probably

or -AT or -T, a negative suffix to verbs, peculiar to Iceland and a part, at least, of Norway. Occurs frequently in old Icelandic poetry and laws, so as almost to form a complete negative voice. In the 1st pers. a personal pronoun k (g) = ek is inserted before the negative suffix, in the 2nd pers. a t or tt. As a rule the pron. as thus repeated; má-k-at-ek, non possum; sé-k-at-ek, non video; hef-k-at-ek, non habeo; skal-k-at-ek; vil-k-at-ek, nolo; mon-k-at-ek, non ero, etc.: 2nd pers. skal-t-at-tu; mon-t-at-tu; gaf-t-at-tu, non dabas: and after a long vowel a tt, mátt-at-tu, sátt-at-tu; so almost invariably in all monosyllabic verbal forms; but not so in bisyllabic ones, máttir-a-þú, non poteras: yet in some instances in the 1st pers. a pronominal g is inserted, e. g. bjargi-g-a-k, verbally servem ego non ego; höggvi-g-a-k, non cædam; stöðvi-g-a-k, quin sistam; vildi-g-a-k, nolui; hafði-g-a-k, non babui; mátti-g-a-k, non potui; görði-g-a-k, non feci: if the verb has gg as final radical consonants, they change into kk, e. g. þikk-at-ek = þigg-k-at-ek, nolo accipere. In the 3rd pers. a and at or t are used indifferently, t being particularly suffixed to bisyllabic verbal flexions ending in a vowel, in order to avoid an hiatus,—skal-at or skal-a, non erit; but skolo-t, non sunto: forms with an hiatus, however, occur,—bíti-a, non mordat; renni-a, ne currat; skríði-a, id.; leti-a, ne retardet; væri-a, ne esset; urðu-a, non erant; but bíti-t, renni-t, skríði-t, urðu-t are more current forms: v. Lex. Poët. The negative suffix is almost peculiar to indic., conj., and imperat. moods; the neg. infin. hardly occurs. Nothing analogous to this form is to be found in any South-Teutonic idiom; neither do there remain any traces of its having been used in Sweden or Denmark. A single exception is the Runic verse on a stone monument in Öland, an old Danish province, now Swedish, where however the inscriptions may proceed from a Norse or Icel. hand. The Runic inscriptions run thus, sa’r aigi flo, who did not fly, old Icel. ‘flo-at,’ Baut. 1169. Neither does it occur in any Norse prose monuments (laws): but its use may yet be inferred from its occurrence in Norse poets of the 10th century, e. g. the poets Eyvind and Thiodolf; some of which instances, however, may be due to their being transmitted through Icel. oral tradition. In Bragi Gamli (9th century) it occurs twice or thrice; in the Haustlöng four times, in Ynglingatal four times, in Hákonarmál once (all Norse poems of the 10th century). In Icel. the suffixed negation was in full force through the whole of the 10th century. A slight difference in idioms, however, may be observed: Völuspá, e. g., prefers the negation by né (using vas-at only once, verse 3). In the old Hávamal the suffix abounds (being used thirty-five times), see the verses 6, 10, 11, 18, 26, 29, 30, 34, 37–39, 49, 51, 52, 68, 74, 88, 113–115, 126–128, 130, 134, 136, 147, 149, 151, 153, 159. In Skírnismál, Harbarðsljóð, Lokasenna—all these poems probably composed by the same author, and not before the 10th century—about thirty times, viz. Hbl. 3, 4, 8, 14, 26, 35, 56; Skm. 5, 18, 22; Ls. 15, 16, 18, 25, 28, 30, 36, 42, 47, 49, 56, 60, 62. Egil (born circa 900, died circa 990) abounds in the use of the suffixed neg. (he most commonly avails himself of -at, -gi, or né): so, too, does Hallfred (born circa 968, died 1008), Einar Skálaglam in Vellekla (circa 940–995), and Thorarin in the Máhlíðingavísur (composed in the year 981); and in the few epigrams relating to the introduction of Christianity in Icel. (995–1000) there occur mon-k-að-ek, tek-k-at-ek, vil-k-at-ek, hlífði-t, mon-a, es-a; cp. the Kristni S. and Njala. From this time, however, its use becomes more rare. Sighvat (born circa 995, died 1040) still makes a frequent but not exclusive use of it. Subsequent poets use it now and then as an epic form, until it disappeared almost entirely in poetry at the middle or end of the 13th century. In the Sólarljóð there is not a single instance. The verses of some of our Sagas are probably later than the Sagas themselves; the greatest part of the Völsungakviður are scarcely older than the 11th century. In all these -at and conj. eigi are used indifferently. In prose the laws continued to employ the old forms long after they were abolished in common prose. The suffixed verbal negation was used,

α. in the delivering of the oath in the Icel. Courts, esp. the Fifth Court, instituted about the year 1004; and it seems to have been used through the whole of the Icel. Commonwealth (till the year 1272). The oath of the Fifth (High) Court, as preserved in the Grágás, runs in the 1st pers., hefka ek fé borit í dóm þenna til liðs mér um sök þessa, ok ek monka bjóða, hefka ek fundit, ok monka ek finna, hvárki til laga né ólaga, p. 79; and again p. 81, only different as to ek hefka, ek monka (new Ed.): 3rd pers., hefirat hann fé; borit í dóm þenna ok monat hann bjóða, ok hefirat hann fundit, ok monat hann tinna, 80, 81; cp. also 82, and Nj. l. c. ch. 145, where it is interesting to observe that the author confounds the ist and 3rd persons, a sign of decay in grammatical form.

β. the Speaker (lögsögumaðr), in publicly reciting and explaining the law, and speaking in the name of the law, from the Hill of Laws (lögberg), frequently employed the old form, esp. in the legal words of command es and skal (yet seldom in plur.): erat in the dictatorial phrases, erat skyldr (skylt), non esto obligatus; erat landeigandi skyldr, Grág. (Kb.) i. 17; erat hinn skyldr, 21; yngri maðr era skyldr at fasta, 35; enda erat honum þá skylt at …, 48; erat þat sakar spell, 127; era hinn þá skyldr at lýsa, 154; erat hann framar skyldr sakráða, 216; ok erat hann skyldr at ábyrgjask þat fé, 238; ok erat hann skyldr, id.; ok erat sakar aðili ella skyldr, ii. 74; erat hinn skyldr við at taka, 142; erat manni skylt at taka búfé, 143; enda erat heimting til fjár þess, 169; era hann þá skyldr at taka við í öðru fé nema hann vili, 209; ok erat þeim skylt at tíunda fé sitt, 211; ok erat hann skyldr at gjalda tíund af því, 212; erat kirkjudrottinn þá skyldr, 228; ef hann erat landeigandi, i. 136. Skalat: skalat maðr eiga fó óborit, i. 23; skalat homum þat verða optar en um siun, 55; skalat maðr ryðja við sjálfan sik, 62; skalat hann þat svá dvelja, 68; skalat hann til véfangs ganga, 71; skalat aðilja í stefnuvætti hafa, 127; ok skala hann gjalda fyrir þat, 135; ok skalat hann með sök fara, 171; enda skalat hann fleirum baugum bœta, 199; skalat hann skilja félagit, 240; skalat hann meiri skuld eiga en, ii. 4; skalat þeim meðan á brott skipta, 5; skalat hann lögvillr verða, svá, 34; skalat hon at heldr varðveita þat fé, 59; í skalat enn sami maðr þar lengr vera, 71; ok skala honum bæta þat, 79; skalat fyl telja, 89; skalat hann banna fiskför, 123; skalat hann lóga fé því á engi veg, 158; skalat drepa þá menn, 167; skalat svá skipta manneldi, 173; skalat maðr reiðast við fjórðungi vísu, 183. Plur.: skolut menn andvitni bera ok hér á þingi, i. 68; skolut mál hans standast, 71; skolut þeir færi til vefangs ganga en, 75, etc. etc. Other instances are rare: tekrat þar fé er eigi er til (a proverb), i. 9; ok um telrat þat til sakbóta, ok of telrat þá til sakbóta ( it does not count), 178; ef hann villat ( will not) lýsa sár sitt, 51; ok ræðrat hann öðrum mönnum á hendr þann úmaga, 248; ræðrat sá sínum ómögum á hendr, ii. 18; verðrat honum at sakarspelli and verðrat honum þat at s., i. 63; verðrat honum þat at sakarvörn, 149; kömrat hann öðru við, ii. 141; þarfat hann bíða til þess, i. 70; ok skilrat hann frá aðra aura, ii. 141, i. 136. Reflexive form: kömskat hann til heimtingar um þat fé, he loses the claim to the money, ii. 180, etc. All these instances are taken from the Kb. (Ed. 1853). Remarkable is also the ambiguity in the oath of Glum (see Sir Edm. Head, Viga-Glum, pp. 102, 103, note, I. c.), who, instead of the plain common formal oath—vask-at-ek þar, vák-at-ek þar, rauðk-at-ek þar odd ok egg—said, vask at þar, vák at þar, rauðk at þar. He inverted the sense by dropping the intermediate pronominal ek between the verb and þar, and pronouncing ‒ ‒́ instead of ‒́ ⏑. It further occurs in some few proverbs: varat af vöru, sleikði um þvöru, Fs. 159; veldrat sá er varir, Nj. 61 (now commonly ekki veldr sá er v., so in Grett.); erat héra at borgnara þótt hœna beri skjöld, Fms. vii. 116; era hlums vant kvað refr, dró hörpu á ísi, 19: also in some phrases, referred to as verba ipsissima from the heathen age—erat vinum líft Ingimundar, Fs. 39; erat sjá draumr minni, Ld. 128. Thorodd employs it twice or thrice: því at ek sékk-a þess meiri þörf, because í do not see any more reason for this, Skálda 167; kannka ek til þess meiri ráð en lítil, I do not know, id.; mona ( will not) mín móna ( my mammy) við mik göra verst hjóna, 163. In sacred translations of the 12th century it occurs now and then. In the Homilies and Dialogues of Gregory the Great: monatþu í því flóði verða, thou shalt not; esa þat undarligt þótt, it is not to be wondered at; hann máttia sofna, he could not sleep; moncaþ ek banna, I shall not mind, Greg. 51, 53; vasal kall heyrt á strætum, was not, Post. 645. 84; nú mona fríðir menn hér koma, Niðrst. 623. 7. In later writers as an archaism; a few times in the Al. (MS. A. M. 519), 3, 5, 6, 44, 108; and about as many times in the MS. Eirspennill (A. M. 47, fol.) [Etymon uncertain; that at is the right form may be inferred from the assimilation in at-tu, and the anastrophe in t, though the reason for the frequent dropping of the t is still unexplained. The coincidence with the Scottish dinna, canna is quite accidental.]

