This is page cv_b0096. Please don't edit above this dashed line. Thank you!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
of-dan, það er mér ofdan, 'tis too great a honour for me; else the word
is quite out of use.
Danskr, adj., Danir, pl. Danes; Dan-mörk, f. Denmark, i.e. the
mark, march, or border of the Danes; Dana-veldi, n. the Danish empire;
Dana-virki, n. the Danish wall, and many compds, vide Fms. xi. This
adj. requires special notice, because of the phrase Dönsk tunga (the Danish
tongue), the earliest recorded name of the common Scandinavian tongue.
It must be borne in mind that the 'Danish' of the old Saga times applies
not to the nation, but to the empire. According to the researches of
the late historian P.A. Munch, the ancient Danish empire, at least at
times, extended over almost all the countries bordering on the Skagerac
(Vík); hence a Dane became in Engl. synonymous with a Scandinavian;
the language spoken by the Scandinavians was called Danish; and
'Dönsk tunga' is even used to denote Scandinavian extraction in the
widest extent, vide Sighvat in Fms. iv. 73, Eg. ch. 51, Grág. ii. 71, 72.
During the 11th and 12th centuries the name was much in use, but as
the Danish hegemony in Scandinavia grew weaker, the name became
obsolete, and Icel. writers of the 13th and 14th centuries began to use
the name 'Norræna,' Norse tongue, from Norway their own mother
country, and the nearest akin to Icel. in customs and idiom. 'Swedish'
never occurs, because Icel. had little intercourse with that country,
although the Scandinavian tongue was spoken there perhaps in a more
antique form than in the sister countries. In the 15th century, when
almost all connection with Scandinavia was broken off for nearly a century,
the Norræna in its turn became an obsolete word, and was replaced
by the present word 'Icelandic,' which kept its ground, because the language
in the mean time underwent great changes on the Scandinavian
continent. The Reformation, the translation of the Old and New Testaments
into Icelandic (Oddr Gotskalksson, called the Wise, translated
and published the N.T. in 1540, and bishop Gudbrand the whole Bible
in 1584), a fresh growth of religious literature, hymns, sermons, and
poetry (Hallgrímr Pétrsson, Jón Vídalín), the regeneration of the old
literature in the 17th and 18th centuries (Brynjólfr Sveinsson, Arni
Magnússon, Þormóðr Torfason), -- all this put an end to the phrases
Dönsk tunga and Norræna; and the last phrase is only used to denote
obsolete grammatical forms or phrases, as opposed to the forms and
phrases of the living language. The translators of the Bible often say
'vort Íslenzkt mál,' our Icelandic tongue, or 'vort móður mál,' our
mother tongue; móður-málið mitt, Pass. 35. 9. The phrase 'Dönsk
tunga' has given rise to a great many polemical antiquarian essays: the
last and the best, by which this question may be regarded as settled, is
that by Jon Sigurdsson in the preface to Lex. Poët.; cp. also that of
Pál Vídalín in Skýr. s.v., also published in Latin at the end of the old
Ed. of Gunnl. Saga, 1775.
DANZ, mod. dans, n. a word of for. origin; [cp. mid. Lat. dansare;
Fr. danser; Ital. danzare; Engl. dance; Germ. tanz, tanzen.] This word
is certainly not Teutonic, but of Roman or perhaps Breton origin: the Icel.
or Scandin. have no genuine word for dancing, -- leika means 'to play' in
general: the word itself (danza, danz, etc.) never occurs in the old Sagas
or poetry, though popular amusements of every kind are described there;
but about the end of the 11th century, when the Sagas of the bishops
(Bs.) begin, we find dance in full use, accompanied by songs which are
described as loose and amorous: the classical passage is Jóns S. (A.D.
1106-1121), ch. 13. Bs. i. 165, 166, and cp. Júns S. by Gunnlaug, ch.
