(monster)

n. grotesque monster, phantom.

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n., mostly only in plur. a grotesque monster, a goblin, phantom (with notion of absurdity, unreality, scurrility); stundum dreki, stundum ormr eðr önnur skaðsamlig skrípi, Fas. iii. 342; verði s. ok undr mikit, Nj. 20; skí ok s., Gsp.; þegar myrkva tók, sýndisk honum hverskyns skrípi, Grett. 115: þeir þoldu mikla skömm ok s., Stj. 436; hann var fjölkunnigr ok görði mörg s. ok undr, Bret. 14; þessu kvikendi … er þetta s. berr, glæpafull s., Gd. 3, Fas. iii. 620; ek hefi eigi séð meira s. en þú ert, 654; sel-s., a monster seal; orða-s., scurrilous language, buffoonery.

COMPDS: skrípahöfuð, skrípalát, skrípatal.

m. pl. an απ. λεγ., Vsp. 51, ‘monster-men,’ fiends; cp. A. S. fifal = monster.

1) dangerous place or situation, abyss, pit;

2) ogre, monster (þú ert et mesta forað).

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n., in pl. foruð or foröð, mod. foræði, a dangerous place, precipice, abyss, pit; allt er feigs forað, Sl.; elta e-n á forað, Grág. ii. 117, 120, 157, Bs. i. 200, Gg. 15, Gþl. 393, 411, N. G. L. i. 342, Vápn. 8, Blas. 46, Thom. 256, Fsm. 9, 40; fallanda f. ( stumbling-block) þresköldr hennar, Edda (Gl.): freq. in mod. usage, a bog, quagmire, morass, esp. in the allit. phrase, fen og foræði, fens and bogs.

β. metaph. a dangerous situation; vera í foraði, Fms. ix. 517; kom hann sér í mikit forað, 623. 15; in Post. Luke xvi. 26 is rendered by forað (N. T. djúp).

γ. a bugbear, ogre, monster; hann er et mesta forað, Edda 42; Mystus heitir forað, Pr. 472; þú ert et mesta forað, Nj. 176: cp. the saying, foruðin sjásk bezt við, cp. also the Germ. ‘ein fuchs riecht den andern,’ Orkn. 308: in COMPDS, horribly, awfully; foraðs-hár, adj. terribly tall, Fms. iii. 124. foraðs-íllr, adj. abominable, Ísl. ii. 162. foraðs-ligr, adj. awful, Thom. 256. foraðs-veðr, n. abominable weather. Sturl. ii. 50, Bjarn. 54, 56, Post. 656 B. 12.

n. an απ. λεγ. in the eccl. law of the county Víkin or Borgarþing, a coast district in the south of Norway, N. G. L. i. 339, 363, where the law orders that a monster child (i. e. an abortion, a birth without human shape) shall be brought to a place ‘forve,’ and buried where neither man nor beast comes by; þat skal á forve (forre, v. l.) fœra ok röyra ( put in a cairn) þar er hvárki gengr yfir menn né fénaðr, þat er forve (forfue, v. l.) hins ílla. In N. G. L. i. 13 it is ordered that felons (e. g. traitors, murderers, self-murderers, etc.) were not to be buried in consecrated soil, but in the ‘flood-mark where sea and green turf meet;’ cp. the curious story in Landn. 2. 19, where the Christian lady Auda ordered herself to be buried between high and low water mark (í flæðarmáli), as she would not rest in heathen earth; so, on the other hand, a monster child must not rest in Christian earth. Thus forve is probably derived from fyrva, q. v., to ebb, and denotes the flood-mark or beach in which the grave was to be dug; the concluding words, þat er forve hins ílla, probably mean this place is the forve of the evil one, i. e. an unhallowed place. The etymology given in H. E. i. 75 cannot be right.

(-s, -ar), m. magic staff; renna göndum, to ride a witch-ride.

