meiðr

Merkingar

m., gen. meiðar, Gm. 34 (Bugge), but else meiðs, dat. meiði; [meid or mei, Ivar Aasen; Swed. mede; perh. derived from meiða, of a lopped and barked tree]:—a pole or longitudinal beam, esp. the two long beams in a sledge, also called sleð-meiðr; þá reif hann meiðinn undan sleðanum, … en Arnkell laust af sér með meiðnum, … hann laust sleðmeiðnum í mót honum, … en meiðrinn kom á garðinn, … en sleðmeiðrinn brotnaði í fjötrar-raufinni, Eb. 190: the phrases, standa á öndverðan meið með e-m, to stand foremost on the meið, to stand at the upcurving of the sledge-bearers, i. e. to stand in the forefront as a champion, Bs. i. 141; cp. ‘staa paa meiom,’ and ‘meia-hals’ = the rising of the meid, Ivar Aasen; mjök þótti mönnum á einn meið hallask með þeim, it went all on one side (metaphor from a sledge capsizing), Bjarn. 59; váð-meiðr, a pole to hang clothes on for drying; nú skulu þér hér reisa við ána váðmeið, ok er konum hægt til þváttar at hreinsa stórföt … þat hygg ek at við þann meið festi hann ykkr upp, Glúm. 390, 391, Rd. 296; cp. váð-áss, Hrafn. 20.

1. 2.

   poët. a pole; telgja meið til rifjar, to shape a pole for a loom, to make a weaver’s loom, Rm. 15: of the mistletoe, af þeim meiði er mer (i. e. mær = mjór) sýndisk, Vsp.: of the gallows’ tree, Hðm. 18, Ht. (Yngl. S. ch. 26); and of the tree Yggdrasil, Gm. 34, Hm. 139, prob. from the notion of its being the gallows of Odin: so also the raven ‘á meiði’ in Bkv. 11 seems to mean the gallows, cp. Germ. galgen-vogel; in Hkv. 1. 5. it is perh. = váðmeiðr. The word can never be used of a living tree. In poetical circumlocutions of a man, vápna meiðr, passim, see Lex. Poët.