recorded+instance

pres. lumi; pret. lumdi (?); part. lumað; imperat. lumi:—to keep closely, hold tight; luma af e-u, to yield up, lumi (imperat.) af skutlinum, maðr, lend me the harpoon! Fbr. 86 new Ed., cp. Fb. ii. 209; in old writers only recorded in this instance: in mod. usage, Icel. say, luma á e-u, to keep or hoard, of money, with a notion of stealth or closeness, hann lumir á penningum (of small savings), or hann lumaði (for lumði?) á því; perh. Dan. lomme = pocket is a kindred word.

(dat. Óðni), m. Odin.

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m., dat. Óðni; [A. S. Wodan; O. H. G. Wodan, in the Old High German song Phol ende Wodan vuoron zi holza; in the Norse the w is dropped, whence Odinn]:—Odin, Wodan, the name of the founder of the ancient Northern and Teutonic religion, who was afterwards worshipped as the supreme god, the fountain-head of wisdom, the founder of culture, writing, and poetry, the progenitor of kings, the lord of battle and victory; so that his name and that of Allföðr (Allfather, the father of gods and men) were blended together. For Odin as an historical person see esp. Yngl. S., the first chapters of which were originally written by Ari the historian, who himself traced his pedigree back to Odin. For the various tales of Odin as a deity see the Edda and the old poems; for the legends explaining how Odin came by his wisdom, how he was inspired, how he pawned his eye in the well of Mimir, see Vsp. 22; how he hung in the world-tree Yggdrasil, Hm. 139 sqq.; and the most popular account, how he carried away the poetical mead from the giant Suptung, etc., see Hm. 104–110. and Edda 47–49; for his travelling in disguise in search of wisdom among giants and Norns, Vþm., Gm., Vsp. For Odin’s many names and attributes see Edda (Gl.) The greatest families, the Ynglings in Sweden, Skjöldungs in Denmark, and the Háleygir in Norway, traced their pedigrees back to Odin, see the poems Ýt., Ht., Langfeðgatal. In translations from the Latin, Odin was, strangely enough, taken to represent Mercury; thus, kölluðu þeir Pál Óðin, en Barnabas Þór, they called Paul Odin, but Barnabas they called Thor, is an ancient rendering of Acts xiv. 12, cp. Clem., Bret., and passim. This seems to have originated with the Romans themselves; for Tacitus says, ‘deorum maxime Mercurium colunt,’ by which he can only mean Wodan; the Romans may have heard the German tales of Wodan’s wonderful travels, his many assumed names and disguises, his changes of shape, his eloquence, his magical power,—tales such as abound in the Edda,—and these might make the Romans think of the Greek legends of Hermes: accordingly, when the planetary week days were adopted from the Lat., ‘dies Mercurii’ was rendered into A. S. by Wodansdäg, in Engl. Wednesday, in Dan. Onsdag, in Norse Óðins-dagr, Orkn. 386, Fms. ix. 282: Óðins-nótt, f. Wednesday night, N. G. L. i. 17. Óðins-hani, a, m. a bird, tringa hyperborea, or the phalaropus cinereus, or the red phalarope, see Fjölnir viii, Faber, Edda (Gl.)

II. Northern local names, Óðins-vé, n. the sanctuary of Odin = Odense in Fünen in Denmark, Knytl. S.: Óðins-salr, m. in Norway. Munch’s Norg. Beskr. 79: Óðins-lundr, m. Odin’s grove. In a single instance Athens is rendered by Óðins-borg, and the Athenians by Óðins-borgar-menn, Post. 645. 90; the name can only have been formed from the Greek name pronounced with the th sound, perhaps by the Northmen at Constantinople, who may have associated the name, thus sounded, with Odin’s supposed travels from the east to Sweden, and his halts at various places, which were afterwards called after him, as recorded in Yngl. S. As a pr. name, Othen villicus, Dipl. Arna-Magn. (Thorkelin) i. 23; Oden Throndsson, D. N. iv. 756, 764; Ódin-dís, f., Baut., but very rare. It is noteworthy that the name of Odin is, in the old poets, hardly ever used as appellative in poët. circumlocutions of a ‘man;’ málm-Óðinn is a απ. λεγ. = warrior.

adj., proncd. úrvinda, [the word is not recorded in old writers: the etymology may be from úr and vyndi, qs. yndi, Germ. wonne, = out of rest, out of cheer; if so, it would be an interesting instance of the retention of the w before y]:—restless, distressed, esp. of a person distressed from want of sleep, e. g. a child crying incessantly is said to be úrvinda; barnið er úrvinda, það er úrvinda af svefni, distressed for want of sleep.