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(ek, ók, ókum, ekinn), v.

1) to drive (a vehicle or animal drawing a vehicle), with dat.: gott er heilum vagni heim at a., it is good to get home safe and sound; a. þrennum eykjum, with three yoke of horses;

2) to carry or convey in a vehicle, to cart, with dat. or acc. (hann ók heyjum sínum á yxnum; hann ók skarni á hóla); a. saman hey, to cart hay; líkin váru ekin í sleða, carried in a sledge;

3) with the prep. í or á; Freyr ók í kerru með gelti; ríðr Þ. hesti þeim, er hann hafði ekit á;

4) absol., to drive in a vehicle (fóru þeir í sleðann ok óku alla nóttina); with acc. of the road (óku úrgar brautir);

5) naut., to trim the sail (aka seglum at endilöngum skipum);

6) to remove, with dat.; ók hann af sér fjötrinum, worked it off by rubbing; ók Oddr sér þar at, worked himself thither (of a fettered prisoner); a. e-m á bug or a. bug;á e-n, to make one give way, repel; intrans. = ‘akast’, to move slowly; hvárrgi ók (gave way) fyrir oðrum; a. undan, to retire, retreat;

7) impers., hart ekr at e-m, one is in great straits; ekr nú mjók at, I am hard pressed; e-m verðr nær ekit, one gets into straits, is hard pressed;

refl., e-m ekst e-t í tauma, one is thwarted in a thing.

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ók, óku, ekit; pres. ek. It also occurs in a weak form, að, Fagrsk. 104, which form is now perhaps the most common. [Neither Ulf. nor Hel. use this word, which appears also to be alien to the South-Teut. idioms. The Germans say fahren; the English to drive, carry; cp. Engl. yoke. In Latin, however, agere; Gr. άγειν] Gener. to move, drive, transport, carry:

I. to drive in harness in a sledge or other vehicle (where the vehicle is in dat.), as also the animal driven; bryggjur svá breiðar, at aka mátti vögnum á víxl, ‘briggs’ (i. e. wharfs or piers,, cp. ‘Filey Brigg’) so broad, that wains might meet and pass each other, Hkr. ii. 11; gott er heilum vagni heim at aka, ‘tis good to drive home with a whole wain, to get home safe and sound, cp. Horace solve senescentem, Orkn. 464, Al. 61; þórr á hafra tvá, ok reið þá er hann ekr, in which he drives, Edda 14, Ób. adds í (viz. reið þá er hekr i), which may be the genuine reading.

β. with the prep. í; Freyr ók ok í kerru með gelti, Edda 38.

γ. absol. to drive, i. e. travel by driving; þeir óku upp á land, Eg. 543; fóru þeir í sleðann ok óku nóttina alia, drove the whole night, Fms. iv. 317. With the road taken in acc.; aka úrgar brautir, Rm. 36; báðu hennar ok heim óku (dat. henni being understood), carrying a bride home, 37. 20.

II. to carry or cart a load, ( to lead, in the north of England):—in Iceland, where vehicles are rare, it may perhaps now and then be used of carrying on horseback. The load carried is commonly in dat. or acc.:

α. acc.: aka saman hey, to cart hay, Eb. 150; saman ok hann heyit, Ísl. ii. 330; hann ok saman alla töðu sína, Landn. 94; þá tekr Gísli eyki tvá, ok ekr fé sitt til skógar, Gísl. 121; but absol., ok ekr til skógar með fjárhlut sinn, l. c. 36; þá let konungr aka til haugsins vist ok drykk, then the king let meat and drink be carted to the ‘how’ ( barrow), Fms. x. 186; vill hann húsit ór stað færa, ok vill hann aka þat, carry it away, Grág. ii. 257; líkin váru ekin í sleða, carried in a sledge, Bs. i. 144.

β. dat. more freq., as now; hann ók heyjum sínum á öxnum, carried his hay on oxen, Fbr. 43 new Ed.; einn ók skarni á hóla, carted dung alone on the fields, Nj. 67, Rd. 277.

γ. with the animals in dat., Þórólfr let aka þrennum eykjum um daginn, with three yoke of oxen, Eb. 152; or with the prep. á, ríðr Þórðr hesti þeim er hann hafði ekit á um aptaninn, Ísl. ii. 331, Fbr. 43; ef maðr ekr eðr berr klyfjar á, leads or carries on packsaddles, Grág. i. 441.

δ. absol., þat mun ek til finna, at hann ok eigi í skegg ser, that he did not cart it on his own beard, Nj. 67.

ε. part., ekinn uxi, a yoked, tamed ox, Vm. 152.

III. used by sailors, in the phrase, aka segli, to trim the sail; aka seglum at endilöngum skipum, Fms. vii. 94; bað hann þá aka skjótt seglunum, ok víkja út í sund nokkut, 131. In mod. Icel. metaph., aka seglum eptir vindi, to set one’s sail after ( with) the wind, to act according to circumstances; cp. aktaumar.

