Glossary of Norse & Gaelic Words

Njall & The One-eyed Lord
by Bob Flaws

Aesir: One of the two groups of gods worshipped by the Norse. The Aesir lived in Asgard and were headed by Odinn.

Althing: The largest assembly of the year held at midsummer

Asgard: The home of the Aesir

Babord: The left side of a boat, the opposite or starboard

Barrow: A burial mound

Berserker: A type of warrior famed for their ferocity whom seems to have fought in some kind of trance or altered state of consciousness; believed to have superhuman strength and invincibility to injury 

Blot: The generic name for a Norse religious ceremony, a sacrifice or a blessing

Bondi: Freeborn landowner; pl. bondir

Broch: Fort, now specifically referring to the cylindrical stone towers found in Scotland and the Isles

Bu: An important farm at which local religious ceremonies were commonly held

Carl: A freeman, but not necessarily a landowner

Céli Dé: The Gaelic for the Culdees, the ancient Gaelic church in Scotland

Colum Cille: Gaelic for Columba, the saint who brought Christianity to Scotland from Ireland

Cuirm: The ancient Gaelic for whiskey

Dalverja: The Norse name for the Dalriadan Gaels; pl. Dalverjar

Danegeld: A bride paid to vikings to leave a land in peace

Dansk: The name of the Norse tongue in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Greenland, and the Western Isles

Derchad: Gaelic for meditation

Dirhem: The Arabic name for the silver coins which were so popular at this time in the Northlands

Disablot: A sacrifice to the disir held at the beginning of winter

Disir: A type of female spirit attached to families and clans and close to Freyja, goddess of lover and fertility

Dreng: A colloquial term of uncertain meaning, probably akin to "guy," "fellow," or "mate"

Einherjar: Odinn’s chosen warriors in Valhalla who fight at Ragnarok.

Einvigi: An unregulated, unsanctified duel

Finn: The Norse name for both the Finns of Finland and the Sami or Lapps, reputed to be sorcerers and witches. This name was also applied to the indigenous people of the Orkneys and Shetlands by the Norse.

Fog Moon: November

Frey: The god of husbandry

Freyja: Frey’s sister and the goddess of love and fertility

Frigg: Odinn’s wife, goddess of the home and family

Futhark: The name of the runic alphabet

Fylgyur: Another type of female spirit that was associated with families and their luck and often showed themselves in animal forms at times of crisis

Fylki: A governmental unit in southern and eastern Norway

Gael: Both the Irish of Ireland and the Irish of Scotland and the Hebrides

Godi: A god-man, meaning a religious leader, usually a wealthy bondi; pl. godir or godar

Hacksilver: Pieces of chopped up silver used by the weight in barter

Half-ship: An all-purpose ship with decks fore and aft, an open hold in the center for cargo, and only enough oars fore and aft to maneuver in harbor; primarily powered by sail.

Harvest Moon: August

Hay Moon: July

Hel: The ruler of Niflheim, the underworld for those who do not die heroically

Herred: A governmental unit in western and northern Norway

Hersir: A war-leader; pl. hersar

Hird: A band of warriors. This is actually an Anglo-Saxon term which was adoptred by the Norse after the time period of this story. However, the word works much better than the Norse word of this period. Therefore, although it is an anachronism, I have used it.

Hlad: A white silk band worn around the forehead by jarl’s

Holm: Literally, an island; can refer to the sanctified ring of the regulated duel

Holmgang: Literally meaning "island going," this is the name of a regulated, sanctified duel.

Horning Moon: February

Housecarl: A freeman follower who lived or stayed close to their leader’s household

Howe: Another name for a burial mound

Hunting Moon: October

Jarl: The Norse for earl

Jolablot: The Coming of Spring Blessing

Karve: An approximately 70' utility vessel with a 17' beam

Kenning: A type of complex rhetorical circumlocution in Norse poetry based on a play on words and often requiring great erudition to understand

King’s table: The name of a popular Norse board game somewhat similar to chess or checkers

Knarr: A wide-bellied, sail-powered trading vessel also referred to as a knorr; commonly 54' long and 15' abeam, and able to carry 15 tons of cargo; had a deep keel to stay on course.

