Vsp. St. 9 "ginnheilög" -> "gin-holy"

[jgnewman]

When I first saw this in st. 6, I thought "gin-holy" was somehow a reference to the alcohol called gin. My brain immediately accepted it for "alu" reasons, but then here in st. 9 I suddenly realized the etymology doesn't work. For that reason, I recommend finding a way to handle ginn other than porting it directly to English. Cleasby has this:

GINN-, or perhaps better gínn-, [cp. A.S. gin or ginn = vast, wide; it seems however better to derive it from the verb beginnan, Engl. begin, a word used in all Teutonic languages, except the old Scandinavian tongue, where it is unknown, unless in this mythological prefix] :-- only used as a prefix: I. in old mythol. words, great, holy: ginn-heilög (adj. pl.) goð, the most holy gods, the supreme gods, as opposed to Asir and Vanir, the lower gods, Vsp. passim: ginn-regin, n. pl. 'magna numina,' Hm. 143, Haustl. 13, in the same sense as ginnheilög goð in Vsp.; in Hým. 4 opp. to tívar (dii); in Alm. goð and ginnregin are distinguished, cp. also Hm. 79: ginnungar, m. pl., seems used in the same sense as ginnregin, whence Ginnunga-gap, n. chaos, the formless void, in which abode the supreme powers, before the creation, Edda, Vsp.: later, in the 11th century, the sea between Greenland and America was called Ginnunga-gap, A.A. 295: Ginnunga-himin, m. of the heavenly vault of Ginnunga-gap, Edda 5: Ginnunga-vé, n. pl. the holy places of the Ginnungar, the universe, Haustl. 15: Ginnarr (Ginnir), m., is a name of Odin, prop. = aetherius, and also used of the eagle, the falcon. II. in an intensive sense only in poets; ginn-viti, a, m. a large fire, Sighvat; perhaps also we may read, Vkv. 5, ginn-fasti, a, m. a great fire in a smithy, for gim fasti.

This makes me suspect that ginn was originally related to the West Germanic meaning and was only rigidly preserved as an archaism in O.N. poetic structures. If so, I wonder if the real meaning here ought to be something like an origin point or genesis of the cosmos. In other words ginnungagap could be the gap serving as the beginning of all things and the ginnheilög goð might be the holy creators, those who began things. What do you think?

Sidenote:
Your footnote "I think that the poem simply telling of" is missing the word "is".