IV. metaph. in a great many proverbs and phrases, e. g. aka heilum vagni heim, v. above; aka höllu fyrir e-m, to get the worst of it, Ld. 206; aka undan (milit), to retire, retreat slowly in a battle; óku þeir Erlingr undan ofan með garðinum, Fms. vii. 317; akast undan (reflex.), id., 278; þeir ökuðust undan ok tóku á skógana, they took to the woods, Fagrsk. 174 (where the weak form is used); sumir Norðmenn óku undan á hæli ofan með sjónum, x. 139: aka e-m á bug, the figure probably taken from the ranks in a battle, to make one give way, repel, en ef Ammonite aka, þér á bug, if they be too strong for thee, Stj. 512. 2 Sam. x. 11. Mkv. 7; also metaph., aka bug á e-n, id.; mun oss þat til Birkibeinum, at þeir aki á oss engan bug, to stand firm, with unbroken ranks, Fms. viii. 412. It is now used impers., e-m á ekki ór að aka, of one who has always bad luck, probably ellipt., ór steini or the like being understood; cp. GÍsl. 54, the phrase, þykir ekki ór steini hefja, in the same sense, the figure being taken from a stone clogging the wheels; ok hann af sér fjötrinum, threw it off by rubbing, Fas. ii. 573; þá ekr Oddr sér þar at, creeps, rolls himself thither, of a fettered prisoner, id.; the mod. phrase, að aka sér, is to shrug the shoulders as a mark of displeasure: aka ór öngum, ex angustiis, to clear one’s way, get out of a scrape, Bjarn. 52; aka í moínn, to strive against, a cant phrase. Impers. in the phrase, e-m verðr nær ekit, is almost run over, has a narrow escape, varð honum svá nær ekit at hann hleypti inn í kirkju, he was so hard driven that he ran into the church, Fms. ix. 485; hart ekr at e-m, to be in great straits, ok er þorri kemr, þá ekr hart at mönnum, they were pressed hard, Ísl. ii. 132; ekr mi mjök at, I am hard pressed, GÍsl. 52; er honum þótti at sér aka, when death drew near,, of a dying man, Grett. 119 A. Reflex., e-m ekst e-t í tauma, to be thwarted in a thing, where the figure is taken from trimming the sail when the sheet is foul, Fms. xi. 121. In later Icelandic there is a verb akka, að, to heap together, a. e-u saman, no doubt a corruption from aka with a double radical consonant, a cant word. Aka is at present a rare word, and is, at least in common speech, used in a weak form, akar instead of ekr; akaði = ók; akat = ekit.

(gen. arðrs), m. a simple form plough.

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rs, m. [Lat. aratrum; Gael. arad; cp. erja, Ulf. arjan, arare; A. S. erian; Old Engl. ear, etc.; in Norse ar or al is a small plough]

1. a sort of plough, probably different in size and shape from plógr, which is a later word, of foreign stamp, as are all that have p for their initial letter. The poem Rm. distinguishes between both, göra arðr (acc.) and keyra plóg, 19. The first colonisers of Iceland used arðr, as shewn by Landn. 35 (relating events of the year 875); hann átti einn oxa, ok lét hann þrælana draga arðrinn; eykr fyrir plógi eðr arðri ( plough or ard), N. G. L. ii. 115; ef maðr stel jarni af arðri eðr plógi, id.; höggva má maðr sér til plógs eðr arðs (gen. dropping the radical r), id.; draga arðr, Al. 52; arðri (dat.), Karl. 471, Mar. (Fr.), Stj.: um allt þat er miklu varðar er betri sígandi arðr en svífandi (emend. of Dr. Hallgrim Scheving), a proverb, better a slow but deep trenching plough than a quick and shallow one, Bs. i. 139; the old arðr was probably bulky and heavy.

2. metaph. in Icel. at present arðr (gen. arðs, arðar, Snót 90), as well as plógr, means gain, produce, profit: arðsamr, adj. profitable.

COMPD: arðsgeldingr.

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(blœt; blét, blétum; blótinn), v.

1) to worship, to worship with sacrifice, with acc. of that which is worshipped; blóta hof, lund, fors, heiðit goð, álfa, heiðnar vættir, lifandi menn, to worship temple, grove, waterfall, &c.; very rare with dat. (blóta goðum);

2) to sacrifice, with dat. of the object sacrificed (blóta mönnum ok fé); absol., blóta til friðar, sigrs, langlífis, árs, byrjar, to make a sacrifice for peace, victory, long life, good season, fair wind.

(að), v.

1) = blóta (blœt, etc.);

2) to curse, with dat. = banna( bið þú fyr þeim, er þér blóta); absol., to swear;

refl., blótast, to go about swearing.

* * *

in old use a strong (and originally a redupl.) verb, blóta—blét—blétu—blótinn; pres. blœt, and with the suffixed negative blœtka ( I worship not), Stor. 22 (the Ed. wrongly blotka, without change of vowel); this form also occurs K. Þ. K. (Kb.) ch. 7, the Ed. 1853 has wrongly blœt(a)r, but a few lines below blótar (weak), probably altered from blœtr; pret. sing. blét, Hkr. (Yngl.) 56, 269; pl. blétu, 56; subj. blétim, 623. 61; imperat. blótt, Am. 75; part. blótinn, and sup. blótið are freq., Hkr. i. 34, 35, 239, Landn. 47, Fas. i. 255: more freq. weak, blóta, að; pres. blótar, blótast, Fas. i. 87, Fbr. 78; pret. blótaði, Landn. 224, 291, 322, Bs. i. 6 (Kr. S.), Nj. 272, Gísl. 140, Fær. 272, Fas. i. 463, 531, Bret., Fms. ii. 263, Hkr. i. 34, 35, Ísl. ii. 109, Fs. 50; only the weak sup. and part. are rare in old writers; blótuð, Hom. 153 (Norse); blótað (sup.), Bs. i. 5 (paper transcript); in Yngl. S. Hkr. i. 34, 35, Unger’s Edition has the old form blét, blótið, but Cod. Fris. l. c. the later mod. form.: [Ulf. blotan (redupl. verb) = λατρεύειν, σέβεσθαι, cp. guþbloteins = παράκλησις, guþblostreis = θεοσεβής; A. S. blôtan = immolare; O. H. G. blozan; the root is probably akin to bletsian, Engl. to bless]:—gener. to worship, to worship with sacrifice; with acc. of the being worshipped, but dat. of the object sacrificed; thus b. hof, lund, fors, goð, álfa, vættir, to worship temple, grove, force, gods, elves, beings; but b. mönnum, þrælum, kvikendum, to sacrifice with men, thralls, beasts, i. e. to sacrifice, slay them: also used absol.:

I. with acc. or absol. to worship; skal Þórólfr b. ok leita heilla þeim bræðrum, Eg. 257, 623. 61, Landn. 40, Hkr. i. 34 sqq., Fs. 41; heiðnar vættir, Nj. 272, Fær. 139, cp. Bret. 84, 94, Landn. 36, Ib. ch. 7, Bs. i. 25; b. til friðar, sigrs, langlífis, árs, byrjar, to make a sacrifice for peace, victory, long life, good season, fair wind, Hkr. i. 239, 34, 56, 11. 97, Fs. 173: of the worship of natural objects, at Giljá stóð steinn ( a stone), er (acc.) þeir frændr höfðu blótað, Bs. i. 5, Harð. S. Ísl. ii. 109; hann blótaði lundinn, he worshipped the grove (cp. Tacitus, sacrum nemus), Landn. 224; hann blótaði forsinn, 291: worship of men (rare), Gríms sonar þess er blótinn var dauðr fyrir þokkasæld ok kallaðr Kamban, 47, Fb. ii. 7; þau vóru bæði blótuð, Edda 83: b. hof, in the phrase, heiðnir menn hof b., Grág., Ísl. ii. 381; blót er oss ok kviðjat, at vér skulum eigi b. heiðit goð, né hauga né hörga, N. G. L. i. 18: worship of animals, Ögvaldr konungr blét kú eina, Hkr. i. 269, Fas. i. 255.

β. with dat. (extremely rare); blótar hann einum gölt (sic!), prob. corrupt = einn (acc.) gölt, Fas. i. 187 a paper transcript.

II. with dat. to sacrifice; sacrifices of men are recorded, Hkr. i. 34, 35, 56, 239, Gísl. 140, Eb. l. c., Fas. i. 452 (Hervar. S.): slaves and criminals were esp. sacrificed, thus representing the executions of modern times; heiðingjar blóta enum verstum mönnum, ok hrinda þeim fyrir björg ok hamra …; enir heiðnu menn höfðu þá stefnu, ok tóku þat ráð at b. tveim mönnum ór hverjum fjórðungi, Bs. i. (Kr. S.) 23: captives, Ó. H. ch. 131; kom þat ásamt með þeim at hafa Hallfreð til blóta, Fs. 102; b. þrælum, Fms. x. 323; b. mönnum ok fé, Fs. (Vd.) 50, Am. 75, Fms. i. 174: a sort of self-immolation is recorded Fb. ii. 72.

III. to curse, swear, vide blót II; with dat. or absol., hann blótar hestunum, Fbr. 78; eigi kvíði ek því þótt biskup blóti mér eðr banni, Bs. i. 708; blótuð verð þú, Hom. 153: reflex, blótask, to go about swearing, Fms. viii. 294: vide Maurer, Bekehr. ii. 195 sqq.

(gen. dags, dat. degi; pl. dagar), m.

