where

(gen. völu; pl. völur), f. prophetess, sibyl, wise woman, witch (fóru þá um landit spákonur, er kallaðar vóru völur).

* * *

u, f., also spelt völfa, gen. völu, pl. völur; völfu. or also völfur or voluur; gen. pl. does not occur; the nom. Vala is erroneous: [the etymology as well as the origin of this word is uncertain; but may not the Norse Völva and the Gr. σίβυλλα be relations? the identity in sense at least is very striking; the Gr. word first occurs in Aristoph., and then in Plato; may it not have been adopted from some Scythian tribe, for a word like this, if Greek, could hardly fail to occur in Homer? in völva an initial s, we suppose, has been lost (qs. svölva); in the Greek the ĭ would be an inserted vowel]:—a prophetess, sibyl, wise woman; völva, seiðkona, spákona (qq. v.) are synonymous. The ancient Sagas contain many remarkable records of the heathen wise-women or sibyls, who were held in honour and reverence; at the great feasts and sacrifices in the autumn, the völva (often a woman of rank) went with her troop of maidens through the country, where she, so to say, crowned the feast; she was seated on a high seat (seiðhjallr) in the hall, where she wrought her spells and sang her ‘weird-songs’ (varðlokur), after which the guests went past her one by one, and she told each his fate, or whatever else one wanted to know, e. g. the course of the coming winter and the like. The former part of the Völuspá is evidently conceived as the inspired song of a völva, seated on her high seat, and addressing Odin, while the gods listen to her words; and the latter part of the poem appears to be a kind of necromancy, or the raising of a dead völva, as also is the lay Vegtamskviða; sú kona var þar í bygð er Þorbjörg hét, ok var kölluð lítil völva, hón hafði áttar sér níu systr, ok vóru allar spákonur, en hón var ein þá á lífi, þat var háttr Þorbjargar um vetrum, at hón fór á veizlur ok buðu þeir menn henni mest heim er forvitni var á at vita forlög sín eða árferð, Þorf. Karl. Names of such wise women, Gróa völva, Edda; Heimlaug völva, Gullþ.; Heiðr völva, Landn. 173; Huldr völva, Yngl. S., Hkr. i. 21; to which add the ‘Weleda’ of Tacitus: class. passages are Þorf. S. ch. 3 (exceedingly interesting), Örvar-Odds S. ch. 3 (Fas. ii. 506), Vd. ch. 10: völu vél-spá, Vsp.; eru völfur allar frá Víðólfi, Hdl.; völva ok vís kona. Vtkv.; þá kom til völva sú er Gróa hét, Edda 58; var á því landi spákona sú er sagði fyrir örlög manna, … þeir fara til móts við völunna, Fb. ii. 28; ek fór í skóg til þín í völvu líki, Fas. i. 135; þóttusk menn vita at þar mundi verst hafa völu-leiði, Ld. 328; þá reið Óðinn fyrir austan dyrr þar er hann vissi völu leiði, Vtkv.; úrsvöl Gýmis völva, of Rán the goddess, Edda (in a verse); at hás völva valdi því bölvi, Kormak; in a bad sense, völva and skollvis kona, Hkv. 1. 34; Tacitus (Germ. ch. 8, 46, and Hist. iv. 61, 65, v. 22, 24) speaks of these practices, as also does Plutarch, Caesar ch. 19,— τα μαντεύματα των ἱερων γυναικων.

COMPDS: Völuspá, Völvustaðir.

(þær, þau), dem. pron. pl. they, those, answering to the sing. ‘sá, sú, þat’, and ‘hann, hón, þat’;

1) the neut. pl. ‘þau’ as collective for a masc. and fem.; síðan gengu þau (sc. Njáll and Bergthora) inn bæði;

2) ‘þeir’ is frequently used before an adv., or a prep. with its complement; þeir norðr þar, those there in the north; þeir fyrir austan árnar, those east of the rivers;

3) pleonast. before the names of two or more persons; þau Ásgerðr ok Þorsteinn, Asgerd and Thorstein; börn þeira Hildigunnar ok Kára váru þeir Starkaðr ok Flosi, the children of H. and K. were these, S. and F.; þeir feðgar, father and son;

4) ellipt., before the name of a single person; þeir Oddr, O. and his men; frá skiptum þeira Þórðar, about the dealings of Thord and Björn; þau Asgerðr, Asgerd and her son (Thorstein).

