january+6

* * *

1) mass; syngja messu, to chant the mass;

2) = messudagr( Jóns messa, Ólafs messa).

(að), v. to say the mass.

* * *

u, f. [eccl. Lat. missa], a mass, from the Roman Catholic times; syngja messu, to chant the mass, Bs. i. 21, K. Þ. K. 56, Hom. 137, passim, Nj. 157; messu bók, a mass book, Vm. 17, 68, Pm. 104; messu brefer, a breviary, Dipl. v. 18; messu söngr, chanting the mass, Bs. i. 823, Stj. 238, K. Á. 116, Vm. 108; messu embætti, mass service, divine service, Fms. xi. 429, Bs. i. 823; messu-föt, messu-fata-lindi, see lindi, Fms. iv. 111; messu klæði, messu skrúð or skrúði, the vestments, K. Þ. K. 56, 57, 72, 74, Fms. ii. 177, viii. 197, Bs. i. 63, 429; messu hökull, a cope, Nj. 279, B. K. 52; messu serkr or messu sloppr or stakkr, a surplice, Fms. iii. 168, B. K. 83, Vm. 29, 52; messu stóll, the. mass desk, Mar.; messu djákn, a deacon, clerk, Nj. 272, Vm. 5, Bs. i. 412, 871:—poët., odda messa, vápna messa, the weapon mass, = battle, Lex. Poët.

COMPDS: messufall, messnfært, messuhald, messumál, messuprestr, messusöngsmaðr, messuvín.

B. A mass-day, holiday, also messu-dagr, K. Þ. K. 44, 104, Bs. passim; messu-nátt, a holiday night, N. G. L. i. 343. The chief mass-days, commonly used as dates or epochs in the Sturlunga S., the Biskupa Sögur, and in similar old writers, are

1. of Norse and Icel. saints, Ólafs-messa, St. Olave’s day = the 29th of July and 3rd of August; Magnús-m., St. Magnus’ day of the Orkneys = the 16th of April and 13th of December; Hallvarðs-m., St. Halvard’s day = the 15th of May; Þorláks-m., St. Thorlac’s day of Skalholt = the 20th of July and 23rd of December; Jóns-m. (the bishop of Hólar) = the 3rd of March and 23rd of April; Eldbjargar-m. = the 7th of January.

2. other saints’ days of the Roman Catholic church, Máríu-messa = the 25th of March; Þing-Máríu-m. = the 2nd of July, i. e. ‘Thing Mary’s mass,’ for the alþing was to meet about that time; Máríu-m. (Siðari) = the 8th of September; Kross-m. = the 3rd of May and 14th of September; Lafranz-m. = the 11th of August; Bræðra-m. = the 20th of January; Pétrs-m. = the 22nd of February; Páls-m. = the 25th of January; Pétrs messa ok Páls = the 29th of June; Jakobs-m. = the 25th of July: Kyndil-m. = Candlemas; Allra-Heilagra-m. = All Souls’ day; Mikkjals-m. = Michaelmas day; Tveggja Postula-m. = the 1st of May; Seljumanna-m., the Saints’-day of Selja = the 8th of July (for the interesting record see Fms. i, headed Þáttr Albani ok Sunnifu); Kolumba-m., St. Columba’s day = the 9th of June; Sviftúns-m. = the 3rd of July; Blasius-m. = the 3rd of February; Kolnismeyja-m. = the 21st of October; Thomas-m. = the 21st of December; Egidius-m. = the 1st of September; Tiburtius-m. = the 14th of April; Bótólfs-m. = the 17th of June, etc.

3. Hlaupárs-messa, Leap-year mass = the 24th of February. These and some others are frequent in the Bs. and writers of that kind. The time about the end of June and beginning of July is in Icel. called messur (f. pl.), κατ ἐξ.; fram undir messur, til messna, and the like.

* * *

n. pl. Yule, a great midwinter feast in the heathen time, afterwards applied to Christmas.

* * *

n. pl., in rhymes, gólig, Jóla, Ó. H. (in a verse); [A. S. geôl, sometimes used of the whole month of December, whereas December is also called æra geola = fore Yule, and January æftera geola = after Yule; the plur. in Icel. perhaps refers to this double month. The origin and etymology of the word Yule is much contested, and has been treated at length by Grimm (Gesch. der Deutschen Sprache), who tries to make out a relation between the Lat. Jūlus or Jūlius and the Teut. Yule, the one being a midsummer month, the other a midwinter month; like former etymologists, he also derives the word from hjól, a wheel, as referring to the sun’s wheeling round at midwinter and midsummer time. The resemblance of the words is striking, as also the old northern celebration of the midsummer feast Jónsvaka (see below), which was in fact a kind of midsummer Yule.]

