Son minn
sóttar brimi
heiptuligr
ór heimi nam,
thann ec veit
at varnadi
vamma varr
vid námæli.
"A fatal fire of disease (fever?) snatched from this world a son of mine, of whom I know that he, careful as he was in regard to sinful deeds, took care of himself for námæli."
To understand this strophe correctly, we must know that the skald in the preceding 17th, as in the succeeding 20th, strophe, speaks of Gunnar's fate in the lower world.
The word námæli occurs nowhere else, and its meaning is not known. It is of importance to our subject to find it out.
In those compounds of which the first part is ná-, ná may be the adverbial prefix, which means near by, by the side of, or it may be the substantive nár, which means a corpse, dead body, and in a mythical sense one damned, one who dies for the second time and comes to Nifelhel (see No. 60). The question is now, to begin with, whether it is the adverbial prefix or the substantive ná- which we have in námæli.
Compounds which have the adverbial ná as the first part of the word are very common. In all of them the prefix ná- implies nearness in space or in kinship, or it has the signification of some thing correct or exact.
(1) In regard to space: nábúd, nábúi, nábýli, nágranna, nágranni, nágrennd, nágrenni, nákommin, nákvæma, nákvæmd, nákvæmr, náleid, nálægd, nálægjast, nálægr, námunda, násessi, náseta, násettr, násæti, návera, náverukona, náverandi, návist, návistarkona, návistarmadr, návistarvitni.
(2) In regard to friendship: náborinn, náfrændi, náfrændkona, námagr, náskyldr, nástædr, náongr.
(3) In regard to correctness, exactness: nákvæmi, nákvæmliga, nákvæmr.