Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/124

CXVI The author of the tale gives a free, poetical translation, as follows:

The steel is sharp, the edge is fine, It’s severed many a tough design, The word is sure, the word is pure, A light e’en in the midnight hour, Let steel and word for ever gird And be to her a shield and sword.

Literally the formula has to be translated thus (with one or two doubtful words): The steel is sharp and fine, the sickle is always sharp; the word is certain and pure, a glimpse of light in the darkest hour. Let the steel and the sword always guard her and appear to her as a protection (a shield?), a sword.

u in “stuhl”, from stál,, steel, denotes, in this case, a close o-sound [ô]. a in “sachel” probably expresses an e-sound, open pronunciation of English sickle, “emer” is possibly immer. “snean” is, cutting, from , , to chip, cut; sníða. v for w in “vird”, wird, word, is probably due to consciousness of the fact that initial w in  corresponds to v in the old Norn. “sicer” means sicker, certain.

“mirk-as-dim”, accepted as a compound of three words, must be “”,   of the  superlative form of , myrkr,, dark. “hura”, hour, replaces an older (Norn) word of the gender, which the form “mirkastim” shows.

The first part has doubtless run: *, í myrkastum tíma, in the darkest hour.

is older girða = gerða,, to guard, protect, which meaning suits better than to gird with, gyrða.

is rather skýli,, protection (= $2$, , , , in Dictionary) than the word shield ( skjǫldr), though the author has “shield” in his poetical translation. is sverð and swird, a sword.

Considering the fossilized Norn forms in it, the formula was probably first composed in that language.

. An ancient formula, used at St. Olav’s church at Ness in North Yell even into the 18th century, is noted down by Thomas Irvine of Midbrekk in the MS. “Zetlandic Memoranda”, preserved in the Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh.

It is specially interesting to note that this formula is in the language and not in the usual Norn of the Isles, as is seen from some words in it. Th. Irvine has recorded the formula as follows: