a kirtle laced down to the hems

1) old;

2) hem of a garment; kyrtill hlaðbúinn í fald niðr, a kirtle laced down to the hems;

3) a sort of (woman’s) headgear, hood.

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m. [A. S. feald; Engl. fold; Germ. falte; O. H. G. fald; Dan. fold; Ital. falda, and faldetta (in Malta); Fr. fauvetta and faudage]:—a fold, of a garment, Str. 9, 13, l. 19, 21, where it is even spelt foldr; in Icel. hardly ever used in this sense.

β. the hem of a garment; hún gékk á bak til ok snart fald hans klæða, Luke viii. 44; og fald sinna klæða stækka þeir, Matth. xxiii. 5; og báðu hann, að þeir mætti snerta að eins fald hans fata, Mark vi. 56; kyrtill hlaðbúinn í fald niðr, a kirtle laced down to the hems, Fms. iv. 337; allt í fald niðr, Mag. (Fr.) 63; klæða-faldr, Pass. 36. 9.

II. a white linen hood, the stately national head-gear worn by ladies in Icel., of which drawings are given by Eggert Itin. pp. 24, 27, Sir Joseph Banks in Hooker’s Travels, the account of the French expedition of the year 1836 sq., and in almost all books of travels in Iceland. In old Sagas or poems the fald is chiefly recorded in Ld. ch. 33 (the dreams of Guðrún Osvifs datter), cp. Sd. ch. 25; in the Orkn. S. ch. 58 the two sisters Frakök and Helga, daughters of the Gaelic Moddan, wore a fald (þá hnyktu þar af sér faldinum, ok reyttu sik), 182. In the Rm. (a poem probably composed in the Western Isles. Orkneys) all the three women, Edda, Amma, and Móðir, wore the fald; the words in Þkv. 16, 19—ok haglega um höfuð typpum, and let us cleverly put a topping on his head, of Thor in bridal disguise—seem to refer to the fald. Bishop Bjarni, a native of the Orkneys (died A. D. 1222), gives the name of ‘fald’ to the helmet; Kormak, in the 10th century, speaks of the ‘old falda.’ In Normandy and Brittany a kind of ‘fald’ is still in use; it may be that it came to Icel. through Great Britain, and is of Breton origin; a French fald (Franseiskr, i. e. Britain?) is mentioned, D. N. iv. 359. In Icel. the fald was, up to the end of the last century, worn by every lady,—áðr sérhver fald bar frú | falleg þótti venja sú, a ditty. The ladies tried to outdo each other in wearing a tall fald; keisti faldr, the fald rose high, Rm. 26; falda hátt, Eb. (the verse); hence the sarcastic name stiku-faldr, a ‘yard-long fald;’ stífan teygja stiku-fald, Þagnarmál 53, a poem of 1728; 1 Tim. ii. 9 is in the Icel. version rendered, eigi með földum (πλέγμασι) eðr gulli eðr perlum,—since with ancient women, and in Icel. up to a late time, braiding of the hair was almost unknown. In mod. poetry, Iceland with her glaciers is represented as a woman with her fald on; minn hefir faldr fengið fjúka-ryk og kám, Eggert: the sails are called faldar mastra, hoods of the masts, faldar mastra blöktu stilt, Úlf. 3. 14; hestar hlés hvíta skóku falda trés, id., 10; faldr skýja, the folds of the clouds, poët., Núm. 1. 11; faldr af degi, of the daybreak, 4. 86; vide krók-faldr, sveigr, a crooked fald. falda-feykir, m. a magical dance in which the falds flew off the ladies’ heads, Fas. iii; cp. Percy’s Fryar and Boy, also the Wonderful Flute in Popular Tales.