wild

n. waste or ruinous state; leggja í eyði, to lay waste; vera (liggja) í eyði, to be deserted or ruined.

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n. [auðr, Germ. öde], waste, desert; leggja í e., to leave in the lurch, desert, Jb. 277; jörðin var e. og tóm, Gen. i. 2; yðart hús skal yðr í e. látið verða, Matth. xxiii. 38: in COMPDS, desert, forlorn, wild; eyði-borg, f. a deserted town ( castle), Stj. 284. eyði-bygð, f. a desert country, Fs. 19. eyði-dalr, m. a wild, desolate vale, Hrafn. 1. eyði-ey, f. a desert island, Fms. x. 154. eyði-fjall, n. a wild fell, Sks. 1. eyði-fjörðr, m. a desert firth county, Fs. 24. eyði-haf, n. the wild sea, Stj. 636. eyði-hús, n. deserted dwellings, Hkr. ii. 379. eyði-jörð, f. a deserted household or farm, Dipl. iii. 13, Jb. 183. eyði-kot, n. a deserted cottage, Vm. 61. eyði-land, n. desert land, Hkr. i. 96. eyði-mörk, f. a desert, wilderness, Fms. i. 118, iv. 336, v. 130, Fær. 62, Stj. 141, 283. eyði-rjóðr, n. a desert plain, Stj. 527, 2 Sam. xv. 28. eyði-skemma, u, f. a desert barn, Hkr. ii. 383. eyði-sker, n. a wild rock, skerry, Fs. 18. eyði-skógr, m. a wild ‘shaw’ (wood), Stj. 485. eyði-staðr, m. a barren place, 655 xiii B, Bs. i. 204. eyði-tröð, f. a desolate lane. Sturl. ii. 209, cp. auða tröð, Hkm. 20. eyði-veggr, m. a deserted building, ruin, Karl. 2.

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f. or m. pl.

1) fits of madness, craziness (hón bar eigi óra í augum); hann gørði sér órar, he feigned insanity;

2) wild fancies (órar þær, er sjá maðr ferr með).

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f. pl., in mod. usage masc. pl. [cp. ærr = insane] fits of madness; þegar tók af honum órarnar er Davíð lék hörpuna, Stj. 467; mæla órar, to talk wildly, Mar. 1071; segi ek yðr satt, at hón bar eigi óra í augum, Bs. i. 204; hann varð ærr ok sagði í órunum ( in fits of delirium) hvat þeir höfðu gört, Magn. 522; hann görði sér órar ( feigned insanity) ok lét sem hann félli í brottfall, Landn. (Hb.) 215; af órum ok vitleysi, Stj. 467; höfuð-órar (q. v.), delirium.

2. wild fancies, frolics; trúir þú þegar á órar þær, er sá maðr ferr með, Ó. H. 107; þessum mun ek við bregða Áslaugar órunum, Fas. i. 257: wild pranks, mad freaks, órar ( ravings) eru úrækðir órar ( our), Skálda 162; ærsli og órar; þat er ok óronum næst ( there will be mad doings) er veslu batnar, Al. 4; draum-órar, wild dream-fancies.

COMPDS: órabelgr, óraferð, óramaðr, óramál, óravegr, óraverk.

1) wild, false (hverfa af villum götum);

2) bewildered, erring, astray; fara v., fara villt, to go astray (hann fór v. um stórar merkr ok úkunnar);

3) perplexed, uncertain (þeir urðu villir á hvára hönd þeim sjór skyldi liggja); with gen., fara v. vegar, to go astray.

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adj. [Ulf. wilþeis = ἄγριος; A. S., Engl., and Germ. wild; O. H. G. wildi; Dan.-Swed. vild]:— wild; hverfa af villum götum, from wild (false) paths, Sks. 4.

2. bewildered, erring, astray; þeir urðu villir á hvára hönd þeim sjór skyldi liggja, Landn. 215 (Hb.); þá ferr þú eigi villr, 625. 75; bera e-t villt upp, to report it wrong, Trist.; dag-villr, N. G. L. i. 400; villr á mörkum, Fms. iii. 56.

3. with gen., þá varð ek villr vega, Hm. 46; villr ertú vegarins, Fas. iii. (in a verse); en þeir villir fari sinna heimhama, Hm. 156; fara daga villt, to confuse the days, to take e. g. Thursday for Friday; also verða daga-viltr; so also átta viltr, confused as to the ‘airts’ or quarters of heaven, e. g. whether south or east.

4. neut., fara villt, to go astray, Fb. i. 131.

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

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n. pl. = dyrr, f. pl.

