[4] roðla ‘rolls’: I.e. scrolls, or rolls of parchment. Apparently a hap. leg. in Old Norse (not cited in Fritzner; ONP: roðull notes it only as a ‘poetic word’) and distinct from rǫðull ‘sun’. Finnur Jónsson correctly explains it as a loan-word, ultimately from Lat. rotulus ‘small wheel’ (LH II, 174; cf. LP: roðull), implicitly correcting Bret 1848-9, which reads röðlar ‘suns’, interpreted as ‘holy men’ (so also CVC: röðull). In post-classical Latin rotulus assumed the sense of ‘a scroll of parchment’ and was adopted into Old French (role, rolle, from the end of the C12th), Anglo-Norman and Middle English (rouel, rolle).
References
- Bibliography
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
- ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
- LH = Finnur Jónsson. 1920-4. Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie. 3 vols. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Gad.
- Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.