24. Bs. i. 237 -- Leikr sá var kær mönnum áðr en hinn heilagi Jón varð
biskup, at kveða skyldi karlmaðr til konu í danz blautlig kvæði ok rægilig;
ok kona til karlmanns mansöngs vísur; þenna leik lét hann af taka ok
bannaði styrkliga; mansöngs kvæði vildi hann eigi heyra né kveða láta,
en þó fékk hann því eigi af komið með öllu. Some have thought that
this refers to mythical (Eddic) poetry, but without reason and against
the literal sense of the passage; the heathen heroic poems were certainly
never used to accompany a dance; their flow and metre are a sufficient
proof of that. In the Sturl. (Hist. of the 12th and 13th century) dancing
is mentioned over and over again; and danz is used of popular ballads or
songs of a satirical character (as those in Percy's ballads): flimt (loose
song) and danz are synonymous words; the Sturl. has by chance preserved
two ditties (one of A.D. 1221, running thus -- Loptr liggr í Eyjum,
bítr lunda bein | Sæmundr er á heiðum, etr berin ein. Stud. ii. 62, and
one referring to the year 1264 -- Mínar eru sorgirnar þungar sem blý,
Sturl. iii. 317) sufficient to shew the flow and metre, which are exactly the
same as those of the mod. ballads, collected in the west of Icel. (Ögr)
in the 17th century under the name of Fornkvæði, Old Songs, and now
edited by Jon Sigurdsson and Svend Grundtvig. Danz and Fornkvæði
are both of the same kind, and also identical with Engl. ballads, Dan.
kæmpeviser. There are passages in Sturl. and B.S. referring to this subject --
færðu Breiðbælingar Lopt í flimtun ok görðu um hann danza
marga, ok margskonar spott annat, Sturl. ii. 57, cp. 62; Danza-Bergr, the
nickname of a man (Stud, ii), prob. for composing comic songs; danza-
görð, composing comic songs; fylgðar-menn Kolbeins fóru með danza-
görð, ... en er Brandr varð varr við flimtan þeirra, iii. 80; þá hrökti
Þórðr hestinn undir sér, ok kvað danz þenna við raust, 317. β.
a wake, Arna S. ch. 2; in Sturl. i. 23; at the banquet in Reykhólar, 1119,
the guests amused themselves by dancing, wrestling, and story-telling; þá
var sleginn danz í stofu, ii. 117; í Viðvík var gleði mikil ok gott at vera;
þat var einn Drottins dag at þar var danz mikill; kom þar til fjöldi manna;
ok ríðr hann í Viðvík til danz, ok var þar at leik; ok dáðu menn mjök
danz hans, iii. 258, 259; honum var kostr á boðinn hvat til gamans skyldi
hafa, sögur eða danz um kveldit, 281; -- the last reference refers to the 21st
of January, 1258, which fell on a Sunday (or wake-day): in ballads and
tales of the Middle Ages the word is freq. :-- note the allit. phrase, dansinn
dunar, Ísl. Þóðs. ii. 8: the phrases, stiga danz; ganga í danz; brúðir í
danz, dansinn heyra; dans vill hun heyra, Fkv. ii. 7. Many of the burdens
to the mod. Icel. ballads are of great beauty, and no doubt many centuries
older than the ballads to which they are affixed; they refer to lost love,
melancholy, merriment, etc., e.g. Blítt lætur veröldin, fölnar fögr fold | langt
er síðan mitt var yndið lagt í mold, i. 74; Út ert þú við æginn blá, eg er
hér á Dröngum, | kalla eg löngum, kalla eg til þin löngum; Skín á skildi
Sól og sumarið fríða, | dynur í velli er drengir í burtu riða, 110; Ungan
leit eg hofmann í fögrum runni, | skal eg í hljóði dilla þeim mér unm;
Austan blakar laufið á þann linda, 129; Fagrar heyrða eg raddirnar
við Niflunga heim; Fagrt syngr svanrinn um sumarlanga tíð, | þá mun
list að leika sér mín liljan fríð, ii. 52: Einum unna eg manninum, á meðan
það var, | þó hlaut eg minn harm að bera í leyndum stað, 94; Svanrinn
víða. svanurinn syngr viða, 22; Utan eptir firðinum, sigla fagrar fleyr |
sá er enginn glaður eptir annan þreyr, 110; Svo er mér illt og angrsamt
því veldur þú, | mig langar ekki í lundinn með þá jungfrú, Espol. Ann.
