nor-vegr) is hardly found in good vellums, and is never sounded. The etymology of the latter part = vegr is subject to no doubt, and the former part nór is prob. from norðr, qs. the north way; yet another derivation, from nór = a sea-loch, is possible, and is supported by the pronunciation and by the shape of the country, a strip of land between sea and mountains, with many winding fjords. The popular but false etymology of the ancients is from a king Nór (Orkn. ch. 12), as Rome from Romulus:—Noregs-höfðingi, -konungr, -menn, -ríki, -veldi, the ruler, king, men, kingdom of Norway, Grág. ii. 401, Fms. vii. 293, Bs. i. 720, Sturl. ii. 55, Nj. 8, Ísl. ii. 234, passim.