1) day;

at kveldi skal dag leyfa, at eventide shall the day be praised;

dagr kemr upp í austri, sezt í vestri, the day rises in the east, sets in the west;

öndverðr dagr, the early day, forenoon;

miðr dagr, midday;

hallandi dagr, declining day;

at kveldi dags, síð dags, late in the day;

sannr sem dagr, true as day;

í dag, today;

á (or um) daginn, during the day;

sama dags, the same day;

annan dag, the next day;

annars dag, another day;

hindra dags, the day after, tomorrow;

dag frá degi, hvern dag frá öðrum, from day to day;

dag eptir dag, day after day;

nótt ok dag, night and day;

dögunum optar, more times than there are days, over and over again;

á deyjanda degi, on one’s death-day;

2) pl., days, times;

ef aðrir dagar (better days) koma;

góðir dagar, happy days;

3) esp. pl., lifetime;

á dögum e-s, um daga e-s, in the days of, during or in the reign of;

eptir minn dag, when I am dead (gaf honum alla sína eign eptir sinn dag);

mátti hann eigi lengr gefa en um sína dagi, than for his lifetime;

ráða (taka) e-n af dögum, to put to death.

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m., irreg. dat. degi, pl. dagar: [the kindred word dœgr with a vowel change from ó (dóg) indicates a lost root verb analogous to ala, ól, cp. dalr and dælir; this word is common to all Teutonic dialects; Goth. dags; A. S. dag; Engl. day; Swed.-Dan. dag; Germ. tag; the Lat. dies seems to be identical, although no interchange has taken place]

I. a day; in different senses:

1. the natural day:—sayings referring to the day, at kveldi skal dag leyfa, at eventide shall the day be praised, Hm. 80 ; allir dagar eiga kveld um síðir; mörg eru dags augu, vide auga; enginn dagr til enda tryggr, no day can be trusted till its end; allr dagr til stefnu, Grág. i. 395, 443, is a law phrase,—for summoning was lawful only if performed during the day; this phrase is also used metaph. = ‘plenty of time’ or the like: popular phrases as to the daylight are many—dagr rennr, or rennr upp, and kemr upp, the day rises, Bm. 1; dagr í austri, day in the east, where the daylight first appears; dagsbrún, ‘day’s brow,’ is the first streak of daylight, the metaphor taken from the human face; lysir af degi, it brightens from the day, i. e. daylight is appearing; dagr ljómar, the day gleams; fyrir dag, before day; móti degi, undir dag, about daybreak; komið at degi, id., Fms. viii. 398; dagr á lopti, day in the sky; árla, snemma dags, early in the morning, Pass. 15. 17; dagr um allt lopt, etc.; albjartr dagr, hábjartr d., full day, broad daylight; hæstr dagr, high day; önd-verðr d., the early day = forenoon, Am. 50; miðr dagr, midday, Grág. i. 413, 446, Sks. 217, 219; áliðinn dagr, late in the day, Fas. i. 313; hallandi dagr, declining day; at kveldi dags, síð dags, late in the day, Fms. i. 69. In the evening the day is said to set, hence dag-sett, dag-setr, and dagr setzt; in tales, ghosts and spirits come out with nightfall, but dare not face the day; singing merry songs after nightfall is not safe, það kallast ekki Kristnum leyft að kveða þegar dagsett er, a ditty; Syrpuvers er mestr galdr er í fólginn, ok eigi er lofat at kveða eptir dagsetr, Fas. iii. 206, Ísl. Þjóðs. ii. 7, 8: the daylight is symbolical of what is true or clear as day, hence the word dagsanna, or satt sem dagr, q. v.

2. of different days; í dag, to-day, Grág. i. 16, 18, Nj. 36, Ld. 76, Fms. vi. 151; í gær-dag, yesterday; í fyrra dag, the day before yesterday, Háv. 50; í hinni-fyrra dag, the third day; annars dags, Vígl. 23, Pass. 50. I; hindra dags, the hinder day, the day after to-morrow, Hm. 109; dag eptir dag, day after day, Hkr. ii. 313; dag frá degi, from day to day, Fms. ii. 230; hvern dag frá öðrum, id., Fms. viii. 182; annan dag frá öðrum. id., Eg. 277; um daginn, during the day; á dögunum. the other day; nótt ok dag, night and day; liðlangan dag, the ‘life-long’ day; dögunum optar, more times than there are days, i. e. over and over again, Fms. x. 433; á deyjanda degi, on one’s day of death, Grág. i. 402.

β. regu-dagr, a rainy day: sólskins-dagr, a sunny day; sumar-dagr, a summer day; vetrar-dagr, a winter day; hátíðis-dagr, a feast day; fegins-dagr, a day of joy; dóms-dagr, the day of doom, judgment day, Gl. 82, Fms. viii. 98; hamingju-dagr, heilla-dagr, a day of happiness; gleði-dagr, id.; brúðkaups-dagr, bridal-day; burðar-dagr, a birthday.

3. in pl. days in the sense of times; aðrir dagar, Fms. i. 216; ek ætlaða ekki at þessir dagar mundu verða, sem nú eru orðnir, Nj. 171; góðir dagar, happy days, Fms. xi. 286, 270; sjá aldrei glaðan dag (sing.), never to see glad days.

β. á e-s dögum, um e-s daga eptir e-s daga, esp. of the lifetime or reign of kings, Fms.; but in Icel. also used of the lögsögumaðr, Jb. repeatedly; vera á dögum, to be alive; eptir minn dag, ‘after my day,’ i. e. when I am dead.

γ. calendar days, e. g. Hvíta-dagar, the White days, i. e. Whitsuntide; Hunda-dagar, the Dog days; Banda-dagr, Vincula Petri; Höfuð-dagr, Decap. Johannis; Geisla-dagr, Epiphany; Imbru-dagar, Ember days; Gang-dagar, ‘Ganging days,’ Rogation days; Dýri-dagr, Corpus Christi; etc.

4. of the week-days; the old names being Sunnu-d. or Drottins-d., Mána-d., Týs-d., Öðins-d., Þórs-d., Frjá-d., Laugar-d. or Þvátt-d. It is hard to understand how the Icel. should be the one Teut. people that have disused the old names of the week-days; but so it was, vide Jóns S. ch. 24; fyrir bauð hann at eigna daga vitrum mönnum heiðnum, svá sem at kalla Týrsdag Óðinsdag, eðr Þórsdag, ok svá um alla vikudaga, etc., Bs. i. 237, cp. 165. Thus bishop John (died A. D. 1121) caused them to name the days as the church does (Feria sccunda, etc.); viz. Þriði-d. or Þriðju-d., Third-day = Tuesday, Rb. 44, K. Þ. K. 100, Ísl. ii. 345; Fimti-d., Fifth-day—Thursday, Rb. 42, Grág. i. 146, 464, 372, ii. 248, Nj. 274; Föstu-d., Fast-day = Friday; Miðviku-d., Midweek-day = Wednesday, was borrowed from the Germ. Mittwoch; throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, however, the old and new names were used indiscriminately. The question arises whether even the old names were not imported from abroad (England); certainly the Icel. of heathen times did not reckon by weeks; even the word week (vika) is probably of eccl. Latin origin (vices, recurrences). It is curious that the Scandinavian form of Friday, old Icel. Frjádagr, mod. Swed.-Dan. Fredag, is A. S. in form; ‘Frjá-,’ ‘Fre-,’ can hardly be explained but from A. S. Freâ-, and would be an irregular transition from the Norse form Frey. The transition of ja into mod. Swed.-Dan. e is quite regular, whereas Icel. ey (in Frey) would require the mod. Swed.-Dan. ö or u sound. Names of weekdays are only mentioned in Icel. poems of the 11th century (Arnór, Sighvat); but at the time of bishop John the reckoning by weeks was probably not fully established, and the names of the days were still new to the people. 5. the day is in Icel. divided according to the position of the sun above the horizon; these fixed traditional marks are called dags-mörk, day-marks, and are substitutes for the hours of modern times, viz. ris-mál or miðr-morgun, dag-mál, há-degi, mið-degi or mið-mundi, nón, miðr-aptan, nátt-mál, vide these words. The middle point of two day-marks is called jafn-nærri-báðum, in modern pronunciation jöfnu-báðu, equally-near-both, the day-marks following in the genitive; thus in Icel. a man asks, hvað er fram orðið, what is the time? and the reply is, jöfnubáðu miðsmorguns og dagmála, half-way between mid-morning and day-meal, or stund til (to) dagmála; hallandi dagmál, or stund af ( past) dagmálum; jöfnu-báðu hádegis og dagmúla, about ten or half-past ten o’clock, etc. Those day-marks are traditional in every farm, and many of them no doubt date from the earliest settling of the country. Respecting the division of the day, vide Pál Vídal. s. v. Allr dagr til stefnu, Finnus Johann., Horologium Island., Eyktamörk Íslenzk (published at the end of the Rb.), and a recent essay of Finn Magnusson.

