cairns

Cairns, Australia, Cairns.

(-s, -ar), m.

1) mound;

2) sepulchral mound, cairn.

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m. [akin to hár, high; Dan. höj; Swed. hog; North. E. how]:—a how, mound; haugr eða hæð, Mar., Fms. ix. 382, Stj. 260; there was usually a how near the houses, from which the master could look over his estate, Þkv. 6, Skm. 11; hann gékk nú at bæ Þorleifs ok at haugi þeim er hann sat a., Fs. 98; Þorleifr var því vanr, sem mjök var fornmennis háttr, at sitja löngum úti á haugi einum ok eigi langt frá bænum, Fms. ii. 59; þar er h. nokkurr er hann er vanr at sitja, v. 160; hann sat á haugi sem konungar, Hkr. i. 136, Stjörn. Odd. ch. 5.

2. a dung-heap. midden; fjós-h., a byre-midden; ösku-h., an ash-heap; myki-h., a muck-heap; draga myki út ok færa í haug, K. Þ. K. 100, Al. 178.

II. a cairn, over one dead; the cairns belong to the burning age as well as to the later age, when the dead were placed in a ship and put in the how with a horse, hound, treasures, weapons, or the like, cp. Eg. 6, 7, 768. Hkr. (pref.), Landn. 62 (twice), 81, 82, 86, 125 (lagðr í skip), 169, Gísl. 23, 24, 31, 32, Ld. ch. 8, 24, Nj. ch. 79, Eb. ch. 9, 34, Hrafn. (fine), Hervar. 13 sqq. (1847), Fagrsk. ch. 4, 5, Hkr. (pref.), Hkr. i. 122 (Har. S. ch. 45), 152 (Hák. S. ch. 27), 160 (ch. 32), Har. Hárf. ch. 8, Skjöld. S. ch. 9: names of such cairns, Korna-haugr, Landn. 87; Hildis-h., 267; Hálfdanar-haugar, Hkr. i. 74; Tréfóts-h., Grett. 87; Melkorku-h., Mókolls-h., etc.: freq. in local names, Haugr, Haugar, Haugs-nes, Landn., Eb.; Hauga-þing, n. an assembly in Norway, Fms. viii. 245, ix. 109. There is an historical essay on Icel. cairns by old Jón Ólafsson in Arna-Magn. Additam. (autogr. MS. and interesting).

β. a kind of sacrificial mound, Edda 83 (Hölgi), Yngl. S. ch. 12, Ó. H. ch. 122; hauga né hörga, hlaða hauga ok kalla hörg, N. G. L. i. 430; blót-h., q. v.: for tales about the breaking open of cairns, wrestling with the ghosts, and carrying off their weapons and treasures, see Landn. 169, Harð. S. ch. 15, Grett. ch. 20, Sturl. i. 23, Bárð. ch. 20 new Ed.: the burying in cairns was typical of the heathen age, whence such law phrases as, frá heiðnum haugi, from heathen how, i. e. from time immemorial, D. N. passim, vide Fr.; telja langfeðr frá haugi, or til haugs ok heiðni, to count one’s forefathers up to hows and heathen times, Rétt. 48, D. N. iii. 122: in early Dan. laws unbaptized children were called höghæmen = how-men.

COMPDS: haugabrjótr, haugaeldr, haugaherr, haugaöld, brunaöld, haugsdyrr, haugsgólf, haugsgörð.

1) mark, sign, badge;

2) sepulchral monument, cairn (þau liggja bæði í kumli).

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kumbl, kubl, n. This word is chiefly interesting because of its frequent occurrence on the old Dan. and Swed. Runic stones, where it is always used in plur.; the spelling varies, kuml, kubl, or kumbl; in old Icel. writers it only occurs a few times, and they even use the sing.; it is now quite obsolete:

I. prop. a sign, badge, mark, [A. S. cumbol; Hel. cumbal and cumbl = signum], a war badge, esp. used of any heraldic emblems; yet in the Scandin. language this sense is rare,—kuml konunga ór kerum valdi, Gh. 7; kumbla-smiðr, a ‘cumbol’ smith, Akv. 24; the compd her-kuml, the badge worn on the helmet; jötun-k., the giant’s mark, i. e. the badge of being the giant’s kinsman, Fas. ii. (in a verse); and lastly in ör-kuml, a lasting scar, maiming for life, cp. kumla below.

