presented

s, m., pl. ir: [the etymology of this word has been much contested; some—upon the authority of Snorri, hans menn fóru ‘brynjulausir,’ Hkr. i. 11—derive it from ‘berr’ ( bare) and ‘serkr’ [cp. sark, Scot. for shirt]; but this etymology is inadmissible, because ‘serkr’ is a subst. not an adj.: others derive it from ‘berr’ (Germ. bär = ursus), which is greatly to be preferred, for in olden ages athletes and champions used to wear hides of bears, wolves, and reindeer (as skins of lions in the south), hence the names Bjálfi, Bjarnhéðinn, Úlfhéðinn, (héðinn, pellis,)—‘pellibus aut parvis rhenonum tegimentis utuntur,’ Caes. Bell. Gall. vi. 22: even the old poets understood the name so, as may be seen in the poem of Hornklofi (beginning of 10th century), a dialogue between a Valkyrja and a raven, where the Valkyrja says, at berserkja reiðu vil ek þik spyrja, to which the raven replies, Úlfhéðnar heita, they are called Wolfcoats, cp. the Vd. ch. 9; þeir berserkir er Úlfhéðnar vóru kallaðir, þeir höfðu vargstakka ( coats of wild beasts) fyrir brynjur, Fs. 17]:—a ‘bear-sark,’ ‘bear-coat,’ i. e. a wild warrior or champion of the heathen age; twelve berserkers are mentioned as the chief followers of several kings of antiquity, e. g. of the Dan. king Rolf Krake, Edda 82; a Swed. king, Gautr. S. Fas. iii. 36; king Adils, Hrólf. Kr. S. ch. 16 sqq.; Harald Hárfagri, Eg. ch. 9, Grett. ch. 2, Vd. l. c. (Hornklofi, v. above); the twelve sons of Arngrim, Hervar. S. ch. 3–5, Hdl. 22, 23; the two berserkers sent as a present by king Eric at Upsala to earl Hakon of Norway, and by him presented to an Icel. nobleman, Eb. ch. 25. In battle the berserkers were subject to fits of frenzy, called berserks-gangr (furor bersercicus, cp. the phrase, ganga berserksgang), when they howled like wild beasts, foamed at the mouth and gnawed the iron rim of their shields; during these fits they were, according to popular belief, proof against steel and fire, and made great havoc in the ranks of the enemy; but when the fever abated they were weak and tame. A graphical description of the ‘furor bersercicus’ is found in the Sagas, Yngl. S. ch. 6, Hervar. S. l. c., Eg. ch. 27, 67, Grett. ch. 42, Eb. ch. 25, Nj. ch. 104, Kristni S. ch. 2, 8 (Vd. ch. 46); cp. also a passage in the poem of Hornklofi | grenjuðu berserkir, | guðr var þeim á sinnum, | emjaðu Úlfhéðnar | ok ísarn gniiðu—which lines recall to the mind Roman descriptions of the Cimbric war-cry. In the Icel. Jus Eccles. the berserksgangr, as connected with the heathen age, is liable to the lesser outlawry, K. Þ. K. 78; it is mentioned as a sort of possession in Vd. ch. 37, and as healed by a vow to God. In the Dropl. S. Major (in MS.) it is medically described as a disease (v. the whole extract in the essay ‘De furore Bersercico,’ Kristni S. old Ed. in cake); but this Saga is modern, probably of the first part of the 17th century. The description of these champions has a rather mythical character. A somewhat different sort of berserker is also recorded in Norway as existing in gangs of professional bullies, roaming about from house to house, challenging husbandmen to ‘holmgang’ ( duel), extorting ransom (leysa sik af hólmi), and, in case of victory, carrying off wives, sisters, or daughters; but in most cases the damsel is happily rescued by some travelling Icelander, who fights and kills the berserker. The most curious passages are Glúm, ch. 4, 6, Gísl. ch. 1 (cp. Sir Edm. Head’s and Mr. Dasent’s remarks in the prefaces), Grett. ch. 21, 42, Eg. ch. 67, Flóam. S. ch. 15, 17; according to Grett. ch. 21, these banditti were made outlaws by earl Eric, A. D. 1012. It is worth noticing that no berserker is described as a native of Icel.; the historians are anxious to state that those who appeared in Icel. (Nj., Eb., Kr. S. l. c.) were born Norse (or Swedes), and they were looked upon with fear and execration. That men of the heathen age were taken with fits of the ‘furor athleticus’ is recorded in the case of Thorir in the Vd., the old Kveldulf in Eg., and proved by the fact that the law set a penalty upon it. Berserkr now and then occurs as a nickname, Glúm. 378. The author of the Yngl. S. attributes the berserksgangr to Odin and his followers, but this is a sheer misinterpretation, or perhaps the whole passage is a rude paraphrase of Hm. 149 sqq. In the old Hbl. 37 berserkr and giant are used synonymously. The berserkers are the representatives of mere brute force, and it therefore sounds almost blasphemous, when the Norse Barl. S. speaks of Guðs berserkr (a ‘bear-coat’ or champion of God), (Jesus Kristr gleymdi eigi hólmgöngu sins berserks), 54, 197. With the introduction of Christianity this championship disappeared altogether.