f., pl. rúnar: [rún, raun, reyna are all kindred words, and a lost strong verb, rúna, raun, meaning to enquire, may be presumed; the original notion is scrutiny, mystery, secret conversation; Gotb. runa, by which Ulf. several times renders the Gr. μυστήριον and συμβούλιον (once, Matth. xxvii. 1), βουλή (twice, Luke vii. 30, 1 Cor. iv. 5); A. S. rún = a ‘rowning’ mystery, but also = writing, charter; Hel. rûna = colloquium, and geruni = loquela (Schmeller); cp. Old Engl. to rown, Germ. raunen; Gr. ἐ-ρευνάω is also supposed to be a kindred word (Bugge). In Scandin. writers and poets rún is chiefly used of magical characters, then of writing, whereas the derivative word raun means trial, enquiry, and rúni and rúna = a friend or counsellor.]

B. A secret, hidden lore, mystery; frá jötna rúnum ok allra goða segðú it sannasta, Vþm. 42, 43; kenna rúnar, to teach wisdom, Rm. 33; dæma um rúnar ok regin-dóma, Hm. 112; minnask á fornar rúnar, Vsp. 59: saws, segja sannar rúnir, to tell true saws, Fas. ii. 302 (in a verse): a ‘rowning’ speech, vifs rúnir, a woman’s whispering, Bm.; heita e-n at rúnum, to consult one, Gh. 12, Skv. 3. 14, 43; hniga at rúnum, Gkv. 3. 4.

II. a Rune or written character; the earliest Runes were not writing in proper sense, but fanciful signs possessing a magical power; such Runes have, through vulgar superstition, been handed down even to the present time, for a specimen of them see Ísl. Þjóðs. i.435, 436, and Arna-Magn. Nos. 687. 4 to, and 434. 12 mo (Ísl. Þjóðs.pref. ix); the classical passages for these spell-Runes are, Hm. 133 sqq., Sdm. 5 sqq., Skm. 29, 36, Eg. ch. 44, 61, 75, Yngl. S. ch. 7, Grett. ch. 85, N. G. L. iii. 286, 300, Vsp. 59; cp. also the phrase, rísta trénið, Grág., Fs. 56. The phrase in the old Danish Ballads, kaste runer, to throw Rúnes, i. e. chips (see hlaut, hlautviðr), may be compared to the Lat. sortes, Mommsen’s Hist, of Rome, vol. i. p. 187, foot-note (Engl. Ed.), or the Sibylline leaves in the Aeneid.

2. Runes as writing;the word was first applied to the original Northern alphabet, which at an early time was derived from the common Phœnician, probably through Greek or Roman coins in the first centuries of our era. From these Runes were subsequently formed two alphabets, the old Scandinavian (whence again the Anglo-Saxon), as found on the Golden horn and the stone in Tune, and the later Scandinavian, in which the inscriptions in the greater number of the Swedish and Danish stone monuments are written, most being of the 10th (9th?) and following centuries.—A curious instance of the employment of Runes is their being written on a kefli (a round piece of wood) as messages (cp. the Gr. σκυτάλη), as is freq. recorded in the Sagas, e. g. Gísl. 45, 67, Fms. ix. 390, 490, Grett. 154 new Ed., Fb. i. 251 (of the deaf and dumb Oddny). It is doubtful whether poems were ever written in this way, for almost the only authority for such a statement is Eg. 605, where we read that the Sonatorrek was taken down on a Runic stick, the other instances being mostly from romances or fabulous Sagas, Grett. 144, Örvar Odds S.(fine). This writing on a kefli is mentioned in the Latin line, Barbara ‘fraxineis’ sculpatur runa ‘tabellis,’ Capella (5th century). In later times (from the 13th century) Runic writing was practised as a sort of curiosity; thus calendars used to be written on sticks, of which there is a specimen in the Bodl. Library in Oxford; they were also used for inscriptions on tombstones, spoons, chairs, and the like: there even exists in the Arna-Magn. Library a Runic MS. of an old Danish law, and there is a Runic letter in Sturl. (of the year 1241); Runes carved on an oar occur in Fs. 177: a hidden treasure in a chest is labelled with Runes, Fms. vi. 271, Sd. 146, cp. also the interesting record in Bs. i. 435 (sex manna bein vóru þar hjá honum ok vax ok rúnar þær er sögðu atburð lifláts þeirra).