* * *

þær, þau. This is the plur. of the personal pron., answering to sing. hann, hón, þat; gen. þeira and mod. þeirra; dat. þeim; acc. þá, þær, þau; in mod. speech þau is sounded þaug, which form occurs as early as Run. Gramm. of 1651, and often rhymes in mod. poets with words ending in g, e. g. flaug, þaug, Bb. 2. 17: [the A. S. uses the forms hi, hira, him, hi, and so in early South. E., whereas the North. E. has thay, thair, thaim; South. E. and Chaucer hii, here, hem, Morris’ Specimens, p. xv; Dan. de, deres, early Dan. deræ, dat. dem.]

A. They, them, theirs (see Gramm. p. xxi); töluðu þeir mart, ríða þeir heim af þingi; þeir kómu í Fljótshlíð, Gunnarr tók vel við þeim; Njáll mælti til þeirra …, slíkar fortölur hafði hann fyrir þeim, … þeir spurðu þær tíðenda, báðu þær eigi leyna, þær sögðu svá vera skyldu; at þeim muni ílla sækjask at vinna oss, … vér getum þá eigi með vápnum sótta, and so in endless instances.

2. a peculiarity of the Icel. is the constant use of the neut. plur. ‘þau’ as collective for a masc. and fem.; síðan gengu þau inn bæði (i. e. Njall and Bergthora), at hann skyldi breiða yfir þau húðina; börn þeirra Þjálfa ok Rösku, ok görðusk þau … þá er þau höfðu gengit litla hríð, Edda 28; Ask ok Emblu … önd þau né áttu óð þau né höfðu, Vsp.; and so also of things, e. g. þau páll og reka; þau hönd og fótr, and so on.

B. Special usages; this pronoun is used collectively before the names of two or more persons, the neuter being used when the persons are of different sexes:

1. where more than one are expressly named; þau Ásgerðr ok Þorsteinn, they, Asgerd and Thorstein, Eg. 702; þeir Starkaðr ok Þórðr, ok Flosi, Nj. 282; börn þeirra Hildigunnar ok Kára, the children of H. and K., id.; synir þeirra Starkaðar ok Hallberu vóru þeir Þorgeirr ok Börkr ok Þorkell, 89; synir hans vóru þeir Kolr ok Óttarr ok Haukr, id.; bræðr Hallgerðar vóru þeir Þorleikr, faðir Bolla, ok Ólafr faðir Kjartans, ok Bárðr, they, Thorleik, Olave, and Bard, 2; faðir þeirra Þorkels föður Brands, ok Þorgils föður míns, Jb. 20 (restored by Maurer; the emendation in the Editions is an error; the passage is parallel to that given above from Nj.); Þórr ok þeir lagsmenn, Thor and they—his followers, Edda 28.

2. ellipt., as it seems, where the one part is understood, and not named; in this case the neut. þau is used whenever the name understood is different in gender; þeim Oddi, to Odd and his men, Fms. vi. 379; þeir Vagn, W. and his men; þeir Pálnatóki, P. and his men, xi. 95; þeir Þóroddr, … þeim Þóroddi, Hkr. ii. 251; frá skiptum þeirra Þórðar, the dealings of Thord ( and Björn), Fms. iv. 110; þeir feðgar, they, father and son, Nj. 8; þau Ásgerðr, Asgerd and her son, Eg. 702; vinátta var með þeim frændum þeirra, i. e. between him and their kinsmen, Grett. 132; þeirra bræðra, Fms. xi. 160; þeir í Orkneyjum, Nj. 270; af þeim ( those) fyrir austan árnar, 210.—This use of the pronoun þeir, þær, þau is peculiar to the old Scandin. and Icel. tongue, and is not found in any other Teut. language. We take it to be a remnant from an ancient time when the article was still used detached and not suffixed, being, as in Homeric Greek, used half as a demonstrative pronoun; thus Iliad viii. 457, αϊδ Ἀθηναίη τε και Ἤρη, sounds quite Icel., þær Aþena og Hera; Icel. extend it also to the other cases, þeirra (gen.) Aþenu og Heru, þeim Aþenu og Heru; cp. also II. xiii. 496, 526; the usage of the neut., as above, seems peculiar to Icel. It is therefore an error to explain ‘þeir Þóroddr,’ etc., as if a copula ‘ok’ had been dropped between the pronoun and the pr. name, þeir ‘ok’ Þóroddr; it is in fact an elliptical abbreviated version of the usage in B. 1: similar is the use of hann and hón for the sing. (see hann B. II. p. 239, col. 1), and of Gr. ὁ as in Od. xxi. 181.