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(gen. gjafar, pl. gjafar and gjafir), f. gift; skipta gjöfum við e-n, to exchange gifts with one; leiða e-n út (í brott) með gjöfum, leysa e-n á brott með gjöfum, to dismiss one with gifts (at the end of a visit).

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f., gen. gjafar, pl. gjafar, later gjafir; dat. gjöfum: [Ulf. giba; A. S. gifu, geofu; Engl. gift; Germ. gabe, whence mod. Swed. gåfua, Dan. gave, and Icel. gáfa]:—a gift, Nj. 7, 163, Eg. 33, Fms. i. 296, iv. 105, x. 47, Bs. i. 76, 143, N. G. L. i. 8, passim: in mod. usage Icel. distinguish between gjöf and gáfa, using the latter of the gifts of nature, gifts of mind, cleverness, but gjöf in a material sense. The ancients were fond of exchanging gifts, which were either a part of hospitality or tokens of friendship; the former were munificent, the latter might be small, Hm. 51: at a feast (wedding, funeral, or the like) the host used to make gifts to all his more honoured guests at departure; the technical phrase for this was, leysa menn út með gjöfum, to dismiss with gifts; vóru allir menn með gjöfum brott leystir; hence útlausnir, departure from a feast, Sturl. iii. 268: a departing friend or visitor had to be dismissed with a gift (kynnis-gjöf, Fms. vi. 358). The gifts consisted chiefly of weapons and costly clothes; but favourite gifts were a steed (Bjarn. 55, 58) or oxen of a fine breed (Sturl. i. 106), hawks, tents, sails, white bears (Ó. H. ch. 114, Fms. vi. ch. 72–75, 100, Hung. ch. 2), in short anything that was rare and costly, görsimi, metfé. Again, friends had to exchange gifts, so as to cement their friendship, cp. Hávamál passim,—vápnum ok váðum skulu vinir gleðjask; gefendr ok endrgefendr erusk lengst vinir, 40; gjalda gjöf við gjöf, 41; geði skaltú við hann (viz. the friend) blanda ok gjöfum skipta, 43; glík skulu gjöld gjöfum, 45; sýtir æ glöggr við gjöfum, 47. Gifts were obligatory, and were a token of grace and goodwill on the part of giver and receiver. A gift when received was called the ‘nautr’ of the giver, e. g. a ring or sword presented by a king was konungs-nautr. The instances in the Sagas are very many, e. g. Eg. ch. 36, 81, Ld. ch. 7, 27, 43, 45, Sturl. passim, Glúm. ch. 6, 25, Vápn. p. 19, Hrafn. 23, Lv. ch. 14, 15, Ó. H. ch. 114, Har. S. Gilla ch. 16, Hung. ch. 13, 17, Páls. S. ch. 16, and last, not least, the curious Gautr. S.; the remark of Tacit. Germ. ch. 21, gaudent muneribus, sed nec data imputant nec acceptis obligantur, is only partly true; ást-gjafar, love-gifts; vin-gjafar, friend-gifts, cp. Gr. ξένια, Ó. H. 125; hefndar-gjöf, a fatal gift; Jóla-gjöf, a Yule present, Eg. ch. 70; sumar-gjafir, summer-gifts, on the day when summer begins.

