vell

n. [vella ¹], gold, prop. molten, i. e. native, gold, or = Germ. ‘ge-diegenes gold,’ (perh. the word comes from the superstition as to serpents brooding and hatching gold, cp. fóru þeir til bælis drekans, ok sá þeir þar mikit gull, ok ‘heitt sem nýrunnit í afli,’ Ingv. 24.) The word is only used in poets, and in the compds, vell-auðigr, vell-ríkr, q. v.: poët. compds, vell-bjóðr, -broti, -meiðir, -rýrir, -stærir, -vönuðr, all epithets of a princely man.