B. Yule, a great feast in the heathen time, afterwards applied to Christmas (as still in North. E.) In Icel. popular usage Yule-eve is a kind of landmark by which the year is reckoned, so that a man is as many years old as he has passed Yule nights, hafa lifað (so and so) margar Jóla-nætr; for the year counts from Yule night, whence the phrase, vera ílla or vel á ár kominn, to become well or ill in the year; thus a person born shortly before Yule is ‘ílla á ár kominn,’ for at next Yule he will be reckoned one year old, whereas one born just after it is ‘vel á ár kominn.’ The heathen Yule lasted thirteen days, whence are derived the names Þrettándi, the thirteenth = Epiphany, i. e. the 6th of January, as also the Engl. ‘Twelfth-night;’ it is however probable that the heathen feast was held a little later than the Christian (see hökunótt). The heathen Yule was a great merry-making, and tales of ghosts, ogres, and satyrs were attached to it, esp. the Jóla-sveinar or ‘Yule-lads,’ a kind of goblins or monster satyrs, thirteen in number, one to each day of the feast, sons of the kidnapping hag Grýla (q. v.), whose names were used to frighten children with, see Ísl. Þjóðs. i. 219, 220. As the night lengthens and the day shortens, the ghosts gain strength, and reach their highest at Yule time, see Grett. ch. 34–37, 67–70, Eb. ch. 34, Flóam. S. ch. 22. The day next before Yule is called atfanga-dagr (q. v.) Jóla, when stores were provided and fresh ale brewed, Jóla-öl. Passages in the Sagas referring to Yule are numerous, e.g. Hervar. S. ch. 4, Hálfd. S. Svarta ch. 8, Har. S. Hárf. ch. 16 (in a verse), Hák. S. Góða ch. 12, 15, 19, Ó. H. ch. 151, Eb. ch. 31, Landn. 3. ch. 15 (in the Hb.), Bjarn. 51 sqq., Sturl. iii. 127. As for Yule games cp. the Norse and Danish Jule-buk, Jola-geit (Ivar Aasen) = a Yule goat, Dan. Jule-leg = a Yule game.

II. in poetry a feast (generally); hugins jól, a raven’s feast, Fms. vi. 255 (in a verse), cp. Bjarn. 36.

COMPDS: Jólaaptan, Jólabál, Jólaboð, Jólabók, Jóladagr, Jóladrykkja, Jólafasta, Jólafriðr, Jólaföstubók, Jólaföstutíð, Jólagjöf, Jólagrið, Jólahald, Jólahelgi, Jólahöll, Jólakveld, Jólales, Jólamorgin, Jólanótt, Jólaskrá, Jólasveinar, Jólatíð, Jólatíðir, Jólatíðabók, Jólatungl, Jólaveizla, Jólavist, Jólaöl.

mod. dans, n. a word of for. origin; [cp. mid. Lat. dansare; Fr. danser; Ital. danzare; Engl. dance; Germ. tanz, tanzen.] This word is certainly not Teutonic, but of Roman or perhaps Breton origin: the Icel. or Scandin. have no genuine word for dancing,—leika means ‘to play’ in general: the word itself (danza, danz, etc.) never occurs in the old Sagas or poetry, though popular amusements of every kind are described there; but about the end of the 11th century, when the Sagas of the bishops (Bs.) begin, we find dance in full use, accompanied by songs which are described as loose and amorous: the classical passage is Jóns S. (A. D. 1106–1121), ch. 13. Bs. i. 165, 166, and cp. Júns S. by Gunnlaug, ch. 24. Bs. i. 237—Leikr sá var kær mönnum áðr en hinn heilagi Jón varð biskup, at kveða skyldi karlmaðr til konu í danz blautlig kvæði ok rægilig; ok kona til karlmanns mansöngs vísur; þenna leik lét hann af taka ok bannaði styrkliga; mansöngs kvæði vildi hann eigi heyra né kveða láta, en þó fékk hann því eigi af komið með öllu. Some have thought that this refers to mythical (Eddic) poetry, but without reason and against the literal sense of the passage; the heathen heroic poems were certainly never used to accompany a dance; their flow and metre are a sufficient proof of that. In the Sturl. (Hist. of the 12th and 13th century) dancing is mentioned over and over again; and danz is used of popular ballads or songs of a satirical character (as those in Percy’s ballads): flimt ( loose song) and danz are synonymous words; the Sturl. has by chance preserved two ditties (one of A. D. 1221, running thus—Loptr liggr í Eyjum, bítr lunda bein | Sæmundr er á heiðum, etr berin ein. Sturl. ii. 62, and one referring to the year 1264—Mínar eru sorgirnar þungar sem blý, Sturl. iii. 317) sufficient to shew the flow and metre, which are exactly the same as those of the mod. ballads, collected in the west of Icel. (Ögr) in the 17th century under the name of Fornkvæði, Old Songs, and now edited by Jon Sigurdsson and Svend Grundtvig. Danz and Fornkvæði are both of the same kind, and also identical with Engl. ballads, Dan. kæmpeviser. There are passages in Sturl. and B.S. referring to this subject — færðu Breiðbælingar Lopt í flimtun ok görðu um hann danza marga, ok margskonar spott annat, Sturl. ii. 57, cp. 62; Danza-Bergr, the nickname of a man (Stud, ii), prob. for composing comic songs; danza-görð, composing comic songs; fylgðar-menn Kolbeins fóru með danza-görð, … en er Brandr varð varr við flimtan þeirra, iii. 80; þá hrökti Þórðr hestinn undir sér, ok kvað danz þenna við raust, 317.