1549. The earliest ballads seem to have been devoted to these subjects
only; of the two earliest specimens quoted in the Sturl. (above), one is
satirical, the other melancholy; the historical ballads seem to be of later
growth: the bishops discountenanced the wakes and dancing (Bs. l.c.,
Sturl. iii), but in vain: and no more telling proof can be given of the
drooping spirits of Icel. in the last century, than that dancing and wakes
ceased, after having been a popular amusement for seven hundred years.
Eggert Olafsson in his poems still speaks of wakes, as an eyewitness;
in the west of Icel. (Vestfirðir) they lasted longer, but even there they died
out about the time that Percy's ballads were published in England. The
Fornkvæði or songs are the only Icel. poetry which often dispenses with
the law of alliteration, which in other cases is the light and life of Icel.
poetry; vide also hofmaðr, viki-vakar, etc. In the 15th century the rímur
(metrical paraphrases of romances) were used as an accompaniment to
the danz, höldar danza harla snart, ef heyrist vísan mín; hence originates
the name man-söngr (maid-song), minne-sang, which forms the introduction
to every ríma or rhapsody; the metre and time of the rímur are
exactly those of ballads and well suited for dancing. An Icel. MS. of the
17th century, containing about seventy Icel. Fornkvæði, is in the Brit.
Mus. no. 11,177; and another MS., containing about twenty such songs,
is in the Bodl. Libr. no. 130.
danza, mod. dansa, að, to dance, Sks. 705, not in Sturl. and Bs., who
use the phrase slá danz; the verb danza occurs for the first time in the
ballads and rímur -- Ekki er dagr enn, vel d. vifin, Fkv. ii. 102.
danz-leikr, m. dancing, Sturl. i. 23.
dapi, a, m. a pool, Ivar Aasen: a nickname, Fms. viii.
DAPR, adj., gen. rs, of a person, downcast, sad, Nj. 11, Isl. ii. 248,
272, Band. 9: of an obicct, dreary, d. dagr, Am. 58; 'd. nætr, SI. 13;
döpr heimkynni, Hbl. 4, Fms. x. 214: the proverb, fyrr er d. en dauðr,
one droops before one dies, i.e. as long as there is life there is hope:
daprt böl, Pass. 44.3; döpr dauðans pína, Bs. ii. 501; döpr augu, weak
eyes, Vídal. i. 25; augn-dapr, weak-eyed; hence depra or augn-depra,
weak sight: a faint flame of a light is also called daprt, tvö döpur Ijós
sitt log, Jón Þorl. i. 146.
dapra, að, to become faint, in swimming; e-m daprar sund, he begins to
sink, Njarð. 374; more usually dep. daprask, Fbr. 160, Fas. iii. 508.
dapr-eygr, adj. weak-sighted, Bjarn. 63.
dapr-ligr, adj. (-liga, adv.), dismal, sad; hnipin ok d., Ísl. ii. 196;
kona d., a dreary looking woman, Sturl. ii. 212; d. ásjóna, a sad look,
Fms. i. 262; d. draumar, dismal dreams, vi. 404.
darka, að, to walk heavily, to trample, (a cant term.)
DARRAÐR, m., gen. ar, [A.S. dearod; Engl. dart; Fr. dard; Swed.
dart] :-- a dart, Hkm. 2 (in the best MSS.), cp. DL, where vefr darraðar
simply means the web of spears; the common form in poetry is darr, n.,
pl. dörr, vide Lex. Poët., in mod. poetry dör, m., Úlf. I. 16, 4. 47, 7.
61; the word is probably foreign and never occurs in prose. 2. a sort of peg, Edda (Gl.)
dasask, að, [Swed. dasa], to become weary and exhausted, from cold
or bodily exertion, Bs. i. 442, Fær. 185, Fms. ii. 98, Orkn. (in a verse),
Sturl. iii. 20, O.H.L. 16; dasaðr, exhausted, weary, Ld. 380, Fas. ii. 80,
Fms. viii. 55, Bb. 3. 24.
DASI, a, m. (dasinn, adj., Lex. Poët.), a lazy fellow, Edda (GL),
Fms. vi. (in a verse).
datta, að. to sink, of the heart, Fbr. 37, vide detta.
dauð-dagi, a, m. a mode of death, Ísl. ii. 220, Lv. 68, Fas. i. 88, Greg, 67.
dauð-dagr = dauðadagr, Bs. i. 643