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m.:—the exact sense of this word is somewhat dubious; it is mostly used in poetry and in compds, and denotes anything enchanted or an object used by sorcerers, almost like zauber in Germ., and hence a monster, fiend; thus the Leviathan of northern mythology is called Jörmun-gandr, the great ‘gand;’ or Storðar-gandr, the ‘gand’ of the earth: a snake or serpent is by Kormak called gandr or gandir, Korm. ch. 8: wildfire is hallar g., a worrier of halls, and selju g., a willow-worrier, Lex. Poët.: the wolf Fenrir is called Vonar-gandr, the monster of the river Von, vide Edda.

COMPDS: Gandálfr, gandfluga, gandrekr, Gandvík, gandreið.

☞ Some commentators render gandr bv wolf, others by broom; but the sense no doubt lies deeper. Gunnar Pálsson (died 1793) says that gandr is used in Icel. of the helm of a ship; but no such word is known, at least in the west of Icel.

d and að, [Lat., an eccl. word], to give the ‘prima signatio’ or ‘signaculum crucis’ a religious act, preliminary to christening; persons thus signed with the cross were catechumens, and if adults they could join in the social life among Christians; they were also admitted to a special part of the mass (primsigndra messa = the mass for the ‘prime-signed’), whereas all intercourse with heathens was forbidden. An infant who died, having received the prima signatio, but not baptism, was to be buried in the outskirts of the churchyard, where the consecrated and unconsecrated earth meet, and without burial service,—ef barn andask primsignt, ok hefir eigi verit skírt (primsignt ok hefir eigi meiri skírn, Sb. l. c.) ok skal þat grafa við kirkju-garð út, þar er mætisk vígð mold ok úvígð, ok syngva eigi legsöng yfir, K. Þ. K. (Kb.) 7. A monster-shapen infant was to receive the prima signatio, but not baptism, and then to be left to die (exposed) at the church door—þat barn (a monster-child) skal ok til kirkju bera, láta primsigna, leggja fyrir kirkju-dyr, gæti inn nánasti niðr til þess er önd er ór, N. G. L. i. 339; í þessi efan primsigni prestr ok skíri, iii. 251; hann primsignaði hann fyrst ok skírði hann síðan eptir siðvenju, Barl. 147. The words in the English Prayer Book—‘and do sign him (her) with the sign of the cross’—are remains of the ‘signaculum crucis’ of the ancient church. During the heathen age the Scandinavian merchants and warriors who served among Christians abroad in England or Germany used to take the prima signatio, for it enabled them to live both among Christians and heathens without receiving baptism and forsaking their old faith; ek em primsigndr at eins en eigi skírðr, I am ‘prime-signed,’ but not baptized, Fms. ii. 240, Valla L. 205, Kristni S. ch. 1, 2, Fb. i. 346, 357, ii. 137, 243; England var Kristið ok hafði lengi verit þá er þetta var tíðenda, Aðalsteinn konungr var vel Kristinn … hann bað Þórólf ok þá bræðr at þeir skyldi láta primsignask, þvíat þat var þá mikill siðr, bæði með kaupmönnum ok þeim er á mála gengu með Kristnum mönnum, þvíat þeir menn, er primsigndir vóru, höfðu allt samneyti við Kristna menn ok svá heiðna, en höfðu þat at átrúnaði er þeim var skapfeldast, Eg. 265, Gísl. 96: see also Vita Anscarii, ch. 24. These ‘prime-signed’ men, returning to their native land, brought with them the first notions of Christianity into the heathen Northern countries, having lived among Christians, and seen their daily life and worship, and they undoubtedly paved the way for the final acceptance of the Christian faith among their countrymen. It may even be that some strange heathen rites of the last days of paganism, such as the bjannak (q. v.), the sprinkling of infants with water, were due to this cause.

m. vile wizard; wicked sorcerer.