3. the word rún is also, though rarely, applied to the Latin alphabet; ef hann er á þingi þá skal hann rísta nafn hans ef hann kann rúnar, N. G. L. i. 171; or generally, ræki ek eigi hvárt þú rítr ø þitt eðr o,  eða a, ę eða e, y eða u, en ek svara svá, eigi er þat rúnanna kostr þó at þú lesir vel eða ráðir vel at líkindum, þar sem rúnar visa óskírt, heldr er þat þinn kostr, Thorodd 162; þessi er upphaf allra hátta svá sem málrúnar eru fyrir öðrum minum, Edda (Ht.) 121.

III. in pr. names, Rún-ólfr: as the latter part in pr. names of women, Guð-rún, Sig-rún, Öl-rún, Landn., Nj., Bs., Sturl., Sæm.

COMPDS: rúnakefli, rúnamál, Rúnameistari, rúnastafr.

f., not þynd, as it is sometimes spelt by modern writers, the i is determined by the old rhyme v indr í sal þ indar, Edda l. c.; [from þenja, prop. what is stretched out; Lat. tent-orium, although different in sense, seems really to be the same word]:—the diaphragm; the word is very freq. in mod. usage, although not recorded in old writers except in this sole instance; salr þindar, the breast, Edda ii. 363 (in a verse), þindar-lauss, adj. without a diaphragm, one who is never out of breath in running, esp. used as an epithet of the fox.

(pl. -ir), f. thousand.

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f.; sérhverja þúsund, Stj. 298; á þúsund (dat.), Sks. 705; tvær, þrjár … þúsundir, 623. 53: in mod. usage it is mostly neut. (influenced by Latin?), but also fem. It is spelt þús-hund, Barl. 53; þús-hundum, Fms. vi. 409 (v. l.), Geisli 49; another form þús-hundrað (q. v.) is freq., esp. in Stj., Barl.; this double form -hund and -hundrað answers to the equally double form of ‘hundred,’ see p. 292, and is a proof that þúsund is a compound word, the latter part of which is ‘hund’ or ‘hundred;’ the etymology of the former part ‘þús’ is less certain; it is, we believe, akin to þysja, þyss, þaus-nir (a lost strong verb þúsa, þaus, þusu); þúsund would thus literally mean a swarm of hundreds: [in Goth. the gender varies, þûsundi, pl. þusundjos = χίλιοι, or þusundja, neut.; A. S. þûsend; Engl. thousand; O. H. G. dusunta; Germ. tausend, qs. dausend; Swed. tusende and tusen; Dan. tusinde; Dutch tuysend: this word is also common to the Slavon. languages: again, the Lapp, duhat and Finn. tuhat are no doubt borrowed from the Slavon. or Scandin.; the Gr., Lat., and Sansk. use other words]—a thousand.

B. There is little doubt that with the ancient heathen Scandinavians (and perhaps all Teutons), before their contact with the civilised southern people, the notion of numbers was limited, and that their thousand was not a definite number, but a vague term, denoting a swarm, crowd, host (cp. the Gr. μυρίοι): in ancient lays it occurs thrice (Hkv., Em., Fas. i. 502), but indefinitely; hvat þrym er þar sem þúsund bifisk eðr mengi til mikit, what a din is there as if a thousand were shaking, or an over-mickle multitude, Em. 2; sjau þúsundir, Hkv. 1. 49, literally = seven thousands, but in fact meaning seven hosts of men.

2. the dat. pl. þúsundum is, like huudruðum, used adverbially = by thousands, in countless numbers, Fms. vi. 409 (in a verse), Geisli 49.

3. in the ancient popular literature, uninfluenced by southern writers, ‘þúsund,’ as a definite number, occurs, we think, not half-a-dozen times. As the multiple of ten duodecimal hundreds, ere the decimal hundred was adopted, ‘þnsund’ would mean twelve decimal hundreds; and such is its use in the Sverris Saga, Fms. viii. 40, where one vellum says ‘tvær þúsundir,’ whilst the others, by a more idiomatic phrase, call it ‘twenty hundreds.’

II. in ecclesiastical writers, and in annals influenced by the Latin and the like, it is frequent enough; tíu þúsundir, fjórtán þúsundir, Fms. i. 107, 108 (annalistic records); fimm þúsundir, xi. 386, Al. 111; tíu þúsundum, Sks. 705; tíu þúsundum sinna hundrað þúsunda, Hom.; þúsund þúsunda, a thousand of thousands, i. e. a million, (mod.); hundrað þúsundir rasta ok átta tigir þúsunda, … hundrað þúsund mílna, Fb. i. 31 (in the legend of Eric the Far-traveller and Paradise, taken from some church-legend); fjórar þúsundir, Þiðr. 234: or of the years of the world, sex þúsundir vetra, Fs. 197; sjau þúsundir vetra, Landn. 34.

