Complete works of willia.., p.497
Complete Works of William Morris, page 497
Foot-hills, the lower hills round the base of a very high mountain.
Fore-ordained, settled by the will of the gods in early times.
Foster, to rear, to bring up a child, to care for, to shelter,
e.g. “Now would I foster Sigurd;” “the house that fostered me.”
Franklin, a well-to-do farmer, one who is not merely a hired
servant.
Freyia, the wife of Odin and chief of the goddesses.
Gainsay, to resist, to refuse a request.
Gaping Gap, a name given to the state of things that existed before
the world was made. There was supposed to have been an empty space
till Odin created the world of gods and men.
Garner, to gather up, to store up; sometimes, to reap.
Garth, an enclosure, a place from which things may be garnered,
e.g. “within the garth that it (the wall) girdeth.”
Gear, a word used with many meanings, as, dress, arms, possessions,
anything that a person has or uses, e.g. war-gear, all a man’s
armour and weapons; mail-gear, a man’s armour.
Gird, to tie round, to be all round, e.g. “The Wrath to his side
is girded;” “a wall doth he behold ... but within the garth that it
girdeth no work of man is set.”
Glaive, a sword.
God-home, Asgard.
Gold-bestrider, the name given to Sigurd by Giuki because he rode
with the treasure of gold upon his saddle. To bestride is to stand
over anything with one foot on each side.
Good-heart, kindly strength.
Goodlihead, a word of praise which is generally used to mean bodily
beauty, but sometimes to mean beauty of character.
Grovel, to crouch low on the ground.
Guest-fain, hospitable, ready to welcome guests.
Guile, cunning, cleverness used for an evil purpose.
Guise, appearance, kind, dress, e.g. “such was the guise of his
raiment;” “fair-clad in hunter’s guise.”
Halers of the hawsers, pullers of the ropes, i.e. seamen.
Hallow, to set apart for a solemn purpose, to make holy, e.g. I
hallow me to Odin for a leader of his host.
Hangings, tapestry, woven stuff on which pictures or figures of gods
and heroes were embroidered, used to decorate the walls of houses,
e.g. “The walls were strange and wondrous with noble stories told;”
“the gods on the hangings stirred.”
Harness, armour.
Hauberk, a breast-plate.
Heave, to rise and fall, sometimes merely to rise, e.g. “The doom ...
heaves up dim through the gloom.”
High-seat, the dais or chief seat where the master of a house and
his principal guests sat.
High-tide, time of festival.
Hindfell, the word means “deer-mountain,” since “fell” means any
hill, and “hind” is the word we still use for a deer.
Hireling, a servant.
Hist, to give attention, to listen.
Hithermost, nearest.
Hoard, a store. Generally used of a treasure which the owner keeps
selfishly, e.g. Fafnir’s wisdom is called “grudged and hoarded
wisdom,” and his gold the “heavy hoard.”
Hoenir, one of Odin’s sons; a wise and blameless god who, the others
believed, would return to reign over a new heaven and a new earth when
Ragnarok was past.
Holt, a woodland.
Hoppled, fettered.
Horse-fed, cropped by horses.
Horse-herd, keeper of horses. “Herd” means any keeper of animals,
and is generally joined with other words, e.g. shepherd, swine-herd.
Huddled, twisted together in a small space.
Intent, intention, purpose. In the passage, “For whom is the
blood-point whetted and the edge of thine intent?” the meaning is,
“Against whom is thy sword sharpened, and against whom is thy purpose
so keen?”
Kin, family, relations. Kin of the Wolf, Loki and his children,
one of whom was a monstrous wolf which was to fight against the gods
at Ragnarok.
Kine, cattle.
Kirtle, a long cloak.
Lack, loss, e.g. “He knew there was ruin and lack.” “The lack that
made him loth” is used to describe the ring of Andvari which he was
unwilling to give up with the rest of his treasure to Loki. n. “To
be without,” or, “to be found wanting.”
Lay, a song.
Lea, a meadow.
Leeches, doctors.
Lief, willing.
Lift, the arch of the sky overhead, the highest part of the sky.
Linden, the lime-tree.
Linked mail, armour made of rings linked together.
Lintel, the top of a doorway.
List, to wish, to choose.
Litten, lighted up; cf. red-litten, torch-litten.
Long-ships, ships of war.
Lore, learning, knowledge.
Loth, unwilling, grieved.
Mar, to spoil, disfigure.
