a distance of four or five miles

(gen. rastar, pl. rastir), f. a strong current in the sea, race.

(gen. rastar, pl. rastir), f. a distance of four or five miles.

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f., gen. rastar, pl. rastir, qs. vröst (?); [cp. reistr, rist; Engl. race; Norm. Fr. raz]:—a current, stream in the sea, such as the Pentland Firth; nú ef maðr hittir hval á röstum út, Gþl. 464; sigldu þeir í röst norðr fyrir Straumneskinum, … féll um sjórinn ok því næst vellti … hann lagðisk út í röstina, Fms. ix. 320; ok er þeir sigldu yfir Petlands-fjörð, var uppi röst mikil í firðinum, x. 145; vestr í röstum, Orkn. 154 (in a verse): in local names, Látra-röst in western Iceland. rasta-fullr, adj. full of currents, Sks. 223.

f., gen. rastar, pl. rastir, [different from the preceding; Ulf. rasta = μίλιον, Matth. v. 41; A. S. and Engl. rest; O. H. G. rasta; Germ. rast]:—prop. rest, but used only in the metaph. sense of a mile, i. e. the distance between two ‘resting-places,’ or ‘baiting’ points: distances on land were counted by rasts, on sea by vika, which seem to have been of equal length, thus in the old Swed. law, rost at landi, vika at vatni, Schlyter. The ancient Scandinavian rast seems to have answered to the modern geographical mile, which agrees with the Latin mille only in name, its actual distance being that of the rast, not the Roman mille passus. The distances were not measured, but roughly guessed, and varied (like the Swiss stunde) according to the nature of the ground traversed, the rasts through mountains or deserts being shorter than those in an inhabited district; hence such phrases as, þat eru langar tvær rastir, it is two long rasts, Fms. ix. 393; þeir sóttu svá hart þessa eyðimörk, at skammar vóru þá þrettán rastir eptir, thirteen short rasts, viii. 33: the following instances may serve, in Norway the distance from Oslo (the present Christiania) to Eidsvold was counted at eight ‘rasts,’ ix. 376; by Captain Gerhard Munthe’s military map of Norway of A. D. 1827, the distance from Christiania to Eidsvold is about eight geographical miles; þeir fórusk svá nær at eigi var lengra til en röst, 371; þeir ríða síðan útta rastir … þrjár vikur eptir vötnum, 376; riðu þeir nökkura hálfa röst, 523; þat var eina nótt, at eigi var lengra milli náttstaða þeirra en röst, viii. 63; rastar langr, ix. 394, 402; rastar-djúpr, Hým.: of the old forests, Eiða-skógr er tólf rasta langr, Fms. ix. 354; skógr tólf rasta langr, … þann skóg er áttján rasta var yfir, viii. 30, 31; sá skógr er Tvíviðr heitir, hann er tólf rasta breiðr, Rb. 332; fjögurra rasta ok tuttugu, Gullþ. 52:—six ‘rasts’ done afoot in one night is recorded as something extraordinary, Ólafi kom njósnin um kveldit, en þeir gengu um nóttina sex rastir ok þótti mönnum þat furðu-mikit farit, þeir kómu á Ryðjökul um óttu-söng, Fms. vii. 317; átta röstum, Þkv.: an immense distance is given at ‘a hundred rasts,’ hundrað rasta á hverjan veg, Vþm. (Edda 41); hundrað rasta heyrði smell, Skíða R. 150: heim-röst, a homestead; út-röst, the outskirt.