Helsingja-land

m. the barnacle or tree-goose, so called from its white collar (helsi), anas erithropus L., Edda (Gl.), Eggert Itin. 548: a nickname, Fms. iv. 314. ☞ For the popular tales of this bird see Max Müller’s Lectures, 2nd Series. Helsingjar, m. pl. the name of the people of Helsingja-land in Sweden, Ó. H.

(gen. eyrar, dat. and acc. eyri; pl. eyrar), f. sand or gravelbank, either of the banks of rivers (áreyrar, dalseyrar) or of a small point of land running into the sea, a spit.

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f., mod. eyri, gen. eyrar, dat. and acc. eyri, pl. eyrar, [aurr; Dan. öre; Swed. ör: it remains also in Scandin. local names, as Eyrar-sund, the Sound; Helsing-ör, Elsinore, qs. Helsingja-eyrr]:—a gravelly bank, either of the banks of a river (ár-eyrar, dals-cyrar) or of small tongues of land running into the sea, Fms. v. 19, Eg. 196, Nj. 85, Grág. ii. 355, N. G. L. i. 242, and passim in local names, esp. in Icel., vide Landn.: eyrar-oddi and eyrar-tangi, a, m. the point or tongue of an eyrr, Gísl. 93, Grág. ii. 354, Jb. 314, Háv. 47; Eyrar-maðr, m. a man from the place E., Sturl. iii. 11, Band. 9; Eyr-byggjar, m. pl. id., hence Eyrbyggja Saga, the history of that name, Landn., Eb., Bs. i. 409. A great meeting used to be held at Haleyr, now Copenhagen (P. A. Munch), Fær. ch. 2, hence Eyrar-floti, a, m. the fleet at Eyrar, Eg. 78. Another meeting was held in Drondheim (Niðarós) on the gravel banks of the river Nid, hence Eyrar-þing, n., Fms. vi. 24, viii. 49, ix. 91, 449, etc.

II. duels usually took place on a gravel bank or on an island, hence the phrase, ganga út á eyri, to go to fight, Ísl. ii. 256 (in a verse); mér hefir stillir stökt til eyrar, the king has challenged me to fight a duel, Hkv. Hjörv. 33.

β. in poetry used in circumlocutions of a woman, Lex. Poët.