assembled

1) sitting (nú varð setan löng); hvat merkir s. sjá, what means this sitting still?;

2) seat = sess( hann var hár í setunni); bjóða búum í setu, to call on the neighbours to take their seats;

3) body of men (assembled for defence); eptir þat höfðu hvárirtveggja setu, after that both kept men assembled.

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n, f. a sitting; nú varð setan löng, Fms. vii. 126: a remaining, staying, þótti þeim seta hans þar úvarlig svá nærri Ljótólfi, Sd. 182; þótti þeim seta sín íll ok úfrelsi, Ó. H. 141: hvat merkir seta sjá, what means this sitting still? Fb. ii. 122; nátt-setur, a sitting up at night, Fms. vii. 126.

2. a seat; hann var hár í setunni (= hár í sessi), Fms. viii. 447; í innstu setu, … í yztu setu, Fb. i. 416:—as a law term, bjóða búum í setu, to call on the neighbours to take their seats, Nj. 87; vóru dómendr komnir í setur sínar, Grág. i. 68; þeir menn er þar eigu setur, 5: a sitting, of a judge, seta hans er dæming um fólksins verðleik, Skálda 211.

3. a body of men assembled for defence as a garrison; seta eru sextán, sixteen make a seta, Edda 108; nú hefir Barði skipat liði sínu í setu, Ísl. ii. 355; eptir þat höfðu hvárir-tveggju setu, after that both kept men assembled, as in open hostility, Landn. 104, Gullþ. 6l; senda þeir mann til Egilstaða, at seta mikil væri at Hofi, Vápn 24; þá kom Brandr biskup vestan ok fýsti þá at hafa eigi setur. Sturl. i. 170; höfðu þeir setu fjölmenna, Grett. 120, Eb. 22, 108.

COMPDS: setuefni, setugarðr, setugrið, setuhús, setumenn, setupallr, setuprestr, seturúm.

B. seta = sæta (q. v.), a kind of bondwoman, N. G. L. i. 70.

u, f. the public, people; svá at a. vissi, Sd. 167; sagði þá allri alþýðu, told all people, Eg. 271.

β. people assembled in a body; er þat bænarstaðr minn til allrar alþýðu, all the assembled commons, Nj. 189, Fms. i. 33.

γ. í alþýðu lífi, in common life, 655 xxi. 3. With gen., a. manna = öll a., everybody, the overwhelming majority, bulk of people assembled, Eg. 193, where it is used of the household; a. manna var á brott farin, nearly all people had left, 220; a. manna gerðu (pl.) góðan róm at máli hans, the whole meeting cheered his speech, Fms. vii. 242. It is now almost solely used of the common people, allt fólk, bæði ríka menn ( wealthy) ok alþýðu, Fms. v. 113; cp. alþýðis-fólk.

COMPDS: alþýðudrykkja, alþýðuleið, alþýðulof, alþýðumaðr, alþýðumál, alþýðuskap, alþýðutal, alþýðuvápn, alþýðuvegr, alþýðuvirðing, alþýðuvitni, alþýðuþyss.

m. the bridal procession; both the procession to and from the church (first the maids and women, then the ladies, and the bride, as the chief person, last); and again, the procession of the bride and ladies from the bride’s room (brúðarhús) into the hall, where the men were assembled with the bridegroom. After grace had been said, both in the stofa, to the men, and in the bride’s-bower, to the ladies, two dishes were served; a toast, called Heilags Anda skál or Heilags Anda minni (Holy Ghost’s toast), perhaps a continuation of the heathen Bragarfull, was then given; at this signal the marshal (siðamaðr) went up to the bride’s room and summoned the brides (ladies) to come down to the stofa and join the men; this was the second procession. The bride then sat on the bride’s chair, and every one took his lady, and the feast went on in common. This custom is obsolete, but the word remains: a slow, stately walk, with an air of importance in measured steps, is called in Icel. a ‘bride’s walk,’ like that of brides on a wedding day; [cp. Germ. brautgang.]

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1) folk, people;

2) the people of a household;

3) kinsfolk;

4) host;

5) battle (poet.).