II. denoting a term, but only in compounds, dagi, a, m., where the weak form is used, cp. ein-dagi, mál-dagi, bar-dagi, skil-dagi.

III. jis a pr. name, Dagr, (freq.); in this sense the dat. is Dag, not Degi, cp. Óðinn léði Dag (dat.) geirs síns, Sæm. 114.

COMPDS: dagatal, dagsbrun, dagshelgi, dagsljós, dagsmark, dagsmegin, dagsmunr.

m. pl. gods or priests.

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m. pl. [the Icel. has two words, but both of them poetical and obsolete, viz. díar answering, by the law of Interchange, to Gr. θεός (Icel. d = Gr. θ), and tívar, by the same law, to Lat. deus (Icel. t = Lat. d); cp. Sansk. devas, Gr. θειος, Lat. dîvus, Ital. dio, Fr. dieu]:— gods or priests; this word occurs only twice, Yngl. S. ch. 2—þat var þar siðr, at tólf hofgoðar vóru æðstir, skyldu þeir ráða fyrir blótum ok dómum manna í milli; þat eru díar kallaðir eðr drottnar,—where diar means not the gods themselves but the priests; and by the old poet Kormak in an obscure periphrasis, in a poem addressed to the staunch heathen earl Sigurd; Snorri (Edda 96), in quoting Kormak, takes the word to mean gods; but the version given in Yngl. S. seems more likely; the díar of the Yngl. S. were probably analogous to the Icel. goði, from goð ( deus). The age of Kormak shews that the word was probably not borrowed from the Latin.

1) half-past three o’clock, p. m. (var þat nær e. dags);

2) time of three hours (þá er þógn hafði verit nær hálfa e.).

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eykð, f. three or half-past three o’clock P. M.; many commentaries have been written upon this word, as by Pal Vídalín Skýr., Finn Johnson in H. E. i. 153 sqq. note 6, and in Horologium, etc. The time of eykð is clearly defined in K. Þ. K. 92 as the time when the sun has past two parts of the ‘útsuðr’ (q. v.) and has one part left, that is to say, half-past three o’clock P. M.: it thus nearly coincides with the eccl. Lat. nona (three o’clock P. M.); and both eykt and nona are therefore used indiscriminately in some passages. Sunset at the time of ‘eykð’ is opposed to sunrise at the time of ‘dagmál,’ q. v. In Norway ‘ykt’ means a luncheon taken about half-past three o’clock. But the passage in Edda—that autumn ends and winter begins at sunset at the time of eykt—confounded the commentators, who believed it to refer to the conventional Icel. winter, which (in the old style) begins with the middle of October, and lasts six months. In the latitude of Reykholt—the residence of Snorri—the sun at this time sets about half-past four. Upon this statement the commentators have based their reasoning both in regard to dagmál and eykt, placing the eykt at half-past four P. M. and dagmál at half-past seven A. M., although this contradicts the definition of these terms in the law. The passage in Edda probably came from a foreign source, and refers not to the Icel. winter but to the astronomical winter, viz. the winter solstice or the shortest day; for sunset at half-past three is suited not to Icel., but to the latitude of Scotland and the southern parts of Scandinavia. The word is also curious from its bearing upon the discovery of America by the ancients, vide Fb. l. c. This sense ( half-past three) is now obsolete in Icel., but eykt is in freq. use in the sense of trihorium, a time of three hours; whereas in the oldest Sagas no passage has been found bearing this sense,—the Bs. i. 385, 446, and Hem. l. c. are of the 13th and 14th centuries. In Norway ykt is freq. used metaph. of all the four meal times in the day, morning-ykt, midday-ykt, afternoon-ykt (or ykt proper), and even-ykt. In old MSS. (Grág., K. Þ. K., Hem., Heið. S.) this word is always spelt eykð or eykþ, shewing the root to be ‘auk’ with the fem. inflex. added; it probably first meant the eke-meal, answering to Engl. lunch, and thence came to mean the time of day at which this meal was taken. The eccl. law dilates upon the word, as the Sabbath was to begin at ‘hora nona;’ hence the phrase, eykt-helgr dagr (vide below). The word can have no relation to átta, eight, or átt, plaga coeli. At present Icel. say, at eykta-mótum, adv. at great intervals, once an eykt, once in three hours.

I. half-past three; þá er eykð er útsuðrs-átt er deild í þriðjunga, ok hefir sól gengna tvá hluti en einn ógenginn, K. Þ. K. 92; net skal öll upp taka fyrir eykð, 90; helgan dag eptir eykð, 88; ef þeir hafa unnit á eykð, 94; enda skal hann undan honum hafa boðit fyrir miðjan dag en hinn skal hafa kosit at eykþ, Grág. i. 198; ok á maðr kost at stefna fyrir eykþ ef vill, 395; í þat mund dags er tók út eyktina, Fms. xi. 136; eptir eykt dags, rendering of the Lat. ‘vix decima parte diei reliqua,’ Róm. 313; þeir gengu til eyktar, ok höfðu farit árla morguns, en er nón var dags, etc., Fs. 176; at eykð dags þá kómu heim húskarlar Barða. Ísl. ii. 329; nú vættir mik at þar komi þér nær eykð dags, 345; var þat nær eykð dags, 349; var hón at veraldligu verki þangat til er kom eykð, þá fór hón til bænar sinnar at nóni, Hom. (St.) 59.

COMPDS: eykðarhelgr, eyktarstaðr, eykðartíð.

II. trihorium; en er liðin var nær ein eykt dags, Bs. i. 446; at þat mundi verit hafa meir en hálf eykt, er hann vissi ekki til sín, 385; þessi flaug vanst um eina eykð dags, Hem. (Hb.)

n. an απ. λεγ. in the eccl. law of the county Víkin or Borgarþing, a coast district in the south of Norway, N. G. L. i. 339, 363, where the law orders that a monster child (i. e. an abortion, a birth without human shape) shall be brought to a place ‘forve,’ and buried where neither man nor beast comes by; þat skal á forve (forre, v. l.) fœra ok röyra ( put in a cairn) þar er hvárki gengr yfir menn né fénaðr, þat er forve (forfue, v. l.) hins ílla. In N. G. L. i. 13 it is ordered that felons (e. g. traitors, murderers, self-murderers, etc.) were not to be buried in consecrated soil, but in the ‘flood-mark where sea and green turf meet;’ cp. the curious story in Landn. 2. 19, where the Christian lady Auda ordered herself to be buried between high and low water mark (í flæðarmáli), as she would not rest in heathen earth; so, on the other hand, a monster child must not rest in Christian earth. Thus forve is probably derived from fyrva, q. v., to ebb, and denotes the flood-mark or beach in which the grave was to be dug; the concluding words, þat er forve hins ílla, probably mean this place is the forve of the evil one, i. e. an unhallowed place. The etymology given in H. E. i. 75 cannot be right.

f. spear, lance (rare).

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u, f. [A. S. franca], a kind of spear; Grimm thinks that the framea of Tacitus is merely a corruption of franca, a suggestion which seems to be almost certain; in northern poems and writers this word only occurs in Rm. 32, whence it was probably taken into Edda (Gl.); on the other hand, we have an Icel. frakki, a, m. a kind of weapon, in the compd hræ-f., a ‘carrion-fluke,’ i. e. the blade of a sword, Gísl. 7 (in a verse); and akkeris-frakki, a, m. an ‘anchor-fluke (?),’ in a verse of 996, Fs. 92: again, the frakka of the Rm. was probably borrowed from A. S.

2. Frakki, a, m. a proper name, cp. Gullþ.; Frakka-nes, n. a farm.

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1) closed hand, fist;

2) the king in hnefa-tafl.

