The Story of Sigurd the Volsung by William Morris (best time to read books .txt) 📗

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. v. "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;" v. 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;" v. 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."

Yore, long ago; generally used in the expression "of yore," formerly, once upon a time.

LONGMANS' CLASS-BOOKS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Each Volume contains an Introduction and Notes.

Alcott's Little Women.

Allen's Heroes of Indian History and Stories of their Times. With Maps and Illustrations.

Anderson's English Letters selected for Reading in Schools.

Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum, and Balder Dead.

Ballantyne's The Coral Island. (Abridged).

Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

Cook's (Captain) Voyages.

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. (Abridged). With Illustrations.

Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Dickens, Selections from. With Illustrations.

Doyle's Micah Clarke. (Abridged). With 20 Illustrations.

Doyle's The Refugees. (Abridged). With Illustrations.

Doyle's The White Company. (Abridged). With 12 Illustrations.

Fronde's Short Studies on Great Subjects. Selections. With Illustrations.

Haggard's Eric Bright eyes. (Abridged).

Haggard's Lysbeth. (Abridged).

Hawthorne's A Wonder Book.

Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales.

Hughes' Tom Brown's School Days. (Abridged) With Frontispiece.

Jefferies (Richard), Selections from.

Kingsley's The Heroes. With Illustrations.

Kingsley's Hereward the Wake. (Abridged).

Kingsley's Westward Ho!

Lambs' Tales from Shakespeare. (Abridged.)

Lang's Tales of the Greek Seas. With Illustrations.

Lang's Tales of Troy. With Illustrations and a Map.

Macaulay's History of England. Chap I.

Macaulay's History of England. Chap III.

Macaulay's History of England, Selections from.

Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome, &c.

Marryat's Settlers in Canada.

Milton's Paradise Lost. Books I, II, III, IV, and V.

Milton's Comus, Il Penseroso, L'Allegro and Lycidas.

Morris's Atalanta's Race, and The Proud King.

Morris's The Man Born to be King.

Morris's The Story of the Glittering Plain.

Morris's The Story of Sigurd the Volsung.

Newman, Literary Selections from.

Reade's The Cloister and the Hearth.

Ruskin's King of the Golden River.

Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel.

Scott's Marmion.

Scott's The Lady of the Lake.

Scott's The Talisman. (Abridged).

Scott's A Legend of Montrose. (Abridged).

Scott's Ivanhoe. (Abridged).

Scott's Quentin Durward. (Abridged).

Southey's The Life of Nelson.

Stevenson's Book of Selections.

Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verse. With a Portrait.

Tales of King Arthur and the Round Table. With Illustrations.

Thackeray, Selections from.

Thornton's Selection of Poetry.

Weyman's The House of the Wolf.

Zimmern's Gods and Heroes of the North. With Illustrations.