elding

thunderbolt

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f.

1) firing, heating, warming (ofnar til eldingar);

2) smelting, refining (gull þat, er stenzt e.);

3) lightning (því nast flugu eldingar ok reiðar);

4) daybreak, dawn (= nætr-elding).

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1.

f. firing, fuel, Scot. eilding, Grág. ii. 338, 358, Fs. 45; eldingar-steinar, (bituminous?) stones to make a fire, Karl. 18: smelting metals, gull er stenzk e., gold which resists the heat of the crucible, Grág. i. 501; cp. elda grátt silfr.

II. lightning, also in plur., Fms. x. 30, xi. 136, Fas. i. 372, Sks. 229, Stj. 300, Al. 41: eldinga-flug, n. a flash of lightning, Rb. 102: eldinga-mánaðr, m. the lightning month, id.

2.

f. [aldr], the ‘eld’ or old age of the night, the last or third part of the night; allt frá eldingu ok til miðs aptans, Hrafn. 7; vakti Þórhildr upp sína menn þegar í elding, Fms. ii. 231; í elding nætr, vii. 214; kómu í elding nætr á Jaðar, Ó. H. 117. The ancients divided the night into three equal parts, of which the last was called either ótta (q. v.) or elding, (þá er þriðjungr lifir nætr, i. e. where the third part of the night is left): the mod. usage is, það er farið að elda aptr, it begins to rekindle; and aptr-elding, rekindling, as though ‘daybreak’ were from fire ‘eldr;’ but in old writers ‘aptr’ is never joined to these words (Anal. 193 is taken from a paper MS., cp. Fb. iii. 405, l. 6); the phrase elding ‘nætr’ also shews that the word refers not to daylight, but to night, and means the last part of the night, opp. to midnight, mið-nætti.