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a, m. the king in a kind of chess played by the ancients, Fas. ii. 68: the game was called hnefa-tafl, n., which is variously spelt—nettafl, Gullþ. 20, and hnettafl, Grett. 144 A (which are contracted or assimilated forms); hneftafl, Mork. 186, Fms. vi. 29, Fas. i. 284; hnottafl (a bad form), Fas. i. 476 in a spurious verse, and in Krók. ch. 10; hnefa-tafl (the true form), Fas. i. 67. The game is best described in Friðþ. S. ch. 3, and in one of the riddles in Hervar. S. (where however the rhymed replies are not genuine): ‘Who are the maids that fight about their unarmed lord, the dark all day defending, but the fair slaying?’ The players were two, as in chess; there was only one king (hnefi), here called the ‘unarmed lord;’ the pieces (töflur) were white and red, the white attacking, the red defending the hnefi; þat er hneftafl, enar dökkri verja hnefann, en hinar hvítari sækja, Fas. i. 474; þat er húninn í hneftafli, 476: pieces made of silver are recorded in Gullþ. S., of walrus-bone in Krók. l. c. For the general use of this game, cp. the dialogue between the two brother kings, Mork. l. c.,—teflig hneftafl betr, era þat minna vert en afl þitt; Sigurðr Ormr í auga ok Hvítserkr hvati sitja at hneftafli, Fas. i. 284: whenever tafl is mentioned, this particular game seems to be understood, e. g. the gullnar töflur and tefldu í túni of the Vsp.; cp. earl Rögnvald’s verse in Orkn. ch. 61; and the fatal game of chess between king Canute and earl Ulf in Roeskilde A. D. 1027 was probably a hneftafl. We see from Mork. l. c. that it was still played at the beginning of the 12th century, but in after times it was superseded by the true chess (skák); both games were probably of the same origin.

COMPDS: hnefatafla, hneftöfl, hnettöfl, hnettafla.

(-s, -ar), m. poor-law district (in Iceland).

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m.:—this word remains in ‘ the Rape of Bramber’ in Sussex, and is undoubtedly Scandinavian, being probably derived, as Pal Vídalín suggested, from hreppa, and thus originally meaning a share, allodium; it may be that the proper name Hrappr (Landn.) is akin (= a yeoman, master of a Rape?); for the bad sense of that name (= a traitor) is a metonyme, borrowed from the person of that name in the Njála. After the introduction of Christianity, all Icel. was, for the maintenance of the poor, divided into poor-law districts called hreppar, which still exist, being in most cases, though not always, identical with the sókn or parish; and it is remarkable that the district round the Bishop’s seat at Skalholt bears the local name Hreppar, indicating that this division had the Bishop’s house as its nucleus. The occurrence therefore of this name in the Landn. is an anachronism; as probably are also the few instances in which hreppr is used as an appellative in records of the heathen age, e. g. Lv. l. c. It is not known when the division into Rapes took place; perhaps it took place gradually during the 11th century; vera á hrepp, koma á hreppinn, to be or become a pauper. In the Grágás a special section (and as it seems one of the oldest) is called ‘um Hreppa-skil,’ Kb. ii. 171–180; ‘um Hreppa-lög,’ Sb. i. 443–458. Twenty franklins at least constituted a lawful Rape, Kb. ii. 171. (These remarks are partly due to Konrad Maurer.)

COMPDS: hreppadómr, hreppalög, Hreppamaðr, hreppamál, hreppamót, hreppaskil, hreppatal, hreppsfundr, hreppsmaðr, hreppssókn, hreppsóknarmenn, hreppsstjóri, hreppsúmagi.

(pl. hundruð), n. hundred; tírœtt h. = 100; tólfrœtt h. = 120; hundruðum, by (in) hundreds; as value, one hundred and twenty ells of the stuff wadmal; h. frítt, a hundred paid in cattle; tólf hundruð mórend, twelve hundred in dark-striped wadmal; hundrað silfrs, ? the silver value of 120 ells (= 20 ounces).

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n. pl. hundruð; the form hund- (q. v.) only occurs in a few old compd words: [Goth. hunda, pl.; A. S. hund; O. H. G. hunt; the extended form in Hel. and old Frank, hundered; Germ. hundert; Dan. hundrede; Swed. hundra; the inflexive syllable is prob. akin to - ræðr in átt-ræðr]:—a hundred; the Scandinavians of the heathen time (and perhaps also all Teutonic people) seem to have known only a duo-decimal hundred (= 12 × 10 or 120); at that time 100 was expressed by tíu-tíu, cp. Ulf. taihun-taihund = ten-teen; Pal Vídalín says,—hundrað tólfrætt er sannlega frá heiðni til vor komið, en hið tíræða er líkast að Norðrlönd hafi ekki vitað af fyrr en Kristni kom hér og með henni lærdómr þeirrar aldar, Skýr. s. v. Hundrað (fine): but with the introduction of Christianity came in the decimal hundred, the two being distinguished by adjectives,—tólfrætt hundrað = 120, and tírætt hundrað = 100. But still the old popular duodecimal system continued in almost all matters concerned with economical or civil life, in all law phrases, in trade, exchange, property, value, or the like, and the decimal only in ecclesiastical or scholastic matters (chronology, e. g. Íb. ch. 1, 10). At the same time the word in speech and writing was commonly used without any specification of tírætt or tólfrætt, for, as Pal Vídalín remarks, every one acquainted with the language knew which was meant in each case; even at the present time an Icel. farmer counts his flocks and a fisherman his share (hlutr) by the duodecimal system; and everybody knows that a herd or share of one hundred and a half means 120 + 60 = 180. In old writers the popular way of counting is now and then used even in chronology and in computation, e. g. when Ari Frode (Íb. ch. 4) states that the year consists of three hundred and four days (meaning 364); the census of franklins given by the same writer (where the phrase is hundruð heil = whole or full hundreds) is doubtless reckoned by duodecimal, not decimal hundreds, Íb. ch. 10; and in the census of priests and churches taken by bishop Paul (about A. D. 1200) ‘tíræð’ is expressively added, lest duodecimal hundreds should be understood, Bs. i. 136. The Landn. (at end) contains a statement (from Ari?) that Iceland continued pagan for about a hundred years, i. e. from about 874–997 A. D. In the preface to Ólafs S., Snorri states that two duodecimal hundreds (tvau hundruð tólfræð) elapsed from the first colonisation of Iceland before historical writing began (i. e. from about A. D. 874–1115): levies of ships and troops are in the laws and Sagas counted by duodecimal hundreds, e. g. the body-guard of king Olave consisted of a hundred hirð-men, sixty house-carles and sixty guests, in all ‘two hundred’ men, i. e. 240, Mork. 126; the sons of earl Strút-Harald had a hundred men, of whom eighty were billetted out and forty returned, Fms. xi. 88, 89; hálft hundrað, a half hundred = sixty, Mork. l. c.

2. a division of troops = 120; hundraðs-flokkr, Fms. vi. (in a verse).

II. in indef. sense, hundreds, a host, countless number, see hund-, as also in the adverb, phrase, hundruðum, by hundreds (indefinitely), Fms. vi. 407, Þiðr. 275, 524: in mod. usage as adjective and indecl., except the pl. in -uð, thus hundruð ásauðum, Dipl. iv. 10.

B. As value, a hundred, i. e. a hundred and twenty ells of the stuff wadmal, and then simply value to that amount (as a pound sterling in English). All property, real as well as personal, is even at present in Icel. taxed by hundreds; thus an estate is a ‘twenty, sixty, hundred’ estate; a franklin gives his tithable property as amounting to so and so many hundreds. As for the absolute value of a hundred, a few statements are sufficient, thus e. g. a milch cow, or six ewes with lambs, counts for a hundred, and a hundrað and a kúgildi (cow’s value) are equal: the charge for the alimentation of a pauper for twelve months was in the law (Jb. 165) fixed to four hundred and a half for a male person, but three hundred and a half for a female; cp. also the phrase, það er ekki hundrað í hættunni, there is no hundred at stake, no great risk! In olden times a double standard was used,—the wool or wadmal standard, called hundrað talið = a hundred by tale, i. e. a hundred and twenty ells as stated above, and a silver standard, called hundrað vegit, a hundred by weight, or hundrað silfrs, a hundred in silver, amounting to two marks and a half = twenty ounces = sixty örtugar; but how the name hundred came to be applied to it is not certain, unless half an örtug was taken as the unit. It is probable that originally both standards were identical, which is denoted by the phrase, sex álna eyrir, six ells to an ounce, or a hundred and twenty ells equal to twenty ounces (i. e. wadmal and silver at par); but according as the silver coinage was debased, the phrases varied between nine, ten, eleven, twelve ells to an ounce (N. G. L. i. 80, 81, 387, 390, passim), which denote bad silver; whereas the phrase ‘three ells to an ounce’ (þriggja álna eyrir, Sturl. i. 163, passim, or a hundred in wadmal equal to half a hundred in silver) must refer either to a double ell or to silver twice as pure: the passage in Grág. i. 500 is somewhat obscure, as also Rd. 233: the words vegin, silfrs, or talin are often added, but in most cases no specification is given, and the context must shew which of the two standards is there meant; the wool standard is the usual one, but in cases of weregild the silver standard seems always to be understood; thus a single weregild (the fine for a man’s life) was one hundred, Njála passim.

