Talk:glamer

Scots

In the spirit of transparency, I converted this from English to Scots in this edit. The reasons are in the edit summary. Renard Migrant (talk) 21:50, 18 April 2015 (UTC)

Norse

ON THE WORD GLAMOUR AND THE LEGEND OF GLAM. In the Grettis Saga there is a wild legend how Grettir kills the ghost Glam who haunted Thorhall's farm . There was a long and fierce struggle between them, but at last “Glam fell open armed aback out of the house and Grettir over him . Bright moonlight was there without, and the drift was broken, now drawn over the moon, now driven from off her ; and even as Glam fell, a cloud was driven from the moon, and Glam glared up against her. And Grettir himself said that by that sight only was he dismayed amidst all that he ever saw .” Glam then spoke to him as he was dying, “ This weird I lay on thee, ever in those days to see these eyes with thine eyes, and thou wilt find it hard to be alone, -and that shall drag thee unto death.” (See Magnusson and Morris' translation , p. 109) . The spell soon begins to work , for in the next page we read , “ herein he found the greatest change, in that he was become so fear some a man in the dark that he durst go nowhither alone after nightfall, for then he seemed to see all kinds of horrors. And that has fallen since into a proverb that Glam lends eyes or gives glamsight (glám-sýni) to those who see things nowise as they are.” Mr Magnusson has given me from the Sturlunga Saga a very interesting instance of glamsight which occurs in the description of a battle before daylight. En þá er ljóst var orðit, gaf þeim glámsýni, er til varu kvamnir, ok sýndist þeim sem menn færo hvaðanæva at þeim ; en þar sáo þeir torfhrauka ok stakkgarða, þvi bèluboka var um mýrarnar, ok mændu upp or kollarnir. “ But when it was daylight the sight of those who had arrived became glamour stricken, and it seemed to them as if they were set upon by men from everywhere ; but what they saw were turf-ricks and stack-yards (winter shelter for horses), the bogs being enveloped in rime -mist, and the tops (of the ricks and the stacks) standing out of (the fog or mist).” Glam , or in the nominative glamr, is also a poetical name for the moon . It does not actually occur in the ancient litera ture, but it is given in the glossary in the Prose Edda (p. 96, ed . 1818) in the list of the very old words for the moon, “ Túngl ; máni, ny , nið , ártali, mulenn , fengari , glámr, & c.” Vigfusson , in his Dictionary, says, “ the word is interesting on account of its identity with Scot. glamour, which shews that the tale of Glam was common to Scotland and Iceland , and thus much older than Grettir (of the year 1014 ).” - The Journal of Philology, Vol VI, 1876, pp 85-86