C. For this pronoun as demonstrative, see þat, p. 731.

u, f. the ‘parliament-brink,’ a law term; at all old places where parliament was held there was a ‘brink’ or high place where the law was read, speeches made, or proclamations and declarations issued to the assembled people (the Tynwald in the Isle of Man is just such a spot), this place was called the ‘thing-brink’ (at the alþing it was called the Lögberg or ‘Hill of laws’); lýsa í þingbrekku, … stefna um í þingbrekku til dóms, Grág. (Kb.) i. 99; ganga í þingbrekku ok nefna vátta, 107 hann skal til segja þrjú vór í þingbrekku, svá at meiri hlutr þing-heyjanda heyri, ii. 158; Egill Skallagrímsson gekk í þingbrekku um daginn eptir … þá stóð Egill upp ok mælti svá …, Eg. 734; þá gengr Glúmr í þingbrekku ok nefnir vátta, Glúm. 387; at þinglausnum í þingbrekku stóð Þorsteinn upp ok mælti, Þorst. Síðu H. 174; leiða í brekku, to lead to the brink or hill of laws, i. e. to proclaim; ef þræli er frelsi gefit ok er hann eigi leiddr í lög eða brekku, Grág. i. 358.

(pl. -ir), f. thousand.

* * *

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.

n. constipation.

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= af-bindi, n. tenesmus, Hm. 140; cp. Fél. ix. 185, where it is spelt afbendi.

n. nature, disposition.

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I. n. nature, disposition, inborn native quality, used only in poetry; jóðs a., childish, Ýt. 13; ósnotrs aðal, foolish, insipid, Hm. 106; args a., dastardly, Ls. 23, 24; drengs a., noble, Km. 23; ódyggs a., bad, Hsm. 19. 2. in the sense of offspring; aðul Njarðar (where it is n. pl.?), the gods, the offspring of Njord, Hallfred in a poem, vide Fs. 59.

II. used in a great many COMPDS, chief-, head-. aðal-akkeri, n. sheet-anchor, Fms. x. 130:

β. metaph., Bs. i. 756. aðal-bjórr, s, m. prime beaver skin, Eb. (in a verse). aðal-borinn, part., v. óðalborinn. aðal-ból, n. a manor-house, farm inhabited by its master, opp. to tenant farms, Grág. (Kb.) ii. 150; also the name of a farm, Hrafn. 4. aðal-festr, f., v. alaðsfestr. aðal-fylking, f. main force, main body, Hkr. ii. 361. aðal-haf, n. the main, Fms. iv. 177. aðal-henda, u, f., v. alhenda. aðal-hending, f. full, complete rhymes, such as all— hall, opp. to skot-hending, q. v., Edda (Ht.) aðal-hendr, adj. verse in full rhyme, Edda, id. aðal-kelda, u, f. chief well, Karl. 442. aðal-kirkja, ju, f. chief part of a church, viz. choir and nave, opp. to forkirkja, Sturl. ii. 59. aðalliga, adv. completely, thoroughly; a. dauðr, quite dead, 656 C. 31, Fms. ii. 313; a. gamall, quite old, iii. 171. aðal-mein, n. great pain, Fms. vi. (in a verse), aðal-merki, n. the head-standard, Pr. 177. aðal-ritning, f. chief writing, Sks. 13. aðal-skáli, a, m. the chief apartment of a skáli, the hall, as distinguished from a forhús, Eb. 43. aðal-tré, n. trunk of a tree; eigi munu kvistir betri en a. (a proverb), Fms. iv. 33. aðal-troll, n. downright ogre, Fas. iii. 179. aðal-túlkr, s, m. chief advocate, Bs. i. 445. aðal-túpt, f. esp. in pl. ir = óðals-toptir, the ground on which a manor-bouse is built, toft of an allodial farm (Norse), flytja hús af aðaltóptum, remove it, N. G. L. i. 379.

(-ja, -jar, later -a, -ar), m. chief defendant (varnaraðili) or prosecutor (sóknaraðili, sakaraðili).