II. in Scandinavia, analogous to the Gr. σημα, kuml came to mean ‘a monument,’ a cairn, how; in the phrase, göra kuml (kubl), synonymous to göra mark, merki, which also occurs (e. g. Baut. 138, 214, 461, 722, 1143); kuml is the general term, opp. to stain, rúnar, which are special terms; thus distinction is made between stain and kuml, Baut. 771:

1. on Runic stones,

α. on Danish stones, Tuki raisþi stain þausi ok gaurþi kubl, Rafn 213; Asfriþr görþi kumbl þaun, Thorsen 43; kubl þusi, 23; Þurnumdr niout (i. e. njót!) kubls, Th. enjoy thy kuml! rest in peace! 265; Ala sunir garþu kubl þausi aft faþur sinn, Rafn 193; siþi sá mannr es þausi kubl upp briuti, a curse be on the man that breaks this k., 205; Usk garþi kumbl þisi, 202; Haraldr kunungr baþ gaurva kubl þausi at Gurm faþur sinn, 39, (Jellinge.)

β. on Swedish stones, garþi kubl þisi aftir Svin sun sinn, Rafn 35; garþu kuml sniallir sunir Hulmlaugar, Baut. 759; ma igi brautar kubl batra varþa, a better road kuml cannot be, 41, (see the remarks under bautasteinn); Ketill risþi kuml þiasi aftir Val, 1027; Finniþr garþi kuml þaisi aftir Gairbiurn faþur sinn, 824; kuml garþi þatsi Ketil slagr, 771; Usk let gaura kuml, likhus ok bru at sun sinn, 735, 1100; þau risþu ( raised) kuml þisi, 886.

2. in Icel. a cairn; en mannföll þessi eru sögð eptir kumlum þeim er fundin eru, þar er bardagarnir hafa verit, Gullþ. 25; þar fell Þórarinn krókr, ok þeir fjórir, en sjau menn af Steinólfi, þar eru kuml þeirra, Landn. 128; þar féll Skeggbjörn ok átta menn aðrir, þar er haugr Skeggbjarnar á fitinni, en aðrir vóru jarðaðir í Landraugs-holti þar hjá fitinni, ok sér þar enn görla kumlin, Bs. (Kristni S.) i. 15; ok reimt þykkir þar síðan vera hjá kumlum þeirra, Ísl. ii. 115: in sing., þau liggja bæði í kumli í Laxárdal, Ld. 158; Þorkell vill nú bera aptr sverðit í kumlit, … saxit var ok upp tekit ór kumli Nafars, Rd. ch. 19; þá gekk hann í dalverpi lítið ok fann þar kuml manns, þar þreifaði hann niðr fyrir fætr sér, ok fann þar manns bein ok sverð eitt, Draum. 129. The worship of hows and cairns was forbidden even in the heathen age as being connected with sorcery, see haugr, hörgr, whence blætr kumbla, a worshipper of cairns, a wizard, warlock, a term of abuse, Eg. (in a verse); kumla brjótr, Korm. S., is also prob. a false reading for bljótr or blœtr.

III. in provinc. Icel. a low hayrick is called kuml; cp. also kumbaldi.

Geography: Cairns (шт. Квинсленд, Австралия)

[tho chos]

dharma cairns

[lha tho]

heaps of stone erected on mountain passes or on the tops of mountains as votive cairns

