JÖKULL

(gen. -s, dat. jókli; pl. jöklar), m.

1) icicle (hann gekk inn í sal, glumdu jöklar);

2) ice (vatnit snýst í jökul);

3) glacier.

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m., dat. jökli, pl. jöklar, prop. a dimin. from jaki, q. v.; [A. S. gicel, i. e. îs-gicel, whence Engl. icicle; Low Germ. jokel]:—an icicle; gékk inn í sal, glumdu jöklar, var karls er kom kinnskógr frörinn, Hým. 10, of the icicles in the giant’s beard; síðan tóku þeir jöklana ok bræddu, Fms. ix. 155: so also in poët. phrases, where silver is called jökull handar or mund-jökull, the icicle of the hand, Hallfred, Lex. Poët.: as also böðvar-j., the war-icicle = the sword, or sár-j., the wound-icicle, see Lex. Poët.

II. a metaph. sense, ice, gener.; vatnið snýsk í jökul, Sks. 196; settu þeir þat upp með öllum sjánum sem í var ok jöklinum, en þat var mjök sýlt, i. e. they launched the ship with all the ice in it, Grett. 125: snjór ok jökull, Sks. jökla-gangr, m. an ice-drift, Grett. 132 new Ed.

2. in specific Icel. sense, a glacier; this sense the Icelanders probably derived from the Norse county Hardanger, which is the only county of Norway in which Jökul appears as a local name, see Munch’s Norg. Beskr.; in Icel. it is used all over the country both as an appellative and in local names, whereas the primitive sense (icicle) is quite lost, Fs., Fb., Eg. 133, Nj. 208, passim.

3. in local names, Ball-jökull, Eyjafjalla-j., Snæfells-j., Vatna-j., Mýrdals-j., Öræfa-j., Dranga-j., Langi-j., Eireks-j., etc., see the map of Icel.; the glaciers of the Icel. colony in Greenland are also called jökuls: of rivers, Jökuls-á, f. Ice-water; Jökuls-dalr, m. Ice-water-dale; Jökla-menn, m. pl. the men from the county Jökul (i. e. Snæfells-jökull), Sturl. ii. 158; Jöklamanna-búð and goðorð, see búð and goðorð.