* * *

ja, m. the chief-defendant or prosecutor in an Icel. lawsuit in the time of the Commonwealth. It seems to have meant originally head, chieftain, princeps. A standing word in the Grágás and the Sagas. As to the form, the older one is that which preserves the j in the terminations, gen. dat. acc. aðilja, plur. -jar, acc. -ja, dat. -jum. The Grágás constantly employs this form. The Njála and some of the Sagas drop the j and write aðila etc. In the Grágás aðilja seems to occur as an indecl. word—at least four times in the Kb.—used as nom. pl.: but as -ar in old MSS. is frequently marked by a single ‘a’ with a little stroke (a-), this may be a misinterpretation. The indeclinable form occurs in the Kb. (Þ. Þ.) 25 and 109 (only preserved in the Kb.); Kb. 147, 170 has aðilja, where the Sb. has in both passages aðiljar: cp. however guðsifja and -bræðra. There is a distinction between a sóknar-aðili or sakar-aðili, prosecutor, and a varnar-aðili, defendant. Either with gen. or prep. at, varnar-a., sóknar-a., sakar-a.; or inversely, a. sakar, a. varnar, a. frumsakar, Kb. 42, 124; a. máls, 126; a. vígsakar, in a case of manslaughter, 167; or vígsakar a. (often); a. fésakar, in a lawsuit about compensation, 123; a. legorðssakar, case of legorð, 194: with at, varnir þær er hann er aðili at, 175; aðili at legorðs sekt, App. iv. 46, Grág. Kb. 15, 211 ; cp. also § 58, p. 103: hann er aðili at sök, bæði sækjandi ok seljandi, chief-plaintiff, either for carrying it on himself or by a delegate, Kb. 208. In the case of a delegate being the aðili, the challenge of jurors and judges on account of relationship was to be made in respect to the chief aðili, not the delegate, Kb. 127.

a. surpassing.

* * *

adj. surpassing, Eb. 256, Fms. ix. 535, x. 230 (where spelt abb-), xi. 335.

m. a great man, Fms. x. 293 (where spelt abb-).

* * *

1) grandfather;

2) man;

afi eptir afa, in regular descent.

* * *

a, m. [cp. Lat. avus, Ulf. avô = μάμμα, and aba = ανήρ, vir], grandfather: it is now frequent, but occurs very rarely in old writers, who almost always use móðurfaðir or föðurfaðir. Yet it occurs in the poem Rm. 16—afi ok amma—and Vþm. 29, where it = föðurfaðir. It is curious to observe that in the poem Skm.—whence it is again transferred into the Grógaldr—it is used in the sense of a boy or a son; cp. as an illustration of this use the Norse phrase—D. N. iv. 848—afi eptir afa = son after father, man after man in uninterrupted succession, in accord- ance to the Gothic aba; Edda 108, Fms. iv. 288, vi. 346, xi. 6. We also say lang-afi, great-grandfather, and langamma, great-grandmother.

COMPD: afasystir.

* * *

I) m. hearth of a forge.

II) n.

1) physical strength (ramr styrkr, at afli);

2) force, violence taka með afli, by force;

3) plurality of votes, majority; ok skal afl ráda, the majority shall decide;

4) virtue, inherent power; afl dauðfœrandi grasa, the virtue of poisonous herbs.

* * *

m. [Grimm mentions an O. H. G. aval; abal is a dub. άπ. λεγ. in A. S. poetry, Ormul. avell]

1. strength, esp. physical force; afreksmaðr at afli ok áræði, Eg. 1; styrkr at afli, Fms. i. 19; ramr at afli, 155; fullkominn at afli ok hyggju, bodily and mental vigour, Ld. 256; stillt þú þó vel aflinu, at þú verðir eigi kendr, Nj. 32; hafa afl til e-s, be a match for, be able to do, Gþl. 411.

β. virtue; afl dauðfærandi grasa, virtue of poisonous herbs, 623. 26.

2. metaph. strength, power, might, Th. 19.

3. a law term, force, validity; dæmdu vér þetta boð Bjarna úlögligt ok ekki afl hafa, void, Dipl. iii. 3.

