brúðfé

n. a bride’s fee; cp. the ‘duty to the priest and clerk’ in the Engl. service; the bride’s fee is mentioned in the beautiful heathen poem Þrymskviða (our chief authority in these matters), 29, 32; where it is a fee or gift of the bride to the giant maid. It seems to be a fee paid by the guests for attendance and waiting. Unfortunately there is a lacuna in verse 29, the last part of which refers to the bekkjargjöf (vide 57); the poem is only left in a single MS. and the text cannot be restored. It is carious that Þkv. 32 calls this fee ‘shillings,’ cp. Germ. braut schilling (Grimm); it shews that the bride’s fee was paid in small pieces of money.