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n., prop. folk with a short vowel, cp. fylki; [A. S. folc; Engl. folk; Germ. volk: Dan. and Swed. folk]:—folk, people: skjótt fjölgaðisk fólkit, Grett. 88:— people indefinitely, til at hræða fólk, to frighten folk, Bs. i. 764: curiously Icel. say, kvenn-fólk (as in Engl.). woman-folk; but karl-fólk never, only karl-menn.

2. in Icel. chiefly the people of a household, community, or the like; kirkju-fólk, the church-folk, i. e. people assembled in church; boðs-fólk, the guests at a banquet; sóknar-fólk, the parish folk; heimilis-fólk, house-folk, the people of a household; allt fólkið á bænum, all the folk; vinnu-fólk, servant-folk; grasa-fólk, people gathering fell-moss; meðal annars fólksins, Nj. 66, v. l.; Njáll gékk inn ok mælti víð fólkit, 200; mik ok fólk mitt skortir aldri mat, Band. 13; hott, hott og hæt hér sé Guð í bæ, sælt fólkið allt, Stef. Ól.; fæddi varla búféit fólkit, Ísl. ii. 68; var eigi fólk upp staðit, Hrafn. 20; this sense is to the present day very common in Icel.; while the Germ. sense of people, nation (Dan. folket) is strange to Icel.; even lands-fólk is rare, better lands-menn.

3. kinsfolk; hans fólk ok foreldismenn, his ‘folk’ and forefathers, Stj. 139; allt yðart f., Karl. 328: so Icel. say, vera af góðu fólki kominn, to come of good folk, be well born.

II. a host = fylking, and hence battle, but only in old poets, cp. Edda 108; fjórtán fólk, fourteen divisions, troops, Hkv. 1. 49; ok í fólk um skaut, Vsp. 28; ef ek sék flein í fólki vaða, Hm. 151; þótt í fólk komi, 159; í fólk, in battle, Ýt. 10; fara með fólkum, to wage war, Gm. 48; öndvert fólk, the van of the host, Fas. i. 46 (in a verse); and in many compds: adj. a valiant man ii called fólk-bráðr, -djarfr, -eflandi, -glaðr, -harðr, -prúðr, -rakkr, -reifr, -skár, -snarr, -sterkr, -þorinn, etc.: weapons, folk-hamla, -naðra, -skíð, -svell, -vápn, -vöndr: armour, fólk-tjald, -veggr: a warrior, fólk-baldr, -mýgir, -nárungar, -rögnir, -stjóri, -stuðill, -stýrir, -valdr, -vörðr: the battle, fólk-roð, -víg, Vsp. 28: in prose rarely, and only in poët. phrases, fólk-bardagi, a, m. a great battle, battle of hosts; and fólk-orrusta, f. id., Flov. 40, Orkn. 94; fólk-land, n. = fylki, Hkr. i. 209, paraphrase from the Vellekla; fólk-vápn, n. pl. (vide above), weapons, N. G. L. i. 101: metaph., Fms. iii. 167.

(-da, -t), v. to wrestle.

f. wrestling.

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u, f. [this word occurs neither in Germ. nor in Saxon, nor yet in the mod. Scandin. tongues (of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark), and the origin is not known]:—wrestling, a favourite national sport with the Icel. people, in old as well as in modern times, answering to the Gr. πάλη: glímu-brögð, n. pl. wrestling-tricks, vide bragð II. 2: to the technical terms there mentioned, add, hnykkr, hælkrókr, sveifla, etc.: glímu-félagi, a, m. a wrestling-match, Háv. 41: glímu-færr, adj. able-bodied as a wrestler, Finnb. 328: glímu-galdr, m. a ‘wrestler-spell,’ to charm one’s legs and make them steady, Ísl. Þjóðs. i: glímu-maðr, m. a wrestler: glímumann-liga, adv. like a good wrestler, nimbly, Fas. iii. 502: glímu-völlr, m. the wrestling-ring. The earliest match recorded is that of Thor and the giantess Elli (Age),—for the tale vide Edda 33; freq. in the Sagas, Sturl. iii. 20, 268; glenz ok glímur, Fms. i. 149 sqq., 182, iii. 187, 188, Grett. and Finnb., Kjaln. passim, Eg. ch. 40; leikr ( sport) and glíma are often used synonymously, as Ld. ch. 45. The glíma was a popular game at any meeting or festival, where many young and active men met together: thus at the banquet in Reykhólar (1119) the guests amused themselves by dancing, glímur, and story-telling, Sturl. i. 23; at the parliament (alþing) there was a palaestra, Fanga-brekka (‘wrestling-brink’); in Glúm. ch. 13 a fight is recorded between the Northerners and Westerners assembled there; as also in Grett. ch. 75 (in the parliament at Hegranes); in Gunnl. ch. 11 the crew of the ships in harbour made up a glíma. The mod. Icel. bænda-glíma is just the same, as it was practiced in the college at Hólar, and later in the school at Bessastaðir, as also at fishing-stations and wherever young men came together; the young men are divided by lot into two parties, which are then drawn up in a row, each having their leader or ‘bóndi’ (whence the name); the bændr pair off their men against one another to wrestle in the arena or defile between the two ranks, one after another; if the one side was weaker in number, or the one bóndi had lost all his men, he might challenge his antagonist, and their match decided the game, Eggert Itin. ch. 518. The bænda-glíma at college and school was by far the best-played, and much stress was laid on nimble and graceful movements. ☞ In Hom. 24 scurrilitas is rendered by glíma.