4. a law term, majority, odds, in the phrase, ok skal afl ráða, plurima vota valeant; ef gerðarmenn ( umpires) verða eigi ásáttir ok skal a ráða, Grág. i. 493; nú verða fjórðungsmenn eigi ásáttir, þá skal afl ráða með þeim, i. l, cp. 44, 531 (where it is used of a jury); en ef þeir verða eigi ásáttir er í lögréttu sitja hvat þeir vilja lofa eðr í lög leiða, þá skolu þeir ryðja lögréttu (viz. divide) ok skal ráða a. með þeim, Nj. 150.

5. force, violence; taka með afli, Stj. 4. 30; bjóða e-m afl, Bs. ii. 106.

COMPDS: aflsmunr, aflsraun.

m. odds, superiority of strength, esp. in the phrase, kenna aflsmunar, where there is a short struggle, the one being soon overcome, Eb. 182, Eg. 508, Hkr. i. 286:

β. kenna aflsmuna = kosta afls, to exert oneself to the utmost; varð hann at kenna a. (to exert the whole of his strength) áðr hann kæmi honum undir, Eb. 172.

m. a law term, an inheritance to which there is no heir alive, Gþl. 282, N. G. L. i. 49; cp. Hkv. Hjörv. 11, where aldauðraarfr is a mis-reading; the meaning of the passage hyggsk a. ráða is, that he would destroy them to the last man.

m. garden, orchard, Lat. hortus; víngarða, akra ok aldingarða, Stj. 441. 1 Sam. viii. 14, where aldingarða answers to olive-yards, Fms. iii. 194.

ar, m. wood of fruit-trees, Stj. Judg. xv. 5, where víngarðar, olivatré ok aldinskógar answer to the Engl. vineyards and olives.

(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).

* * *

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.

(öll, allt), a.

1) all, entire, whole;

hón á allan arf eptir mik, she has all the heritage after me;

af öllum hug, with all (one’s) heart;

hvítr allr, white all over;

bú allt, the whole estate;

allan daginn, the whole day;

í allri veröld, in the whole world;

allan hálfan mánuð, for the entire fortnight;

with addition of ‘saman’;

allt saman féit, the whole amount;

um þenna hernað allan saman, all together;

2) used almost adverbially, all, quite, entirely;

klofnaði hann allr í sundr, he was all cloven asunder, kváðu Örn allan villast, that he was altogether bewildered;

var Hrappr allr brottu, quite gone;

allr annarr maðr, quite another man;

3) gone, past;

áðr þessi dagr er allr, before this day is past;

var þá óll þeirra vinátta, their friendship was all over;

allt er nú mitt megin, my strength is exhausted, gone;

4) departed, dead (þá er Geirmundr var allr);

5) neut. sing. (allt) used. as a subst. in the sense of all, everything;

eigi er enn þeirra allt, they have not yet altogether won the game;

þá var allt (all, everybody) við þá hrætt;

hér er skammætt allt, here everything is transient;

with a compar. all the more (því öllu þungbærri);

with gen., allt missera (= öll misseri), all the year round;

allt annars, all the rest;

at öllu annars, in all other respects;

alls fyrst, first of all;

alls mest, most of all;

in adverbial phrases: at öllu, in all respects, in every way;

í öllu, in everything;

með öllu, wholly, quite;

neita með öllu, to refuse outright;

6) pl. allir (allar, öll), as adj. or substantively, all (þeir gengu út allir);

ór öllum fjórðungum á landinu, from all the quarters of the land;

allir aðrir, all others, every one else;

flestir allir, nearly all, the greatest part of;

gen. pl. (allra) as an intensive with superlatives, of all things, all the more;

nú þykkir mér þat allra sýnst, er, all the more likely, as;

allra helzt, er þeir heyra, particularly now when they hear;

allra sízt, least of all.

* * *

öll, allt, and alt, adj. [Ulf. alls = πας, άπας, όλος; A. S. eall; Engl. and Germ. all].