Mark, boundary, borderland.
Masters of God-home, the gods of Asgard against whom the giants and
all foul monsters were constantly at war.
Mattock, a pick-axe.
Mead, a meadow.
Mew, a sea-gull.
Mid-mirk, thick darkness. Mirk, darkness.
Midward, prime, best days.
Midworld, the earth; the home of men as distinguished from Asgard,
the home of the gods, and Niflheim, the home of the dead.
Minish, to grow less.
Moon-wake, the long straight path of light made by the moon on
water.
Murder-churls, fierce and suspicious men ready to slay a guest.
Mute, dumb, silent.
Nether, lower.
Niggard, grudging, miserly, unproductive, e.g. the Glittering
Heath is called “niggard ground.”
Norns, the three maidens who decided the fates of gods and men.
Their names were Urd, Verdandi and Skuld, or Past, Present, and
Future, and they were more powerful than the gods themselves, e.g.
“Gone, forth is the will of the Norns, that abideth ever the same.”
Odin’s door, a warrior’s shield.
Odin’s Hall, Valhalla, to which went the souls of warriors slain in
battle.
Pall, a cloak of state; most commonly used in the expression “purple
and pall.”
Passing, very; used to give emphasis, e.g. “He loveth her passing
sore,” where both words are simply emphatic.
Peace-strings, the strings which tied a sword into its sheath when
it was not in use.
Peers, equals in age and rank.
People’s Praise. Odin, chief of the gods. “The death of the People’s
Praise” is Ragnarok, the time when Odin and all his fellow gods were
to be destroyed.
Purblind, dim-sighted. The syllable “pur” is a form of the word
pure, and gives emphasis to blind.
Purple, cloth dyed with a purple dye made from the murex, a
shell-fish found in the Mediterranean. The secret of making it was
known only to the “southern men” or Phoenician traders of Tyre and
Sidon.
Quarry, game, prey, the animal chased by a hunter.
Quell, to stop, make to cease.
Quicken, to rouse, bring to life.
Ravening, devouring, eager for prey; often used of wild animals.
Reck, to notice, care about.
Reek, smoke rising from a fire, or spray and mist from a waterfall,
e.g. “the reek of the falling flood;” “the heart of Fafnir ... sang
among the reek.”
Renown, fame, honour.
Rock-wall, mountain cliff.
Roof-tree, the topmost beam which forms the ridge of a roof.
Rue, to regret, to find a cause of woe.
Rumour, report, gossiping tale.
Rune, letter. The letters used in old Icelandic and similar
languages are called runic characters. When written letters were first
known in the north of Europe they were supposed to have magic powers,
and gradually the word “rune” came to mean any spell, or even any
wisdom which was beyond the ordinary knowledge of men.
Ruth, pity, regret, e.g. “Ruth arose in his heart;” “I have
hearkened not nor heeded the words of thy fear and thy ruth.”
Salutation, greeting.
Sate, satisfy to the full.
Scalds, the poets who recited poems or stories at feasts.
Scoff, an object of mockery.
Scored, carved, marked by lines cut deeply into a surface.
Sea-beast’s tooth, the tusks of the walrus.
Sea-mead, the wide surface of the sea. The word means sea-meadow.
Seethe, to bubble and move like boiling water.
Semblance, an appearance, outward show where there is no reality.
Serry, to crowd closely together.
Shards, broken fragments, e.g. “the shards of a glaive of battle.”
Shield-burg, a fortress built of shields. Burg means either a town,
a castle, or a fortress.
Shield-wall, the defence made by fighting men holding their shields
close together as they stand at bay.
Shift, n. a trick, cunning plan, e.g. “my cunning shifts;” n.
to contrive, be able, e.g. “the man whose heart and hand may shift,
To pluck it from the oak-wood.”
Shimmer, to gleam and change colour as the light alters.
Skerry, a rocky island near the coast.
Slaked, cooled, put out; used of anything that has been burning and
is now grown cold.
Sleight, cunning, trickery. Loki is called “the Master of Sleight”
because of his skill in deceit.
Sleipnir, Odin’s horse. It was grey, had eight feet, and could carry
him over sea and land, and could also fly through the air.
Slot, the track left by a wild animal.
Sloth, idleness.
Smithy, to do the work of a smith, forge weapons.
Sooth, truth.
Sore, very much. It is generally used about things which are evil or
painful, but sometimes only to give emphasis, e.g. “amber that the
southern men love sore.”