Eg. 94.; Snorri (Hkr.) constantly uses the pl. form, but bautaðarsteinn, Fagrsk. 19, and bautarsteinn, Hm. 72; m. the stone monuments of the olden age, esp. in Sweden and Denmark; the Hávamál l. c. (sjaldan bautarsteinar standa brautu nær, nema reisi niðr at nið) tells us that these stones used to be placed along the high roads, like the sepulchral monuments of old Rome; cp. the standing phrase on the Swedish-Runic stones—hér skal standa steinn ‘nær brautu;’ or, má eigi ‘brautar-kuml’ ( a road monument) betra verða; the high roads of old Sweden seem to have been lined with these monumental stones; even at the present time, after the destruction of many centuries, the Swedish-Runic stones (of the nth and 12th centuries) are counted by thousands. A great collection was made and drawings executed during the 17th century (Buræus, etc.), but only published A. D. 1750, under the name of Bautil. The etymology of this word is much contested; some render it by ‘stones of the slain’ (bauta, to slay), but this is contradicted by the passage in Hm. l. c. and by the inscriptions themselves. The bauta stones were simply monuments erected by the piety of kindred and friends without any respect to sex or manner of death, either in war, on sea, or through sickness; some were even erected to the memory of living persons. They were usually tombstones; but many of them are memorial stones for men that died in foreign lands, Greece, Russia, the British Islands, etc. Neither is Snorri right in saying (Hkr. pref.) that the bautasteinar belonged to the old burning age (brunaöld), and were replaced by the cairns (haugar) in the subsequent cairn age (haugaöld)—þá skyldi brenna alla dauða menn ok reisa eptir bautasteina, en síðan er Freyr hafði heygðr verit at Uppsölum þá görðu margir höfðingjar eigi síðr hauga en bautasteina. Svíar tóku lík hans ok var hann brendr við á þá er Skúta heitir, þar vóru settir bautasteinar hans, Hkr. Yngl. ch. 17—the passage in Hávamál and the monuments refute this statement. The great bulk of the Scandinavian bauta stones seem to be of the nth and even 12th century. In Icel. no stones of that time are on record: var hann þá her heygðr skamt frá bsenum, ok settir upp bautasteinar, þeir er enn standa her, Hkr. i. 269; hávir bautasteinar standa hjá haugi Egils ullserks, 153,—where Fagrsk. reads, í þau skip var lagðr í valrinn, ok orpnir þar haugar utan at; þar stendr ok bautaðarsteinn (= bautarsteinn in Hm.?) hár sem Egill féll, p. 19;—en eptir alla þá menn er nokkut mannsmót var at, skyldi reisa bautasteina, ok hélzt sa siðr lengi síðan, Hkr. Yngl. ch. 8. It is worth remarking that the word ‘bautasteinn’ never occurs out of Icel. literature, and there only in the above passages, viz. once in the old Hm., once in the Fagrsk., four times in the Hkr., whence it has passed over to modern writers. The word is most probably only a corruption from brautarsteinar, lapides viae, (by dropping the r); cp. the analogous Swedish word, brautarkuml, monumentum viae, which occurs in the inscriptions themselves.

m. a sacrificial mound or cairn, cp. N. G. L. i. 18; defined Fms. v. 164; about cairns of that kind among the Perms (Bjarmar), vide Fms. iv. 299, cp. also Hkr. i. 16.

1) dweller, inhabitant, esp. in compds. (bergbúi, hellisbúi, einbúi);

helvítis búar, inhabitants of hell;

himna búar, inhabitants of heaven, angels;

2) neighbour = nábúi( Steinólfr búi hans);

3) a law term, neighbour acting as juror;

kveðja búa, to summon the neighbours.

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a, m. [búa].

I. a dweller, inhabitant, only in compds as haug-búi, hellis-búi, berg-búi, a dweller in cairns, caves, rocks, of a ghost or a giant; ein-búi, an anchorite, a bachelor; himin-búi, an inhabitant of heaven, an angel; lands-búi, Lat. incola; ná-búi, a neighbour; í-búi or inn-búi, incola, Snót 71; stafn-búi, q. v.

II. a neighbour = nábúi; kom Steinn at máli við Þorbjörn búa sinn, Krók. 36; við Bárðr búi minn, Nj. 203; þau sýndu búum sínum úþokkasvip, Fs. 31; Steinólfr b. hans, Landn. 269; cp. búi-sifjar, búi-graðungr, búi-maðr (below), rare in this sense.

2. hence a law term in the Icel. Commonwealth, a neighbour acting as juror; the law distinguishes between neighbours of place and person; as, vetfangs-búar, neighbours of the place where (e. g.) a manslaughter was committed; or neighbours either of defendant or plaintiff, e. g. heimilis-búar, home-neighbours, opposed to dómstaðar-búar, Grág. ii. 405, and þingvallar-búar, neighbours of court or parliament: the number of the neighbours summoned was various; in slight cases, such as compensation for damage or the like, they were commonly five—sem búar fimm meta; in cases liable to outlawry they were usually nine, Grág. ii. 345; the verdict of the neighbour is called kviðr, the summoning kvöð, and kveðja búa, to summon neighbours; the cases esp. in the Grágás and Njála are almost numberless. The standing Icel. law phrase ‘sem búar meta’ reminds one of the English mode of fixing compensation by jury. According to Konrad Maurer, the jury is of Scandinavian origin, and first appears in English law along with the Normans after the Conquest; but this does not preclude an earlier usage in the Scandinavian parts of England. In the old Danish law they were called ‘nævnd,’ in Sweden ‘nämd;’ cp. esp. Nj. ch. 142 sqq. and Grág. Þ. Þ. and Vígslóði. The classical reference for this institution, Grág. i. 167, Kb. ch. 85, is quoted p. 58 s. v. bera B. I. 1.

COMPDS: búakviðburðr, búakviðr, búakvöð, búavirðing.

III. a pr. name of a man, Jómsv. S.; mod. Dan. ‘Boye’ or ‘Boy,’ hence the mod. Icel. Bogi, Feðga-æfi, 27.

n. hoards in cairns or tombs, Fas. ii. 368.

(-s, -ar), m. fire; taka eld, drepa (upp) eld, to strike fire: kveikja (upp) eld, to light a fire; bregða (koma, skjóta) eldi í e-t, láta (leggja) eld í e-t, to set fire to, to set on fire; e. varð lauss ok lék skjótt, a fire broke out and spread rapidly; e. hraut af sverðum þeirra, sparks of fire flew from their swords.

pp. grown old, worn by age; kvazt e. vera mjök frá úfriði, said that he was too old for fighting.

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m., gen. ellds, also spelt ellz, [a word that may be taken as a test of Scandin. races; Dan. ild; Swed. äld; for the Teut. nations use the word feuer, fire, which is wanting in Scandin., though used by old Icel. poets, who probably borrowed it from A. S.; on the other hand, Ulf. constantly renders πυρ by fon, Icel. funi, q. v.; in A. S. poetry and in Hel. äled = incendiary occurs a few times, and älan = Lat. urere (Grein and Schmeller); Rask suggests a Finn. origin]:—fire. In cold climates fire and life go together; hence the proverb, eldr er beztr með ýta sonum, ok sólar sýn, fire is best among the sons of men, and the sight of the sun, Hm. 67: in reference to the healing power of fire, eldr tekr við sóttum, fire consumes ( cures) fevers, 138; sá er eldrinn heitastr er á sjálfum brennr, Grett. 136 new Ed.: allit., e. né járn, fire nor iron, Edda 82; hvárki egg né eld, 162; eldr ( sparks of fire) hraut or sverðum þeirra, Flóv. 29; e. þótti af hrjóta er vápnin kómu saman, Sturl. iii. 187, vide Fms. i. 292, vi. 153, vii. 338 (MS. ell), viii. 74, 202, x. 29. Nj. 74, Eluc. 19, 625. 178.

β. the eruption of a volcano, Bs. i. 803, 804; jarð-eldr, ‘earth-fire,’ subterranean fire.

COMPDS: eldsbruni, eldsdaunn, eldsgangr, eldsglór, eldsgneisti, eldsgólf, eldsgögn, eldshiti, eldskveykja, eldslitr, eldslíki, eldsljós, eldslogi, eldsmatr, eldsneyti, eldsstólpi, eldsuppkváma, eldsvélar, eldsvimr, eldsvirki.