A. In sing. as adj. or substantively, cunctus, totus, omnis:

I. all, entire, the whole; hón á allan arf eptir mik, she has all my heritage after me, Nj. 3; um alla þingsafglöpun, every kind of þ., 150; gaf hann þat allt, all, 101; at öllum hluta, in totum, Grág. i. 245; allr heilagr dómr, the whole body of Christians, ii. 165; á öllu því máli, Fms. vii. 311; allu fólki, thewhole people, x. 273; hvitr allr, white all over, 655 xxxii. 21; bú allt, thewhole estate, Grág. i. 244; fyrir allt dagsljós, before any dawn of light, Hom. 41: with the addition of saman = άπας—Icel. now in fem. sing. and n. pl. say öll sömun, and even n. sing. allt samant; in old writers saman is indecl.,—the whole, Germ. sänmtlich, zusammen; allt saman féit, thewhole amount, entire, Grág. ii. 148; þenna hernað allan saman, all together, Fms. i. 144; fyrir allan saman ójafnað þann, Sd. 157. Metaph. in the phrase, at vera ekki allr þar sem hann er sénn (séðr), of persons of deep, shrewd characters, not to be seen through, but also with a feeling of something ‘uncanny’ about them, Fms. xi. 157 (a familiar phrase); ekki er oil nótt úti enn, sagði draugrinn, the night is not all over yet, said the ghost, ‘the Ides are not past’ (a proverb), v. Ísl. Þjóðs.

2. all, entire, full; allan hálfan mánuð, for the entire fortnight, Nj. 7; þar til er Kjartani þykir allt mál upp, until Kjartan thought it was high time, of one nearly (or) well-nigh drowned, Hkr. i. 286.

II. metaph. past, gone, dead, extinct; perh. ellipt., vera allr í brottu, quite gone, Eb. 112 new Ed.; var Hrappr þá allr í brottu, Nj. 132; then by an ellipsis of ‘brottu,’ or the like, allr simply = past, gone:

α. past, of time; seg þú svá fremi frá því er þessi dagr er allr, when this day is past, Nj. 96, Fms. ii. 38, 301; var þá öll þeirra vinátta, their friendship was all gone, Fms. ix. 428; allt er mi mitt megin, my strength is gone, exhausted, Str.

β. dead; þá er Geirmundr var allr, gone, dead, Landn. (Hb.) 124; síz Gunnarr at Hlíðarenda var allr, since G. of Lithend was dead and gone (v. l. to lézt), Nj. 142; sem faðir þeirra væri allr, after his death, Stj. 127; þá er Nói var allr, 66; en sem hann var allr, 100; eptir þat er Sara var öll, after all Sara’s days were over, 139, 140, 405; á vegum allr hygg ek at at ek verða munu, that I shall perish on the way, Gg. verse 5; með því at þú ert gamlaðr mjök, þá munu þeir eigi út koma fyr en þú ert allr, Háv. 57; still freq. in Swed., e. g. blifwa all af bekumring, be worn out with sorrow; vinet blev alt, fell short; tiden er all, past.

III. used almost adverbially, when it may be translated by all, quite, just, entirely; klofnaði hann allr í sundr, was all cloven asunder, Nj. 205; er sá nú allr einn í þínu liði er nú hefir eigi höfuðs, ok hinn, er þá eggiaði hins versta verks er eigi var fram komit, where it seems, however, rather to mean one and the same … or the very same …, thus, and he is now one and the same man in thy band, who has now lost his head, and he who then egged thee on to the worst work when it was still undone, or the very same, … who, Nj. 213; vil ek at sú görð häldist öll, in all its parts, 256; kváðu Örn allan villast, that he was all bewildered, Ld. 74.

IV. neut. sing. used as a subst. in the sense of all, everything, in every respect; ok for svá með öllu, sem …, acted in everything as…, Nj. 14, Ld. 54; ok lát sem þú þykist þar allt eiga, that you depend upon him in all, Fms. xi. 113; eigi er enn þeirra allt, they have not yet altogether won the game, Nj. 235: í alls vesöld, in all misery, Ver. 4; alls mest, most of all, especially, Fms. ii. 137 C, Fs. 89 (in a verse); in mod. usage, allra mest, cp. below. The neut. with a gen.; allt missera, all the year round, Hom. 73; allt annars, all the rest, Grág. ii. 141; at öllu annars, in all other respects, K. Þ. K. 98; þá var allt (all, everybody) við þá hrætt, Fas. i. 338. In the phrases, at öllu, in all respects, Fms. i. 21, Grág. i. 431; ef hann á eigi at öllu framfærsluna, if he be not the sole supporter, 275: úreyndr at öllu, untried in every way, Nj. 90; cp. Engl. not at all, prop. not in every respect, analogous to never, prop. not always: fyrir alls sakir, in every respect, Grág. ii. 47, Fas. i. 252: í öllu, in everything, Nj. 90, 228: með öllu, wholly, quite, dauðr með öllu, quite dead, 153; neita með öllu, to refuse outright, Fms. i. 35, 232, Boll. 342: um allt, in respect of everything, Nj. 89; hence comes the adverb ávalt, ever = of allt = um allt, prop. in every respect, v. ávalt.