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n. [Gr. θήρ; Ulf. djûs = θηρίον, Mark i. 13, 1 Cor. xv. 32; A. S. deôr; Engl. deer; Germ. thier; Swed.-Dan. dyr]:—an animal, beast:

α. excluding birds, dýr ok fuglar, Edda 144 (pref.); fuglar, dýr eðr sækvikindi, Skálda 170; dýrum ( wild beasts) eða fuglum, Grág. ii. 89.

β. used of wild beasts, as bears, Nj. 35, Grett. 101, Glúm. 330, Fs. 146 (bjarn-dyra): in Icel. esp. the fox, Dropl. 27, Bs. ii. 137, the fox being there the only beast of prey, hence dýr-bit; úarga-dýr, the lion; villi-d., a wild beast.

γ. used esp. of hunting deer, the deer of the forest, as in Engl. deer, the hart, etc., Hkv. 2. 36, N. G. L. i. 46, Str. 3, Fas. iii. 4, Þiðr. 228–238; hrein-d., the reindeer; rauð-d., the red deer.

COMPDS: dýrabogi, dýragarðr, dýragröf, dýrakjöt, dýrarödd, dýraskinn, dýraveiðar, dýrsbelgr, dýrshorn, dýrshöfuð.

f. the wild duck, mallard.

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u, f. the wild duck, Edda (Gl.), cp. Engl. dun.

a. wild, vehement (of fire).

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adj. savage (of a bull), freq. in mod. use; in Skm. 17, 18 it is used of wild-fire.

II. oaken, Edda i. 430 (in a verse).

n. small goose, gosling; bird.

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n. [Ivar Aasen gagl = wild goose, cp. the Scot. a gale of geese = a flock of geese]:—a wild goose, Edda (Gl.); gagl fyrir gás, a saying, Ó. H. 87: in poetry, of any bird, hræ-g., blóð-g., etc., a carrion-crow; the word is not used in Icel. except in the saying above; the goshawk is called gagl-fár, n. and gagl-hati, a, m. goose-destroyer.

f. wild goose.

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f. a ‘grey goose,’ a wild goose, Edda (Gl.), Þiðr. 347.

II. metaph. the name of a Norse code of laws in Drontheim (Frostaþingslög), prob. from the grey binding or from being written with a goose quill, Fms. viii. 277 (Sverr. S.), Hkr. iii. 23; cp. Gullfjöðr, gold feather, gold quill, name of an eccl. code; or Hryggjar-stykki, a kind of duck, but also the name of a book.

2. in later times (in the 16th century) the name Grágás was misapplied to an old MS. of Icel. laws of the Commonwealth time, the present Cod. Arna-Magn. 134 folio, or Sb., and has since been made to serve as a collective name for all Icel. laws framed before the union with Norway, sometimes including, sometimes excluding the eccl. law (Kristinna-laga þáttr = K. Þ. K.); the whole matter is fully treated by Maurer, s. v. ‘Graagaas,’ in Ersch and Gruber’s Encyclopedia; he makes out that the Icel. of the Commonwealth, although they had written laws, had no code, and that the passage in Íb. ch. 10 does not refer to codification, but to the committal of oral laws to writing; the two vellum MSS., the Kb. and Sb., are merely private collections of the 13th century, and differ very much one from the other. Upon the union with Norway, Iceland was for the first time blessed with a code, which they called Ironside (Js.); and a second code, the Jon’s Book, was introduced A. D. 1281.

adv. [æva answers to Engl. - ever in wherever, whenever, whatever, but in Icel. only remains in the adverb denoting the place from which]:— from whencesoever, Fms. vii. 75 (in a verse); drífa h., to throng together from every side, Hkr. i. 54; þustu þá borgarmenn h. at þeim, Fms. i. 104; þar drósk saman mikit lið ok kom h. til, viii. 411; þá gaf þeim glámskygni, sýndisk þeim sem menn færi h. at þeim, Sturl. i. 179; úvina er h. herja á oss, Stj. 398, 444:—phrases, þótti konungi sem h. væri augu á honum, of a wild, fugitive look, Fms. ii. 180; ok hvaðan-æfa augun á sem á hrakdýri, with a look as wild as a hunted deer (as if he had eyes all over him), Korm. 60; hann vann svá at h. vóru á honum hendrnar, he worked as if be had hands all over him, Grett. 101 new Ed.

1) uproar, wild confusion;

2) spreading (of a report).

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f. a carrying or bringing abroad, Grág. ii. 148: uproar, wild confusion, var þá í reiðingu mikilli, Sturl. iii. 188, Mork. 40.

f. a wild fray, uproar.

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svörfun, f. a wild fray. Am.