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older form skrati, as seen from rhymes, l atr skr ati; [akin to Swed. skratta = to laugh loud and harshly; Dan. skrade = crepare]:—a wizard, warlock; sú segir spár sínar sem völfur ok skrattar forðum, Blanda; seið-skratti (q. v.), a wizard who works charms; the Swed. skratta refers to the strange noises with which the enchanter works (seið-læti); skratta-sker, the name of a rock on which wizards were exposed to die, Fms. ii. 142; hann síðdi þar ok var kallaðr skratti, x. 378.

2. a goblin, monster; in vatna-skratti, a water-sprite, sea-monster, see Ísl. Þjóðs. i. 138, provinc. in the south of Icel. for sjó-skrímsli: a giant, ogre, Edda (Gl.); in mod. usage a devil, imp, skrattinn fór at skapa mann, a ditty; skratta-atgangr, Fas. ii. 519; skrattans- so and so, in oaths; karl-skratti, an evil churl, Háv. 38 new Ed.; kvenn-skratti, a hag, fury. skratt-hanki, a nickname, Fms. viii.

mod. skrímsli, n. [cp. Dan. skræmsel; Swed. skrämsel = scarecrow]:—a monster; s. heldr enn menn, Al. 94, Mar. 1158; kyn fiska eðr s., Sks. 74: hann ærðisk at skrímsli nökkuru, Bs. i. 170; hljópu þeir upp allir ok lutu því skrímsli, Ó. H. 109; eitt s. er menn kalla margygi, Sks. 169; Skrímslið góða, the good Beast, in the tale of Beauty and the Beast; sjó-s., a sea-monster.

adj. [af- intens.; skrámr means a giant; skrimsl, a monster; cp. Engl. to scream], hideous, monstrous; a. illvirki, a sacrilege, K. Á. 222: also spelt askramligr and askramliga, Al. 142, Hom. 155.

n. a monster, v. the following.

u, f. a ‘wallet-bearer,’ a beggar, wretch, in swearing; vándar belgberur, wretches! Nj. 142, v. 1., or a monster, v. the following word.

part. a monster child, without any trace of face, N. G. L. i. 339.

n. a dream monster, phantasm, Fas. ii. 414.

n. = eindœmi 2, something unexampled or unheard of (þat er undr ok endemi);

heyr á endemi, for shame!.

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and endimi, n. pl. an abomination, scandal, shame, esp. in exclamations; sé undr ok endemi! Niðrst. 6; ok þykir nauðsyn, at eigi verði þau e. í, Fms, xi. 27; nú era slíkt mikil e., vii. 36; heyr á endemi, hear the abomination! for shame! heyra á firn ok e., 21, ii. 14; heyr á e., segir Hallgerðr, þú gerir þik góðan, Nj. 74; vissum vér eigi vánir slíkra véla ok endema, Blas. 46; mörg e. tóku menn þá til önnur, Bs. i. 62; hér lýstr í e., segir hann, Fms. xi. 94. endemismaðr, m. a monster, Fs. 38. The etym. is doubtful, either = ein-dæmi, what is unexampled, or rather from dámr and the prefix and-; endemi is always used in a very bad sense; the passage Fms. v. 206—veiztu ef þau e. (= wonder) eru sönn, at konungrinn sé heilagr hjá okkr—is an exception and perhaps incorrect.

m. the monster wolf of heathen mythology, Edda, Vþm., Ls.

n., prop. a monstrous shape: medic. an abnormity, monster, Fas. iii. 654, Bs. ii. 33.

n. (finn-galp, Fas. iii. 473, wrongly), a fabulous monster, half man, half beast, Nj. 183, Landn. 317. v. l., Fms. v. 246: the word centaur is rendered by finngálkn, 673. 2, Rb. (1812. 17); hence finn-gálknað, part. n. a gramm. term to express incongruous metaphors and the like, cp. Horace’s ‘desinit in piscem …,’ Skálda 187, 204.