TheFoxsCloak

Originally Posted by MoonCell

Originally Posted by OnesFleetingGlory

After browsing around, Surtr is depicted with "bright sword" in Poetic Edda, but some illustrations about him have "flaming sword" as the title. It has no name, and Laevateinn is actually attributed to Loki, and Laegjarn is the chest that contains it. Maybe why the technique's full name is Loptr Laegjarn, with Loptr being Loki's alternate name.

Which brings up the question why Surtr's sword is called Laevateinn.

The first mention of Laevateinn being Surtr's sword I could find is from a 1904 book written by Swedish scholar Henrik Schuck. The path towards this is the following: the Voluspa describes Surtr like this:

Sutr ferr sunnan (Surtr comes from the south)
með sviga lævi: (with the destroyer of branches: )
skinn af sverði (there shines from his sword)
sól valtiva. (The sun of the gods of the slain)

The bolded part means "destroyer of branches" and is a kenning for fire. The following part, "there shines from his sword the sun of the Gods of the Slain", is noted by Snorri Sturluson in the Prose Edda as his source for describing Surtr with a loganda sverð (flaming sword). Then, in 1904, Henrik Schuck interpreted that sviga laevi, the destroyer of branches, is not a kenning for fire, but the name of the sword, making laevi=laeva and identifying it as Laevateinn.

Also, in the poem Fjölsvinnsmál, the primary source for Laevateinn, it is described as being inside either an iron box or Laegjarn's (Loki's) box, guarded by Sinmara, Surtr's wife.