β. a wake, Arna S. ch. 2; in Sturl. i. 23; at the banquet in Reykhólar, 1119, the guests amused themselves by dancing, wrestling, and story-telling; þá var sleginn danz í stofu, ii. 117; í Viðvík var gleði mikil ok gott at vera; þat var einn Drottins dag at þar var danz mikill; kom þar til fjöldi manna; ok ríðr hann í Viðvík til danz, ok var þar at leik; ok dáðu menn mjök danz hans, iii. 258, 259; honum var kostr á boðinn hvat til gamans skyldi hafa, sögur eða danz um kveldit, 281;—the last reference refers to the 21st of January, 1258, which fell on a Sunday (or wake-day): in ballads and tales of the Middle Ages the word is freq.:—note the allit. phrase, dansinn dunar, Ísl. Þóðs. ii. 8: the phrases, stiga danz; ganga í danz; brúðir í danz, dansinn heyra; dans vill hun heyra, Fkv. ii. 7. Many of the burdens to the mod. Icel. ballads are of great beauty, and no doubt many centuries older than the ballads to which they are affixed; they refer to lost love, melancholy, merriment, etc., e. g. Blítt lætur veröldin, fölnar fögr fold | langt er síðan mitt var yndið lagt í mold, i. 74; Út ert þú við æginn blá, eg er hér á Dröngum, | kalla eg löngum, kalla eg til þin löngum; Skín á skildi Sól og sumarið fríða, | dynur í velli er drengir í burtu riða, 110; Ungan leit eg hofmann í fögrum runni, | skal eg í hljóði dilla þeim mér unm; Austan blakar laufið á þann linda, 129; Fagrar heyrða eg raddirnar við Niflunga heim; Fagrt syngr svanrinn um sumarlanga tíð, | þá mun list að leika sér mín liljan fríð, ii. 52: Einum unna eg manninum, á meðan það var, | þó hlaut eg minn harm að bera í leyndum stað, 94; Svanrinn víða. svanurinn syngr viða, 22; Utan eptir firðinum, sigla fagrar fleyr | sá er enginn glaður eptir annan þreyr, 110; Svo er mér illt og angrsamt því veldur þú, | mig langar ekki í lundinn með þá jungfrú, Espol. Ann. 1549. The earliest ballads seem to have been devoted to these subjects only; of the two earliest specimens quoted in the Sturl. (above), one is satirical, the other melancholy; the historical ballads seem to be of later growth: the bishops discountenanced the wakes and dancing (Bs. l. c., Sturl. iii), but in vain: and no more telling proof can be given of the drooping spirits of Icel. in the last century, than that dancing and wakes ceased, after having been a popular amusement for seven hundred years. Eggert Olafsson in his poems still speaks of wakes, as an eyewitness; in the west of Icel. (Vestfirðir) they lasted longer, but even there they died out about the time that Percy’s ballads were published in England. The Fornkvæði or songs are the only Icel. poetry which often dispenses with the law of alliteration, which in other cases is the light and life of Icel. poetry; vide also hofmaðr, viki-vakar, etc. In the 15th century the rímur (metrical paraphrases of romances) were used as an accompaniment to the danz, höldar danza harla snart, ef heyrist vísan mín; hence originates the name man-söngr ( maid-song), minne-sang, which forms the introduction to every ríma or rhapsody; the metre and time of the rímur are exactly those of ballads and well suited for dancing. An Icel. MS. of the 17th century, containing about seventy Icel. Fornkvæði, is in the Brit. Mus. no. 11,177; and another MS., containing about twenty such songs, is in the Bodl. Libr. no. 130.

* * *

m. = geisl.

* * *

a, m.

1. prop. a beam, staff, = geisl; but only used,

2. metaph. a beam, ray, of the sun, Rb. 472, Fas. i. 516, Hkv. 1. 15, Hom. 128; sólar-g., a sun-beam; ár-g., morning-beam, poët.: the eye is called brá-geisli, brow-beam, Korm. Geisla-dagr, m. ‘Beam-day;’ it is prob. a rendering of Epiphany, though it is not used of that very day, which is called Þrettándi, but of the seventh day after, viz. the 13th of January.

m. a απ. λεγ. in Hým. end; may not this word contain a variation or corruption of some month’s name, occurring under various forms in A. S. and Germ., and of which the Scandin. form is not known, such as Horemaent = November or December, Hornunc = February, Hartmonat = January (Dr. Karl Weinhold),—months of great festivals and sacrifices? For an attempt at interpretation of the passage, see véar, p. 687, col. 1, at bottom.