m. [old Swed. lagman; the president of the supreme court formerly held in Orkney was called the lagman]:—‘law-man.’ In the ancient Scandinavian kingdoms each legal community or state (lög) had its own laws, its own parliament (lögþing), and its own ‘law-man’ (lagh-mann, lögmaðr); the lagman was the first commoner and the spokesman of the people against the king and court at public assemblies or elsewhere; he was also the guardian of the law, and the president of the legislative body and of the law courts. As in the heathen time laws were not written, the lagman had to say what was the law of the land in any case of doubt; in the general assemblies, at least in Iceland, he had to ‘say’ the law (from memory) to the assembled people from the Law-hill (Lögbergi); hence in the Icelandic Commonwealth he was called lög-sögu-maðr (q. v.), the ‘law-speaker,’ ‘law-sayer,’ ‘speaker of the law,’ and his office lög-saga or lög-sögn = ‘law-speaking:’

1. Sweden and Gothland in olden times were the classical lands of lagmen, for the whole kingdom was a confederation of commonwealths, each with its parliament, law-speaker, and laws, who were all of them united under one king; see the various records in the old Swedish laws, Sveriges Gamla Lagar, as edited by Schlyter, as also the classical account given of lagman Thorgny in Ó. H. ch. 60 sqq.—í hverri þessi deild landsins er sitt lögþing, ok sín lög, yfir hverjum lögum er lögmaðr, … þat skulu lög vera sem hann réð upp at kveða; en ef konungr, eða jarl, eða byskupar fara yfir land ok eigu þing við búendr, þá svarar lögmaðr af hendi búenda …; aðrir lögmenn allir skulu vera undir-menn þess lögmanns er á Tíunda-landi er, Ó. H. 65.

2. in Norway the political institutions of the old patriarchal ages were greatly disturbed through the wars and conquest of Harald Fairhair; the ancient laws of Norway too have been preserved in a much more fragmentary state than those of Sweden; of some of the most interesting laws only the eccl. section has been preserved, often in Icelandic transcripts or abridged. The most interesting records of the lagmen are therefore not to be found in the Norse laws, but in the Sagas, e. g. the debates in the Hák. S. Gamla, ch. 71–80, 85–97 (in the Flatey book), as also in the Þinga-þáttr in Fms. vii. 123–150, and in stray passages in the Icelandic Sagas, in such phrases as lögmenn ok konungr, lögmenn ok dómendr, lenda menn ok lögmenn ok alla alþýðu, Eg. 352.

3. in the later Middle Age in Norway, and in Icel. after 1280, the lagman was a justice, who presided in the court lögrétta, at the lögþing (II), cp. Jb. passim.