Lenting: March

Loki: The trickster god of the Norse, also the god of fire

Longhearth: The elongated central firepit in a Norse longhouse

Longhouse: Somewhat wider-bellied long houses commonly built of stone-faced turf in the islands; had either thatch or sod roofs

Longship: Also called dragonships (larger) and snakeships (smaller), shallow-drafted, long and narrow fighting vessels. These were often 100' long, had a 20' beam, and could carry 100 men. They were both sail and oar-powered.

Merry Moon: May

Midgard: The Norse name for the earth which humans in habit, literally "middle earth"

Midyear Moon: June

Naust: A boat house

Ness: A promintory

Niflheim: The Norse underworld ruled by Hel

Nithing: An oath-breaker, a terrible insult, may have had connotations of homosexuality. Calling a man a nithing was grounds for a duel.

Njord: God of the sea, sailors, and merchants, one of the Vanir

Norns: The three Norse Fates, the Past, Present, and Future who decide each person’s wyrd or fate

Odal: Hereditary right to ownership of one’s land. An odaller was one who owned odal rights.

Odinn: Father and ruler of the Aesir, god of wisdom, writing, poetry, leader of the Aesir in the cataclysmic battle of Ragnarok for which he gathers his heroes or einherjar about him

Orkneyinga: Orcadian, a Orkneyman; pl. Orkneyingar

Ostara: The name of a Norse goddess whose fesitval was in the spring; the source for the name Easter; as the name of a lunar month, April

Owner’s seat: The seat in the center of the house belonging to its owner; commonly flanked by the disir posts and may have had an elaborately carved back and armrests depending on the wealth of the family

Papa: Norse for "father," also the name of Christian priests; pl. papar

Pett: Norse for Pict. This name may have been erroneously applied to all the indigenous inhabitants of Scotland north of the Great Glen and east of the areas colonized by Dalriadan Celts. In fact, the indigenous people of Orkney and Shetland may have belonged to a related but separate group some refer to simply as Albans. However, the Norse do not appear to have made this distinction. 

Prime-sign: To have the sign of the cross made on one’s forehead as a preliminary to being baptized, often a prerequisite for doing business in Christian markets

Quern: A millstone for grinding meal

Sark: A shirt

Scat: Tax, tribute

Seal tar: A tar or pitch made out of rendered and cured sea mammal oil

Selkie: Seals in general, but also supernatural beings who are sometimes seals in the water and humans on land

Seter: A shelter, usually in the hills, where shepherds lived with their herds during the summer

Shedding Moon: September

Sigrblot: The Victory blessing held each spring to insure a good raiding/trading and growing season

Sitchaín: Gaelic for the peace gained through meditation

Skald: A Norse poet

Skerry: A small island

Skyr: A fermented milk product akin to yogurt

Snow Moon: January

Steerboard or steering board: The steering oar of a Norse ship and, therefore, also the right side of a ship

Sunboard: A disk with concentric circles which floated in a bowl of water for maintaining latitude

Sunstone: A translucent, polarizing stone revealing the sun’s presence in the sky even on an overcast day

Thing: A voting assembly attended by bondir and a democratic court of law

Thor: Norse god of thunder and war, enemy of the giants whose emblem was a hammer, immensely powerfully but not too smart

Thrall: A male or female, Norse or foreign slave or bondservant

Valhalla: Odinn’s paradise where the einherjar practice and wait for Ragnarok

Valkyri: Female spirits who gather the spirits of heroes from battle fields and take them to Valhalla

Vanir: A family or race of gods who were once the enemies of the Aesir but who later intermarried

Varthing: The Spring Assembly

War-arrow: An arrow sent around a neighborhood to raise the local levy

Washing Day: Saturday, called so because this was the day the Norse bathed each week

Wend: The Norse name of the peoples living on the north German and Polish plains to the east of Denmark

Weregild: Money paid as compensation for death or injury

Westman: A Norse name for all the non-Norse inhabitants of the British Isles, the Faeroes, and Iceland

Whisker-poles: Poles to hold out the ends of sails when tacking across the wind

Wyrd: Fate

Yggdrasil: The world tree upon which the Norse cosmology was arranged

Yule: December