Spear-hedge, the bristling spears of an army in battle; cf.
battle-wood, spear-wood.
Spell-drenched, stupefied or overwhelmed by magic.
Sphere-stream, the space beyond the air of this world, in which the
planets or spheres move on their courses.
Stark, stiff, hard, severe.
Staunch, steadfast, unchanging.
Stead, n. a place; it is often joined to other words, e.g.
hall-stead, a hall or the place where a hall has been, as in the
sentence, “I went to the pillared hall-stead;” n. stead or
bestead, to serve, to aid, e.g. “to stead me in the fight.”
Steadfast, unchanging, faithful, unmoved.
Stithy, a blacksmith’s forge.
Strait, narrow, cramped.
Stripling, a young man just grown up; cf. youngling.
Sunder, to separate, e.g. “We wend on the sundering ways.”
Sun-dog, a bright spot like a faint image of the sun, seen near it
in cloudy weather.
Swaddling, anything that wraps or enfolds, e.g. the coils of
Fafnir passing over Sigurd in the pit are called “the swaddling of
death.”
Swart-haired, dark-haired.
Swathe, the long line of mown corn behind a reaper; cf. “swathes
of the sword,” i.e. heaps of dead in battle.
Targe, a shield.
Tarry, to wait, to linger, e.g. “Tarry till I say a word.”
Thrall, a slave, “short-lived thralls of the gods,” mortal men,
not dwarfs or giants.
Tide, time, e.g. “the tide when my father fell;” “the night-tide.”
Tiles of Odin, war shields, so called because Odin was god of war.
Tiller, the handle of the rudder which steers a ship.
Toils, snares, fetters.
To-morn, tomorrow morning.
Train, to entice, bring by trickery.
Tree-hole, tree-trunk.
Troth, a promise, generally a promise of marriage.
Troth-plight, promised in marriage.
Trow, to believe.
Twi-bill, an axe with a double-edged blade. It was the weapon which
Odin carried when he appeared to men.
Unbitted, never taught to obey the bit, not broken in.
Unholpen, unhelped. Holpen is the old form of the p.p. helped.
Unstable, changeable, not lasting.
Uttermost horn, the signal for Ragnarok. It was believed that
Heimdall, one of the gods who guarded a bridge called Bifrost between
Asgard and the earth, would blow a blast on his horn which would be
the sign for the beginning of the great battle between the gods and
the powers of evil.
Venom, poison.
Wall-nook, an opening or bend in a wall.
Wallow, to roll about upon the ground, e.g. “Fafnir, the wallower
on the gold.”
Wan, pale, pinched with suffering.
Wane, to fade away, grow dim.
Warding-walls, guarding-walls. “Warding walls of death,” man’s
armour that keeps death from him.
Wards, keepers, e.g. door-wards; cf. warden. Fafnir is called
“the gold-warden.”
War-wand, a sword.
Wary, careful, ever on the watch.
Waste, to destroy, to sweep away, e.g. Sigurd is said to “waste
every wrong.”
Waxen, grown, become.
Weal, happiness, good-fortune.
Wedge-array, an arrangement of fighting men in which they stood
close together in the form of a triangle.
Weed, dress.
Well up, to rise as a spring bubbles out of the ground; used of
feelings with the meaning “to arise and grow strong,” e.g. “Wrath in
his heart wells up.”
Welter, the toss and ripple of the sea-waves.
Wend, to go.
Whetted, stirred up, made sharp or eager, e.g. “the whetted
Wrath.”
Whileome, in the past, once upon a time.
Whiles, from time to time.
Whit, a very small particle, a trifle, e.g. never a whit, no whit.
Wight, a man, a creature, e.g. sea-wights, great sea-monsters.
Wise, way, manner, after the fashion of.
Witch-wife, witch. Wife here means woman.
Wold, a hill; often used to mean open country.
Wood-craft, knowledge of the woods and of all creatures in them,
e.g. “His wood-craft waxed so great, that he seemed the king of the
creatures.”
Wot, to know.
Wrack, strife, destruction, ruins. Wrack of a mighty battle, the
dead left on the field.
Wrights, workmen, makers.
Writhen, bent, twisted out of shape, e.g. “Writhen and foul were
the hands that made it glorious.”
Written spear, a spear carved with letters or words.
Yearn, to long, to feel tenderness towards, e.g. “My heart to him
doth yearn.”