2. the phrases, hundrað frítt, a hundred paid in cattle, Finnb. 236; tólf hundruð mórend, twelve hundred in dark striped wadmal, Nj. 225; hundrað í búsgögnum ok í húsbúningi, Vm. 65; hundraðs-gripr, hestr, hross, kapall, hvíla, sæng, rekkja, psaltari, etc., a beast, a horse, a bed, etc., of a hundred’s value, Am. 2, 10, Vm. 25, 39, 60, 153, Jm. 3, 30; hundraðs-úmagi, a person whose maintenance costs a hundred, Vm. 156; hundraðs virði, a hundred’s value, 68. For references see the Sagas and laws passim, and for more information see Mr. Dasent’s Essay in Burnt Njal.

C. A hundred, a political division which in olden times was common to all Teut. nations, but is most freq. in old Swedish laws, where several hundreds made a hérað or shire; cp. the A. S. and Engl. hundred, Du Cange hundredum; old Germ. hunderti, see Grimm’s Rechts Alterthümer; the centum pagi of Caesar, Bell. Gall. iv. ch. 1, is probably the Roman writer’s misconception of the Teut. division of land into hundreds; this is also the case with Tacit. Germ. ch. 12: cp. the Swed. local names Fjaðrunda-land, Áttundaland, and Tíunda-land, qs. Fjaðr-hunda land, Átthunda land, Tíhunda land, i. e. a combination of four, eight, ten hundreds. The original meaning was probably a community of a hundred and twenty franklins or captains. This division is not found in Icel.

m. [A. S. cneow-rim and cneowres, see kné II. above: knérunnr (if referred to runnr = a grove) gives no adequate meaning, whereas the A. S. rîm = number is just the word we should expect; and as the identity between the A. S. and Norse law terms can scarcely be doubted, it is likely that the Norse or Icel. form is simply a corruption of the A. S. form. Probably, as the A. S. rîm was unintelligible to the Norsemen, they took the Norse word nearest in sound; the word was probably borrowed from the A. S. through the eccl. law, so that its use in Nj. is an anachronism]:—lineage, as also degree in lineage; þat er k. at telja frá systkinum, Grág. i. 171; telja knérunnum, 254; veg þú aldrei meir í enn sama knérunn en um sinn, Nj. 85; allt til hinnar sjaundu kynkvíslar eða knérunns, Stj. 54; ella mun ek mæla þat orð, Yngveldr, at uppi mun vera alla æfi í knérunni yðrum, Þorst. Síðu H. 186.

(gen. -ar), m. veto, interdict; verja e-t lýriti, to put a veto on, forbid by law.

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m., or better lýritr or lýrittr, gen. lyritar (but lyrits, Grág. ii. 233), dat. lyriti, plur. lyritar. N. G. L. ii. 94, Jb. 193; the quantity cannot be ascertained because the vellums do not distinguish between long and short vowels; it is spelt with one t throughout the Grág. (Kb.); the alliterative phrase lagalyritr, as also the invariable spelling in the Grágás, shew that the word had no initial h. Former attempts at an etymology, from læ and rifta (Björn á Skarðsá), hlýrar and réttir (Pal Vídal.), lygi and rift (Fritzner), must be dismissed; tiie spelling lyriftar, which once or twice occurs in Norse MSS. of the 14th century (N. G. L. i. 394, ii. 94, v. l. 19), is probably a mere corruption. Lyritr is a compd word from lög, law, and rör or reyr, a landmark, which word in the old Swed. law exactly answers to lyrit in the Norse law; lyrit is thus qs. lý-ryr-ti, by assimilation and by weakening the y into i, lyritti; the t being inflexive: its literal sense, therefore, is a lawful rör or landmark. In Sweden there were often five mark-stones, but it is added (Schlyter iii. s. v. rör)—fiuri stenar oc þri stenar mughu rör heta = four stones and even three stones may be called rör, i. e. make a ‘law-rör,’ a lawful landmark, a lyrit; this, we believe, is the etymology of this much-contested word. About the gender (masc., not fem.) there can be no doubt, from the numerous instances in the Grágás; but in the 13th century the word began to become neuter, thus we have lyritit, Grág. (Kb.) i. 103, lines 14 and 21, but lyritinn several times in the same page: nom. lyriti in Grág. (Sb.) ii. 226; and elalausu lyriti, Nj. passim.

B. SENSE:

I. prop. when the boundary of a field or estate was to be drawn, the law prescribed that a mark-stone (mark-steinn) should be raised on the spot, and three other stones laid beside it; these three stones were called landmark-stones (lyrit-steinar or lyritar); by their number and position they were distinguished from all other stones in the field, see N. G. L. ii. 94, cp. note 19 (Jb. 193).

II. metaph. in the Icel. law, a full title of possession, lawful claim to right or property; thus defined by Konrad Maurer—‘Lyrit bedeutet in der Grágás und in den ältern Sagas, das volle Eigentums-recht, oder auch den Bann, der dem Grunde gentümer zum Schutze seines Eigentumes, dem Goden aber Kraft seiner Amtsgewalt zusteht:’

1. the earliest kind was probably the land-lyrit or ‘land-ban;’ this law term was originally borrowed from the mark-stones themselves, and then came to mean a full title to land, field, pasture, or estate, Grág. ii. 224, 225:—eignar-lyritr, full lawful possession, a legal title of ownership; hafa eignar-lyrit fyrir landi, 204, 222.

2. a veto; Goða-lyritr, the veto of a Goði ( Priest), forbidding the court or neighbours to deliver a sentence or verdict in a case, and thus quashing the suit. A Goði alone, by virtue of his office, was entitled to stop a court in this way, whether personally or by one of his liegemen, so that if any one else wished thus to stop a suit, he had first to go to his liegelord (Goði) and be authorised by him to do so; cp. the phrases, taka lyrit af Goða, selja lyrit, ef Goði færir lyrit sinn sjálfr fram, and similar law phrases, Grág. i. 109–111, cp. esp. Þ. Þ. ch. 38; neglect of this was contempt of court, punishable by the lesser outlawry. The word lyritr occurs at every step in the Grágás, esp. in the phrase, verja lyriti, or verja e-t lyriti, to defend through a lyrit, i. e. to put under veto, to vindicate one’s right, forbid, or the like; eigi varðar hagabeit, nema lyriti sé varið, Grág. ii. 224; verja lyriti haga, 225; þótt maðr veri fleirum lyriti (dat.), 226, Nj.; láta lyrit koma fyrir sök, to stop on a case, Grág. i. 109; kaupa land lagn kaupi ok lyritar, to buy land by a lawful bargain and with full tide of possession, ii. 213; eptir þat nefndi Þorkéll sér vátta, ok setti (varði?) þeim lyriti, ok fyrirbauð þeim at dæma, Lv. 31; ok er únýt stefna hans eðr lyriti (lyritr?), Grág. ii. 226; hann (the Goði) skal nefna sér vátta, áðr hann færi lyrit fram, í þat vætti, at ek ver lyriti, goða-lyriti, löglyriti fullum dómendum at dæma um sök þá … enda skal hann svá verja kviðmönnum lyriti, at bera kviðu um hann, i. 111; ek ver lyriti mínum, löglyriti dómendum at dæma, id.; færa lyrit sinn fram, to utter one’s veto, id.; fara með land-lyriti, ii. 225.

COMPDS: lyritareiðr, lyritarvarzla, lyritarvörn.

(-s, -ar), m.

1) step, = gráda;

2) the raised-floor along the sides of the hall, = ‘lang-pallar’;

3) a cross dais at the upper end of the hall, þverpallr, hápallr.