V. the neut. sing. allt is used as an adv., right up to, as far as, all the way; Brynjólfr gengr allt at honum, close to him, Nj. 58; kómu allt at bænum, 79; allt at búðardyrunum, right up to the very door of the booth, 247; allt norðr urn Stað, all along north, round Cape Stad, Fms. vii. 7; suðr allt í Englands haf, iv. 329; verit allt út í Miklagarð, as far out as Constantinople, ii. 7, iv. 250, 25; allt á klofa, Bárð. 171.

2. everywhere, in all places; at riki Eireks konungs mundi allt yfir standa í Eyjunum, might stretch over the whole of the Islands, Eg. 405; Sigröðr var konungr allt um Þrændalög, over all Drontheim, Fms. i. 19; bjoggu þar allt fyrir þingmenn Runólfs goða, the liegemen of R. the priest were in every house, ii. 234 ( = í hverju húsi, Bs. i. 20); allt norðr um Rogaland, all the way north over the whole of R., Fms. iv. 251; vóru svirar allt gulli búnir, all overlaid with gold, vi. 308; hafið svá allt kesjurnar fyrir, at ekki megi á ganga, hold your spears everywhere (all along the line) straight before you, that they (the enemy) may not come up to you, 413; allt imdir innviðuna ok stafnana, vii. 82.

3. nearly = Lat. jam, soon, already; vóru allt komin fyrir hann bréf, warrants of arrest were already in his way, Fms. vii. 207; var allt skipat liðinu til fylkingar, the troops were at once drawn up in array, 295; en allt hugðum vér ( still we thought) at fara með spekt um þessi héruð, Boll. 346.

4. temp. all through, until; allt til Júnsvöku, Ann. 1295; allt um daga Hákonar konungs, all through the reign of king Hacon, Bs. i. 731.

5. in phrases such as, allt at einu, all one, all in the same way, Fms. i. 113. In Icel. at present allt að einu means all the same: allt eins, nevertheless; ek ætla þó utan a. eins, Ísl. ii. 216; hann neitaði allt eins at…, refused all the same, Dipl. iii. 13; allt eins hraustliga, not the less manly, Fms. xi. 443. The mod. Icel. use is a little different, namely = as, in similes = just as; allt eins og blómstrið eina (a simile), just as the flower, the initial words of the famous hymn by Hallgrim.

6. by adding ‘of’ = far too …, much too …, Karl. 301 (now freq.)

7. with a comparative, much, far, Fms. vi. 45 (freq.)

VI. neut. gen. alls [cp. Ulf. allis = όλως; A. S. ealles], used as an adv., esp. before a negative (ekki, hvergi), not a bit, not at all, no how, by no means; þeir ugðu alls ekki at sér, they were not a bit afraid, Nj. 252; hræðumst vér hann nú alls ekki, we do not care a bit for him, 260; á hólmgöngu er vandi en alls ekki ( none at all) á einvigi, Korm. 84; en junkherra Eiríkr þóttist ekki hafa, ok kallaði sik Eirík alls ekki (cp. Engl. lackland), Fms. x. 160; alls hvergi skal sök koma undir enn þriðja mann, no how, in no case, by no means, Grág. i. 144: sometimes without a negative following it; ær alls geldar, ewes quite barren, Grág. i. 502; hafrar alls geldir, id.; alls vesall, altogether wretched, Nj. 124; alls mjök stærist hann nú, very much, Stj.; a. mest, especially, Fs. 89, Fms. ii. 137. In connection with numbers, in all, in the whole; tólf vóru þau alls á skipi, twelve were they all told in the ship, Ld. 142; tíu Íslenzkir menn alls, 164; alls fórust níu menn, the slain were nine in all, Ísl. ii. 385; verða alls sárir þrír eða fleiri, Grág. ii. 10; alls mánuð, a full month, i. 163; þeir ala eitt barn alls á aefi sinni, Rb. 346.

β. with addition of ‘til’ or ‘of’ = far too much; alls of lengi, far too long a time, Fms. i. 140; hefnd alls til lítil, much too little, vi. 35.