COMPDS: gjafalaust, gjafaleysi, gjafaskipti.

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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.

(acc. hösvan), a. grey, of a wolf (úlfr hinn hösvi).

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adj., acc. hösvan, with a characteristic v; [A. S. hasu, gen. hasweg and haswig; Engl. hazy; Lat. caesius]:—gray, of a wolf; úlfr enn hösvi, Em. 6; hösvan serk hrísgrisnis, a gray wolf’s coat, Hl., Edda 86; höss örn, a gray eagle, Fms. vi. 159 (in a verse); and höss sverð, a dusky sword blade (or = hvöss?), Lex. Poët.: in pr. names, Hös-kollr, in common pronunciation Höskuldr, the gray Coll; the old form is freq. presented in good MSS., e. g. Arna-Magn. 468, as also in the old ditty, trautt man ek trúa þér | troll kvað Hös kollr, Sturl. ii. 136; but that even in the 13th century the name was pronounced as at the present day is shewn by the pun in the words Höskuld and haustskuld, Sturl. iii. 216. The word is quite obsolete, and does not occur elsewhere in prose.

a, m. [perh. akin to lokka], the evil giant-god of the Northern mythol., see Edda passim, Vsp. 39. Loka-senna, u, f. the banter of Loki, the name of an old poem: as a nickname, Landn. The name of Loki is preserved in a few words, Loka-sjóðr, m., botan. rhinanthus crista galli, Loki’s purse, the name for cockscomb or yellow rattle; and Loka-sjóðs-bróðir, m. bartsia alpina, Maurer’s Volks. 1: Loka-brenna, u, f. fire, the ‘blazing’ of Loki = Sirius, according to a statement of Finn Magnusson: Loka-ráð and Loka-heilræði, n. pl. Loki’s advice, i. e. ironical, misanthropic advice, see Snot 192; cp. the Ditmarscher-lügen in Grimm’s Märchen: Loka-lykt, f. a close smell, as from an evil spirit haunting the room, Ísl. Þjóðs. ii. 556.

II. as an appellative, a loop on a thread, Dan. ‘kurre paa traaden;’ opt er loki á nálþræði, Hallgr.

the name of the terrible fire-demon, half god, half giant, the friend and companion of the gods, and yet their most fearful foe. We have a new suggestion to make as to the origin of this name. The old Northern Loki and the old Italic Volcanus are, we believe, identical; as thus,—the old Teutonic form of Loki, we suppose, was Wloka, whence, by dropping the w before l, according to the rules of the Scandinavian tongue, Loki. A complete analogy is presented in Lat. voltus, vultus, A. S. wlits, but Icel. lit (in and -lit, a face); and, in point of the character of the two demons, the resemblance is no less striking, as we have on the one hand Vulcanus with Etna for his workshop (cp. the mod. volcano), and on the other hand the Northern legends of the fettered fire-giant, Loki, by whose struggles the earthquakes are caused. Of all the personages of the Northern heathen religion, the three, Oðinn, Þórr, and Loki, were by far the most prominent; but not even the name of Loki is preserved in the records of any other Teutonic people. Can the words of Caesar B.G. vi, x. xi, Solem ‘Vulcanum’ et Lunam. refer to our Loki? probably not, although in Caesar’s time the form would have been Wlokan in acc., a form which a Roman ear might well have identified with their own Vulcanus. The old derivation from loka, to shut, is inadmissible in the present state of philological science: a Wôdan from vaða, or Loki from loka, is no better than a ‘Juno a juvando,’ or a ‘Neptunus a nando.’ May not Loki (Wloka) be a relation to the Sansk. vrika, Slav. vluku, Lith. vilkas, Icel. vargr, álfr, meaning a destroyer, a wolf? it is very significant that in the Norse mythology Loki is the father of the world-destroying monsters,—the wolf Fenrir, the World-serpent, and the ogress Hel; and, if the etymology suggested be true, he was himself originally represented as a wolf.