4. in the Icelandic Commonwealth, the officer whose duties have been described above was specially called lögsögumaðr, and lögmaðr is only used = lagamaðr = a lawyer,—þat er ok, at lögsögumaðr skal svá görla þáttu alla upp segja, at engi viti einna miclogi görr, en ef honum vinsk eigi fróðleikr til þess, þá skal hann eiga stefnu við fimm lögmenn (lawyers, men skilled in law), en næstu dægr áðr, eðr fleiri, Grág. i. 2, 3; þat skal allt hafa er finnsk á skr þeirri er Hafliði lét göra … en þat eitt af annarra lögmanna fyrirsögn ( of other lawyers) er eigi mæli því í gegn, 7; Njáll var lögmaðr svá mikill ( so great a lawyer), at eingi fannsk hans jafningi, Nj. 30. At the union with Norway (A. D. 1272) the lögsögu-maðr of the Commonwealth was replaced by two lagmen of the Norse kind, so that in the Sagas composed after that date (e. g. the Grettla) or in Sagas preserved in later transcripts, the terms were now and then confounded, and ‘lögmaðr’ was, by way of anachronism, used of the lögsögu-maðr of the old Commonwealth, cp. Grett. 64, 115, 173, 191 new Ed., Nj. 24, 164, 237 (v. l.), Eg. 597, Ísl. (Gunnl. S.) ii. 208, 238, 256, Bs. i. (Hungrv.) 62, Fms. iv. 115, 176, where the Ó. H. edition has the true reading, being made from a vellum of the Commonwealth time.

β. two instances are recorded referring to the 10th century in Iceland, where a lögmaðr occurs as a kind of county sheriff or officer, viz. in the Háv. S. (begin.) and the Svarfdæla S. ch. 10; but both records seem to be spurious and adapted to the state of things in Norway, for neither Saga is preserved in its pure original state, but remoulded after the union; see Maurer’s Entstehung des Isl. Staates, Beiträge, 136 sqq. In Scandinavia during the Middle Ages, as the power of the king increased, so that of the old lagman sank, and at last died away. In England it is preserved in the Speaker of the House of Commons, whose very name recalls to mind the law-speaker of the old Scandinavian communities.

II. a pr. name, Lög-maðr, Orkn.

COMPDS: lögmannsdæmi, lögmannseiðr, lögmannslauss, lögmannsúrskurðr.

m. a gathering of men, Fms. iv. 119, Ld. 76:—people assembled, Fms. viii. 64, Ísl. ii. 83, Grág. ii. 165.

1) public fold (þat var um haustit, er sauðir vóru í rétt reknir);

2) esp. pl. the general sheep-gathering in autumn (þann dag skulu vera réttir í Þórarinsdal).

1) just, exactly, precisely;

2) straight (þeir stefndu r. á þá);

3) rightly, correctly (lýsa e-u r.).

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f. (réttr, m., Bs. i. 415; cp. lögréttu, afréttu, acc. pl.):— a public fold in Icel. into which the flocks are driven in the autumn from the common mountain pastures and distributed to the owners according to the marks on the ears; the word is no doubt derived from rétta, réttr, to adjust. Germ. richten; for the sheep pen is a kind of ‘court of adjustment;’ and every district has its own ‘rétt’ at a fixed place near the mountain pastures. This meeting takes place at the middle or end of September all over the country, and this season is called Réttir. For descriptions see the Laws and the Sagas, Grág. (Kb.) ch. 13, 14. Landbr. þ. (Sb.) ch. 36–44, Eb. ch. 25, Sd. ch. 15, 17, Bjarn. 59 sqq., Gullþ. ch. 14, 16, Bs. i. 415, cp. Glúm. ch. 17, Fms. vii. 218; and for mod. description see Pilar og Stúlka (1867) 15–22. The assemblage at the rétt is a kind of county fair with athletic and other sports; eigi skolu Réttir fyrr vera en fjórar vikur lifa sumars, Grág. ii. 309; Réttir byrja, Icel. Almanack (Sept. 8, 1871); lög-rétt, Sd. 149; af-rétt or af-réttr, q. v.; réttar-garðr. Gullþ. 63, Sd. 149, Eb. 106; rétta-menn, the men assembled at a rétt, Sd. 156, Bjarn. 64 (Ed. friðmenn erroneous); rétta-víg, a fight at a rétt, Ann. 1162; þau misseri börðusk þeir at réttinum (thus masc.) suðr í Flóa, Bs. i. 415.

