[3] spáþernum ‘prophesying terns’: The significance of this base-word and its prefixed agentive spá- ‘prophesying’, as well as the general association between terns and herrings, have been much discussed. Flornes (1939, 15-6) states that changes in the call of terns, and their flocking behaviour, can indicate (or ‘prophesy’) the presence of herring. But perhaps the idea is simply that boats follow terns, who indicate where the shoals are.