[3] aktaumar (m. pl.) ‘braces’: The first element of this cpd is derived from the strong verb aka ‘trim’ (cf. aka segli ‘trim the sail’) and the second is taumar ‘reins’ (sg. taumr). In Old Norse, the term denoted the braces of a sail (Falk 1912, 76). In later times it also referred to ropes attached to a bar across the rudder to steer a ship (SnE 1998, II, 233). In poetry, the word otherwise occurs only in Busla Busl 5/7VIII (Bós 5).
References
- Bibliography
- Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- Wilhelm Heizmann (ed.) 2017, ‘Bósa saga 5 (Busla, Buslubæn 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 32.