C. REMARKS.—The popular way of counting high numbers was not by thousands, but by tens (decades) and duodecimal hundreds as factors; thus ten … twenty hundreds, and then going on three, four, five, six … tens of hundreds (a ‘ten of hundreds’ being = 1200). The following references may illustrate this—tíu hundruð, ellefu hundruð, tólf hundruð, þrettán hundruð, fimtán hundruð …, Íb. 17, Ó. H. 119, 201, Fms. vii. 295, xi. 383, 385. From twenty and upwards—tuttugu hundrað manna, twenty hundreds of men, Fms. vii. 324, viii. 40; hálfr þriðitugr hundraða skipa, two tens and a half hundreds of ships, i. e. twenty-five hundreds, Fas. i. 378; þrjá tigu hundraða manna, three tens of hundreds of men, Fms. viii. 311; var skorat manntal, hafði hann meirr enn þrjá tigu hundraða manna, vii. 204; þrír tigir hundraða, D. N. v. 18; user fjorir tigir hundraða manna, nearly four tens of hundreds of men, Fms. vii. 275; á fimta tigi hundraða, on the fifth ten of hundreds, i. e. from four to five tens of hundreds, viii. 321; sex tigir hundraða, six tens of hundreds, 311, xi. 390; sex tigu hundraða manna, Fb. ii. 518, D. I. i. 350,—all odd amounts being neglected. The highest number recorded as actually reckoned in this way is ‘six tens of hundreds’ (fimtán tigir hundraða, fifteen tens of hundreds, Fms. viii. 321, v. l., is a scribe’s error): it is probable that no reckoning exceeded twelve tens of hundreds. All high multiples were unintelligible to the ancients; the number of the Einherjar in Walhalla is in the old lay Gm. thus expressed,—there are ‘five hundred doors in Walhalla, and five tens beside (the ‘five tens’ are, by the way, merely added for alliteration’s sake), and eight hundred Einherjar will walk out of each door when they go out to fight the Wolf’ (on the Day of final Doom). There seems to have been some dim exaggerated notion of a definite thousand in an ancient lay, only preserved in a half alliterative prose paraphrase, Fas. i. 502, where a mythical host is given thus,—there were thirty-three phalanxes, each of five ‘thousand,’ each thousand of thirteen hundreds, each hundred four times counted. The armies in the battle of Brawalla, the greatest of the mythical age, are given, not in numbers, but by the space the ranks occupied, Skjöld. S. ch. 8. This resembles the story in Ó. H. ch. 59, of the two young brothers, king’s sons: when asked what they would like to have most of, the one said: ‘Cows.’ ‘And how many?’ ‘As many,’ said he, ‘as could stand packed in a row round the lake (Mjösen in Norway) and drink.’ ‘But you?’ they asked the other boy: ‘House-carles’ (soldiers), said he. ‘And how many?’ ‘As many,’ said he, ‘as would in one meal eat up all my brother’s cows.’ Add also the tale of the King and the Giant, and the number of the giant’s house-carles, Maurer’s Volksagen 306. No less elementary was the rule for division and fractions, of which a remarkable instance is preserved in an ancient Icelandic deed, called Spákonu-arfr, published in D. I. i. 305. See also the words tigr, hundrað, skor, skora, and the remarks in Gramm. p. xix. The Homeric numeration, as set forth in Mr. Gladstone’s Homeric Studies, vol. iii, p. 425 sqq., is highly interesting, and bears a striking resemblance to that of the ancient Scandinavians. We may notice that in Iceland land and property are still divided into hundreds (hundreds of ells = 120), see hundrað B; in this case a thousand is never used, but units and hundreds of hundreds as factors, thus, sex tögu hundraða, in Reykh. Máld, (a deed of the 12th century), and so still in mod. usage; a wealthy man of the 15th century is said to have bequeathed to his daughters in land, ‘tólf hundruð hundraða ok ellefu-tíu og tvau hundruð betr, en í lausafé fimm hundruð hundraða,’ i. e. twelve hundreds of hundreds and ‘eleventy’ and two hundreds, and in movables five hundreds of hundreds, Feðga-æfi 16 (by the learned Bogi Benidiktsson of Staðarfell in Iceland, A. D. 1771–1849); sjau hundruð hundraða og þrjátigi hundruð betr, 21; hann eptir-lét börnum sínum fjármuni upp á níu hundruð hundraða, 22,—a proof that in very remote times, when this valuation of land first took place, ‘thousand’ was still unknown as a definite number.