II. esp. in plur. a fire on the hearth; the proverbs, við eld skal öl drekka, by the fireside shalt thou drink ale, Hm. 82; allir eldar brenna út um síðir, all fires (beacons) burn out at last (of the death of an aged man): allit., eldr á arni (vide arinn). In the old halls in Scandinavia an oblong hearth was built in the middle of the hall, and the fires kindled were called langeldar, long fires, with an opening in the thatch called ljóri for a chimney; the benches in the hall were ranged on both sides of the langeldar, vide Edda 82 (the hall of king Adils); hence the phrase, bera öl um eld, to hand the ale round the fire, viz. to one’s cup fellow on the opposite bench, Fagrsk. ch. 219, Grett. ch. 10, new Ed. p. 23; elda-skálar vóru stórir á bæjuni, sátu menn við langelda á öptnum, þá voru borð sett fyrir menn fyrir (innan MS. Holm.), sváfu menn upp (út MS. Holm.) frá eldunum, Kristni S. ch. 2; þá vóru görvir eldar stórir eptir endilöngum skálanum, sem í þann tíma var títt, at drekka öl við eld, Bs. i. 42; cp. Orkn., eldar vóru á gólfinu, on the floor, ch. 18, where the fire seems to have been made in a pit (vide eldgróf) in the middle of the floor, cp. also kipti honum upp at pallinum, vide bakeldr: again, at the evening and morning meals people gathered round the ‘meal-fires’ (mál-eldar), hence the phrases, sitja við elda, to sit at the fire; vóru görfir máleldar hvert kveld í elda-skála sem siðr var til, sátu menn löngum við eldana áðr menn gengu til matar, Eb. ch. 52: máleldr, the ‘meal-fire’ or the small fire, is distinguished from langeldr, the great fire, 276; þat var í þann tíma er þeir Snorri sátu við málelda (yfir málborði, v. 1.), ch. 26; höfðu menn orðit vátir ok vóru görvir máleldar (langeldar, v. 1.), Nj. ch. 8; ok er skálabúinn var mettr sat hann við eld, Fs. 6; snýr at dyrum, er menn sátu við langelda ( in the evening), Korm. ch. 15; um kveldit er menn sátu við elda, Orkn. 448: the phrase, sitja milli elda, to sit between two fires, to be in a strait, vide Gm.

COMPDS: eldahús, eldaskáli, eldaskára, eldsgörð.

III. a beacon, bale-fire, Gs. 18.

IV. in old poetry the fire of wounds or of Odin = weapons, the fire of the sea = gold; hauga-eldar, magical fire in old cairns; maur-ildi, a glow-worm; hrævar-eldr, a Will o’ the wisp, ignis fatuus.

V. as a prefix to pr. names, Eld-grímr, Eld-járn, Eld-ríð, etc.: in names of places it denotes volcanic ground, Eld-borg, eld-fjall, eld-gjá, etc.

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1) glass;

háll sem gler, slippery as glass;

bresta í gleri, to break into shivers;

2) looking-glass.

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n. [A. S. glæs; Engl. glass; Germ. glass; early Dan. glar; the mod. Dan. and Swed. glas seem to be borrowed from Germ.; Icel. distinguish between gler ( glass) and glas ( a small glass bottle); but s seems to be the original consonant, and the word is akin to Glasir, glys, glæsa, q. v.]:—the word originally meant amber, ‘succinum’ quod ipsi (viz. the Germans) glaesum vocant, Tacit. Germ. ch. 45; glass beads for ornament are of early use; quantities are found in the great deposits (in cairns and fens) of the earliest Iron Age, but only in a single instance in a deposit of the Brass Age (which ends about the beginning of our era), vide Ann. for Nord. Oldk. 1868, p. 118; and such is the sense of the word in the three places that it occurs in old heathen poems: magical Runes were written on glass, Sdm. 17: metaph., nú er grjót þat at gleri orðit, now those stones are turned into gler, of an altar ‘glassed’ with sacrificial blood, Hdl, 5; cp. also the curious reading, bresta í gleri, to be shivered, to break into shivers, Hým. 29,—the reading of Kb., ‘í tvau,’ is a gloss on the obsolete phrase:— glæs also occurs twice or thrice in A. S. poetry, but not in the oldest, as Beowulf, vide Grein. For window-panes glass is of much later date, and came into use with the building of cathedrals: a Danish cathedral with glass panes is mentioned in Knytl. S. ch. 58 (year 1085); in Icel. the first panes brought into the country were probably those presented by bishop Paul to the cathedral at Skalholt in the year 1195; the ancient halls and dwellings had no windows in the walls, but were lighted by louvres and by round openings (gluggr) in the roof, covered with the caul (of a new-born calf, called skjall or líkna-belgr) stretched on a frame or a hoop and called skjár: these are still used in Icel. farms; and Icel. distinguish between the round small caul windows (skjár or skjá-gluggar) and glass windows (gler-gluggar):—háll sem gler, slippery as glass, of ice, Nj. 144: in eccl. and later writings, Hom. 127, Sks. 424, Vm. 21, Fas. iii. 393: in the saying, sjaldan brýtr gæfu-maðr gler.

COMPDS: gleraugu, glergluggr, glerhallr, glerhálka, glerhiminn, glerkaleikr, glerker, glerlampr, glerpottr, glersteinar, glertölur, Glerá.