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m. [the etymology of this word, as also the time when and place whence it was borrowed, is uncertain; the true Norse word is bekkr or flet; pallr may be of Norman origin, although it is frequently used in the Sagas referring to the Saga time (10th century); even the benches in the legislative assembly on the alþing were called pallar, not bekkir; but this cannot have been so originally. The word itself is, like páll, probably from Lat. palus, pala = stipes, Du Cange; Engl. pale, palings; in the Icel. it is used of high steps (Lat. gradus), esp. of any high floor or daïs in old dwellings, sometimes = flet (q. v.) or = lopt (q. v.), and lastly of the benches in the hall = bekkr (q. v.) The adoption of the word was probably connected with the change in the floor and seats of the halls, as mentioned in Fagrsk. ch. 219, 220, which arrangement of benches was adopted from Norman England, and is in fact still seen in English college-halls, with the raised high floor at the upper end. In Icel. the ladies were then seated on this daïs (há-pallr, þver-pallr), instead of being placed, according to the older custom, on the left hand along the side walls, see below, II. 2. As the Sagas were written after this had taken place, so the use of the word, e. g. in the Njála (ch. 34 and often), may be an anachronism.]

B. A step = Lat. gradus; þessi steinn var útan sem klappaðr væri gráðum eða pöllum, Fms. i. 137; vindur upp at ganga, nítján pallar á bergit, Symb. 56; stíga pall af palli, from step to step, Hom. 140. palla-söngr and palla-sálmi, m. = the ‘graduale,’ chant, or responsorium ‘in gradibus’ in the Roman Catholic service, from its being chanted at the steps of the altar; sá söngr heitir pallasöngr þviat hann er fyrir pöllum sunginn, 625. 188, Hom. (St.), Mar.: metaph. degree, enn tólpti pallr ósóma, 677. 1: þrjátigi palla djúpr, Bév. palls-bók, f. ‘graduale,’ the service-book for the high mass, Játv. ch. 10.

II. a daïs with its set of benches; þar skulu pallar þrír vera ( three sets of benches) umhverfis lögréttuna, Grág. i. 4; pallinn þann inn úæðra, Eg. 303; Flosi gékk inn í stofuna ok settisk niðr, ok kastaði í pallinn ( he threw on the floor) undan sér há-sætinu, Nj. 175; konungr leit yfir lýðinn umhverfis sik á pallana, Fms. vii. 156; hann lá í pallinum, 325; konungr sat í pallinum hjá honum, xi. 366; gékk Þrándr í stofu, en þeir lágu í pallinum, Sigurðr ok Þórðr ok Gautr, Fær. 195.

2. the raised floor or daïs at the upper end of the hall, where the ladies were seated (= þver-pallr, há-p.), konur skipuðu pall, Nj. 11; konur sátu á palli, Ísl. ii. 250; hljópu þeir inn ok til stofu, ok sat Katla á palli ok spann, Eb. 94; hón fal sik í pallinum, she hid herself in the pallr, Landn. 121; var þar hlemmr undir ok holr innan pallrinn, … þá bað Geirríð brjóta upp pallinn, var Oddr þar fundinn, Eb. 96:—mið-pallr, the middle bench; krók-pallr, the corner bench, Skíða R. (where the beggar littered himself).

3. in mod. usage the sitting-room is called pallr, from being elevated a yard or two above the level ground; í hlýindin þar hjónin búa á palli. Snót: hence pall-skör, f. the ridge of the pallr: palls-horn, n. the corner of the pallr, Nj. 220, Sturl. iii. 141.

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.

m. probably a chair on wheels or castors; Ketilbjörn sat á akstóli injök við pall, in the banquet at Flugumýri in the year 1253, Sturl. iii. 182.

adj. ind., now alfarinn; in phrases like fara, koma alfari, to start, set off for good and all, Fms. iii. 92, Bret. 80, Fas. i. 249; ríða í brott a., Nj. 112, Bs. i. 481; koma til skips a., Grág. ii. 75. [Probably an obsolete dat. from alfar.]

(gen. sing. alnar or álnar; pl. alnar or álnir), f. = öln;

1) the old Icelandic ell (about half a yard);

2) unit of value, an ell of woollen stuff (alin vaðmáls), = one sixth of an ounce(eyrir).

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f. A dissyllabic form alun appears in old poetry, v. Lex. Poët. In early prose writers a monosyllabic form öln prevails in nom. dat. acc. sing., D. I. i. 310. l. 22 (MS. of the year 1275), 314. l. 16 (MS. year 1250), 311, 312. l. 16, 313. l. 7, 89. l. 1. Nom. pl., α. the old, alnar; β. the later, alnir: the former in -ar, in D. I. i. 309 (a MS. of the year 1275), 310–312 (MS. year 1370), 313, 316. l. 19, 318. 1. 15. The pl. in -ir, D. I. i. 89 sqq., in MSS. of the 13th and 14th centuries. In the contracted form aln- the simple radical vowel soon became a diphthongal á, viz. álnar, álnir, álnum, álna, and is at present so spelt and pronounced. We find an acute accent indeed in álna (gen pl.), D. I. i. 313. l. 25 (MS. year 1375), and dinar, id. l, 7; álnom, 1. 28; ölnum with changed vowel, N. G. L. i. 323 (in an Icel. transcript). The present declension is, nom. acc. alin, gen. álnar; pl. nom. acc. álnir, gen. álna, dat. alnum.

I. properly the arm from the elbow to the end of the middle finger [Gr. ώλένη, Lat. ulna, cp. A. S. el-boga, Engl. el-bow, etc.]; almost obsolete, but still found in the words ölbogi qs. öln-bogi, ‘elbow,’ and úlf-liðr, prop. uln- or óln-liðr, wrist, commonly pronounced unl-liðr [false etymol., v. Edda, p. 17]; cp. Ísl. Þjóðs. ii. 19, where tungl (luna) and unl- rhyme. Freq. in poetry in such compounds as alun-leygr, -brandr, ölun-grjót, alnar-gim, alin-leygr, the standing poët, name of gold and gems being ignis or lapis cubiti.

II. mostly metaph.:

1. an ell, [Ulf. aleina; A. S. eln; Engl. ell; O. H. G. elina; Dan. alen; Lat. ulna, cp. cubitum] ; the finger, arm, foot were the original standards for measure. The primitive ell measured the length from the elbow to the point of the second finger, and answered to about half a yard Engl. = 18 inches. The Icel. ell before the year 12OO measured just half a yard. About this year, by a law of bishop Paul, the ell was doubled into a stika, a stika being precisely = two ells = an Engl. ell of that time. To prevent the use of bad measure, a just and lawful stika (yard) was marked on the walls of the churches, esp. that at Thingvellir, as an authorised standard, Páls S. ch. 9, Bs. i. 135, D. I. i. 309, 316, Jb. Kb. 26; ensk lérept tveggja álna, English linen of two ells measure, id.; þat er mælt, at at graftar kirkju hverri skal mæla stiku lengd, þá er rétt sé at hafa til álna máls, ok megi menn þar til ganga ef á skilr um alnar, 309. During the whole of the 15th century the Icel. trade was mainly in British hands; thus the Engl. double ell probably prevailed till the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century. The Hanse Towns ell = 21 1/11 inches was then introduced, and abolished in the year 1776, when the Dan. ell = 24 inches came into use. At present the Hanse Towns ell is called Íslenzk alin (Icel. ell), and the original half-yard ell is quite obsolete; cp. Jón Sigurðsson in D. I. i. 306–308, and Pál Vidal. s. v. alin.

2. a unit of value, viz. an ell (half-yard measure) of woollen stuff (vaðmál); the vaðmál (Halliwell wadmal, Engl. woadmal, Orkn. and Shell, wadmaal and vadmel) was in Icel. the common medium of payment, whence an ell became the standard unit of value or property, whether in land or chattels; 120 ells make a hundred, v. that word. In D. I. i. 316 we are told that, about the year 1200, three ells were equal in value to one ounce of ordinary silver, whence the expression þriggja álna eyrir (a common phrase during the 13th century). The value of the ell of vaðmal, however, varied greatly; during the 11th and 12th centuries six ells made an ounce, D. I. i. 88. In Norway we find mentioned níu, ellifu álna aurar (nine, eleven ells to an ounce). In Grág. (Kb.) ii. 192, § 245, it is said that, about the year 1000, four ells in Icel. made an ounce, and so on; vide Dasent, Essay in 2nd vol. of Burnt Njal., and Pal Vidal. s. v. alin.

COMPDS: álnarborð, álnarbreiðr, alnarkefli, álnartíund, álnarvirði, álnasök.