[59] Borg, a castle, a city, or a small dome-shaped height, is a common local term. “It may be questioned whether these names (Borgarholt, Eld-borg, etc.) are derived simply from the hill on which they stand (berg, bjarg), or whether such hills took their names from old fortifications built upon them: the latter is more likely, but no information is on record, and at present ‘borg’ only conveys the notion of a hill” (Cleasby). In Chap. I., I have shown that “borg” and “broch” are sons of the same family.
[60] Captain Graah (loc. cit.) looks upon this as a mere fable: I do not.
[61] Hít is a scrip made of skin, and, metaphorically, a big belly. With a short vowel, Hitár-dalr means the Vale of the Hot (i.e., volcanic) River, opposed to Kaldá or Cold Stream. According to Cleasby, the derivation from the Giantess Hít is a modern fiction not older than the Bárðar Saga: he also, contrary to other authorities, makes Dominus Bárð a giantess.
[62] The Dictionary gives Göltr, a hog, and Kolla, a deer without horns, a humble deer, a hind.
[63] Both translations are somewhat too literal: Enni, a forehead, secondarily means the “brow of a hill,” a steep crag, a fronting precipice.
[64] As the “Berserkir” is becoming a power in novelistic literature, it may be advisable to give the correct form. The singular nominative is Ber-serkr, the plural Ber-serkir, and the oblique form Berserkja, e.g., Berserkja-dis, cairn of the Berserkir. Cleasby (sub voce) shows that the common derivation, taken from Snorri, “berr” (bare) and “Serkr” (sark or shirt) is inadmissible, and greatly prefers “Berr” (a bear), whose skins were worn by athletes and champions; perhaps also here we find traces of that physical metamorphosis in which all the older world believed. The “Berserksgangr” (furor bersercicus seu athleticus), when these “champions” howled like wild beasts, gnawed their iron shields, and were proof against fire and steel, may be compared with the “running amok” of the Malays, and the “bhanging up” of the Hindu hero—invariably the effect of stimulants. This fact considerably abates our interest in Eastern tales of “derring-do,” for instance, in the account of the two sentinels at Delhi, whose calm gallantry, probably produced by opium or hemp, is noticed in pitying terms by Sir Hope Grant.
[65] For the observations at Stykkishólm, see Introduction, Sect. II.
[66] Henderson (ii. 67) places “Hofstad” on the western side of the peninsula.
[67] Réttir are the big public pens, Dilkar the small folds round the former, and the Stekkjarvegr is the spring-fold; all are dry stone walls, as on the Libanus.
[68] As the word is written, it can only signify “Lithe (slope) of the panegyric;” Drápa being a poem in honour of gods, saints, kings, princes, and so forth, as opposed to the short panegyric “Plockr,” and to the longer “Hroðr,” or “Lof.” The boatman, however, explained it to mean Slope of Death, i.e., where some battle took place, and this would be derived from Dráp, slaughter. Both words (says Cleasby) come from Drepa, to strike. There is also a dispute concerning the formation of certain beds in this mountain, some holding that they issued from the same crater successively, and others, simultaneously, from different mouths.