n. a peace tablet, ‘pacifcale,’ a tablet with a crucifix and a ‘pax vobiscum’ beneath; in the Roman Catholic times it was presented to be kissed by the worshippers (osculum pacis), see Du Cange, as also a description in H. E. i. 173, note a, and iv. 135, note b; the pacificale was either a piece of parchment or a slab, paxspjald steint, annat með bókfell, Pm. 108; it was different to altaris steinn, altaris steinar þrír, paxspjald gulllagt, ok paxblöð tvau, 112; p. með kopar, 10; p. gyllt, Vm. 83; páskaspjald ok paxspjald yfir altari, Pm. 11, D.I. passim.

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(-dá, -dr), v.

1) to show (hón bað hann s. sér sverðit); þú skalt enga fáleika á þér s., thou must show no signs of coldness;

2) refl., sýnast, to appear, seem (sýndist vitrum mönnum hann afbragð); s. e-m, to appear to one in a dream (honum sýndist þá hinn helgi Ólafr konungr); e-m sýnist e-t, one thinks fit; veitið mér gröpt slíkan sem yðr sýnist, give me such burial as you please.

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d, to shew; hón bað hann sýna sér sverðit, Gullþ. 14; á þinginu sýndu menn vápn sín, Fms. iv. 326; þú skalt enga fáleika á þér sýna, Nj. 14; sýna sik glaðan, Barl. 16; hann sýndi mun ek sýna yðr (dat.) í fata-búr Þorfinns, Grett. 98 A, passim.

II. reflex. sýnask, to appear, Rb. 478; sýnisk þat jafnan at ek em fégjarn, Nj. 102; hann kvað mikla úsæmd í slíku sýnask af Sturlu, Sturl. i. 87; ok sýndisk hann þá Nero (dat.), he then presented himself to N., 659 C. 29.

2. to seem, with dat.; e-m sýnisk e-t, it appears to one; óss sýnisk úmakligt, at …, Eluc. 3; sýndisk vitrum mönnum hann afbragð, Fms. x. 397; hefir mér tvennt um sýnzk, Nj. 3: to see in a dream, somnaði hann, honum sýndisk þá enn helgi Ólafr konungr, Ó. H. 240; sýndisk honum í svefni engill Guðs, Bær. 12; sem konunni hafði sýnzk um nóttina, Fms. v. 222: so also, mér sýndist hann koma, I thought I saw him come; mér sýndist eg sjá hann, I thought I saw him; ekki er allt sem sýnist, a saying, varla sýnisk allt sem, Mkv.

3. to think fit; veitið mér gröpt slíkan sem yðr sýnisk, such as you deem fit, as you like, Fms. ix. 309; fékk konungr sveitar-höfðingja þá er honum sýndisk, Eg. 272; sýndisk mönnum, at Andrés misti sæmda sinna, Fms. ix. 309; sýnisk þat þó flestum, at fá mér þat er ek vil, Grett. 129 A; Þrándr kvað hitt mundu sýnask ( that would seem better) at unna Leifi föður-bóta, Fær. 159.

part. presented at an assembly; hvalr banvænn af þingbornu skoti, Grág. ii. 371.

n. a case presented at a public court, N. G. L. i. 90.

pp. presented at an assembly.