bone carline

n. pl. the waning moon; the time before new moon; Máni stýrir göngu tungls ok ræðr nýjum ok niðum, and rules its waxing and waning.

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n. [Ulf. neiþ = φθόνος; A. S. nîð; O. H. G. nid; Germ. neid; Dan.-Swed. nid]:—contumely, Vsp. 56; segja e-m níð, Akv. 35.

2. particularly as a law term, a libel, liable to outlawry:—of a libel in verse, yrkja, kveða níð um e-n, Nj. 70; ef maðr kveðr níð um mann at lögbergi ok varðar skóggang, Grág. (Kb.) ii. 184: the classical passages in the Sagas are Hkr. O. T. ch. 36, cp. Jómsv. S. ch. 13 (Fms. xi. 42, 43), Kristni S. ch. 4, Nj. ch. 45, Bjarn. 33 (the verse). Another and even graver kind of níð was the carving a person’s likeness (tré-níð) in an obscene position on an upraised post or pole (níð-stöng), for an instance of which see Bjarn. 33; ef maðr görir níð um annan ok varðar þat fjörbaugs-garð, en þat er níð ef maðr skerr tréníð manni eðr rístr eða reisir manni níðstöng, Grág. i. 147; when the post was set up, a horse’s head was also put up, and a man’s head was carved on the pole’s end, with dire Runes and imprecations; all this is described in a lively manner in Eg. ch. 60 and Vd. ch. 34, Landn. 4. ch. 4, Rd. ch. 25. The beina-kerlinga-vísur of mod. times are no doubt a remnant of the old níðstöng;—certain stone pyramids (varða) along mountain-roads are furnished with sheeps’ legs or horses’ heads, and are called beina-kerling ( bone carline); one of the most noted is on the Kaldadal, as one passes from the north to the south of Iceland, it is even marked in the map; a passing traveller alights and scratches a ditty called beina-kerlinga-vísa (often of a scurrilous or even loose kind) on one of the bones, addressing it to the person who may next pass by; for a specimen see Bjarni 193, as also in poems of Jón Þorláksson, for there hardly was a poet who did not indulge in these poetical licences. In popular legends the devil always scratches his writing on a blighted horse’s bone.

f, thus (not Nið) in Ann. Reg., a river in Norway, whence Níðar-óss, m. the famous old town in Drontheim in Norway.