B. In pl. allir, allar, öll, as adj. or substantively:

1. used absol. all; þeir gengu út allir, all men, altogether, Nj. 80; Síðan bjoggust þeir heiman allir, 212; Gunnarr reið ok beir allir, 48; hvikit þér allir, 78, etc.

2. as adj., alla höfðingja, all the chiefs, Nj. 213; ór öllum fjórðungum á landinu, all the quarters of the land, 222; at vitni guðs ok allra heilagra manna, all the saints, Grág. ii. 22; í allum orrostum, in all the battles, Fms. x. 273; Josep ok allir hans ellifu bræðr, Stj., etc.

3. by adding aðrir, flestir, etc.; allir aðrir, all other, everyone else, Nj. 89, Fms. xi. 135: flestir allir, nearly all, the greatest part of, v. flestr; in mod. use flestallir, flest being indecl.: allir saman, altogether, Nj. 80.

4. adverb., Gregorius hafði eigi öll fjögr hundruð, not all, not quite, four hundred, Fms. vii. 255.

5. used ellipt., allir ( everybody) vildu leita þér vegs, Nj. 78.

6. gen. pl. allra, when followed by superl. neut. adj. or adv., of all things, all the more; en nú þyki mér þat allra sýnst er …, all the more likely, as …, Ld. 34; allra helzt er þeir heyra, particularly now when they hear, Fms. ix. 330; allra helzt ef hann fellr meir, all the rather, if …, Grág. ii. 8; allra sízt, least of all, 686 B. 2; bæn sú kemr til þess allra mest, especially, Hom. 149: very freq. at present in Icel., and used nearly as Engl. very, e. g. allra bezt, the very best; a. hæst, neðst, fyrst, the very highest, lowest, foremost, etc.

C. alls is used as a prefix to several nouns in the gen., in order to express something common, general, universal.

COMPDS: allsendis, allsháttar, allsherjar, allsherjarbúð, allsherjardómr, allsherjarfé, allsherjargoði, allsherjarlið, allsherjarlýðr, allsherjarlög, allsherjarþing, allskonar, allskostar, allskyns, allsstaðar, allsvaldandi, allrahanda, allraheilagra.

adv. [kyn] = allskonar, Fms. x. 380. II. 2, 25, where it is spelt allskuns.

f. local name of the great lava rift close to the alþing, where all the people met; vide Nj. 244, Sturl. i. 206, etc.

f. and almenningr, m.

I. in Icel. almost always fem. in the sense of fundus communis, ager compascuus, common land, belonging to a whole ‘fjórðungr’ (quarter) of the country, and thus wider than the mod. ‘afrétt.’ It still remains in the local name of the deserts round Cape Horn at the north-west point of Icel., cp. Fbr. and Landn. 124; cp. also the passage in Íb. ch. 3. The word is now seldom used except of wastes belonging to nobody: þat er almenning er fjórðungs menn eigu allir saman, Grág. ii. 392–394, Js. 107, Íb. ch. 3, Grág. ii. 345, 352, 359, 385, K. Þ. K. 26, Fbr. 41, Landn. 124, in all those cases fem.

II. masc. (Norse), [cp. Swed. almänning, pascuum, and Germ. almeinde, via publica or ager compascuus, Grimm R. A. p. 498]

1. common or public pasture (answering nearly to the Icel. afrétt), where cattle are grazed during the summer months, cp. the Norse setr, Icel. sel: rarely used in Icel. writers. In Ó. H., ch. 114, used of Grímsey, an island off the north coast of Iceland, Gþl. 450, Jb. 299, 311.

2. the high-street, in a Norse town, N. G. L. ii. 241.

3. the people, the public in general, common now in Icel. in this sense, Stj. 292, 493, Fbr. 194; almennings matr, common food, Bs. ii. 5, 179.

4. a levy, conscription; fullr, allr, hálfr a., a full, half levy of men and ships; fullr a. in Norway meant a levy of one in every seven male adults, N. G. L. ii. 199, Fms. iv. 142, i. 165, D. I. i. 66 (of the milit. duties of Icelanders when residing in Norway). Metaph. (as a phrase) in Nj. 207, of raising the country, the institution being unknown in the Icel. Commonwealth.

COMPDS: almenningsbréf, almenningsdrykkja, almenningsfar, almenningsmörk, almenningsstræti, almenningstollr, almenningsvegr.