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1) hut, shed (put up for temporary use);

2) hall, room (cf. drykkjuskáli, eldaskáli, forskáli, kvennaskáli), esp. sleeping-hall.

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a, m. [cp. Scot. shieling; Ivar Aasen skaale = shieling]:—prop. a hut, shed, put up for temporary use; this is the earliest Norse sense, and it is still so used in Norway; þar sér enn skála-tópt þeirra ok svá hrófit, Landn. 30; skála vist at Rauðabjörgum, of a fisherman’s hut, Vm. 147; skála búi, a hut dweller = a robber, Fs.; hence, leik-skálar, play-shielings, put up when people assembled for sports; gufu-skálar, ‘steam-shieling’ a local name, of bathing-sheds (?), Landn.; fiski-skálar, fishing shielings; it also remains in local names as Skála-holt. II. a hall (höll is only used of the king’s hall), see Orkn. ch. 18, 70, 115, Gísl. 29, Dropl. 18, 28, Fms. i. 288–292, Korm. 58, Bs. i. 41, Fbr. ch. 13 new Ed, Nj. ch. 78, Gunnl. S. ch. 11; in Landn. 1. ch. 2, 2. ch. 13, the skáli is a detached building; drykkju-s., a drinking hall; svefn-s., a sleeping hall. In Grág. i. 459 distinction is made between eldhús and skáli; in the Sturl. skáli is distinguished from stofa; and it seems that the men were seated in the former, the women in the latter. At still later times, and so at present, the skáli is an apartment near the entrance, a kind of for-skáli, q. v.; til þess er sér mann ór skála-dyrum ór fjöru í Nesdal, Vm. 87.

III. compds, skála-búnaðr, the hangings of a skáli, Glúm. 325; skála-dyrr, -endi, -gluggr, -gólf, -hurð, the doors, end, window, floor, hurdle of a skali, Fms. i. 292, iii. 81, Vm. 87, Nj. 201, Landn. 154 (cp. Nj. 114), Krók. 39 C; skála-görð, -smíð, the building a skáli, Vm. 87, Fms. i. 290, Ld. 138, Rd. 245; skála-tópt, -veggr, -viðr, the quadrangle, wall, timber of a skáli, Landn. 30, 136, Ld. 252, Hrafn. 20, Nj. 282.

m. the ‘atonement-boar,’ consecrated to the sun-god Frey. The ancient sacrifice of atonement (sónar-blót) was thus performed:—the largest boar that could be found in the kingdom was on Yule-eve led before the king and his men assembled in the hall; the king and his men then laid their hands on the boar’s bristly mane and made a solemn vow, strengja heit at Braga-falli. The animal being sacrificed, divination took place, probably by chips shaken in the boar’s blood; for descriptions see Herv. S. ch. 10 (Fas. i. 531, 532), Hkv. Hjörv. (the prose), Yngl. S. ch. 21 (ganga til sónar-blóts til fréttar). The boar’s head at Yule-tide in Queen’s College, Oxlord, is probably a relic of this ancient heathen sacrificial rite.

u, f. the ‘parliament-brink,’ a law term; at all old places where parliament was held there was a ‘brink’ or high place where the law was read, speeches made, or proclamations and declarations issued to the assembled people (the Tynwald in the Isle of Man is just such a spot), this place was called the ‘thing-brink’ (at the alþing it was called the Lögberg or ‘Hill of laws’); lýsa í þingbrekku, … stefna um í þingbrekku til dóms, Grág. (Kb.) i. 99; ganga í þingbrekku ok nefna vátta, 107 hann skal til segja þrjú vór í þingbrekku, svá at meiri hlutr þing-heyjanda heyri, ii. 158; Egill Skallagrímsson gekk í þingbrekku um daginn eptir … þá stóð Egill upp ok mælti svá …, Eg. 734; þá gengr Glúmr í þingbrekku ok nefnir vátta, Glúm. 387; at þinglausnum í þingbrekku stóð Þorsteinn upp ok mælti, Þorst. Síðu H. 174; leiða í brekku, to lead to the brink or hill of laws, i. e. to proclaim; ef þræli er frelsi gefit ok er hann eigi leiddr í lög eða brekku, Grág. i. 358.

m. gathering of men, people assembled.

m. pl. the men assembled at a rétt.