MÖTTULL

(dat. möttli), m. mantle.

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m., dat. möttli; [no doubt from Lat. mantile, = a hand-towel or napkin; whence the word came into the Romance languages, Ital. mantello; Span. mantilla; Fr. manteau; Engl. mantle; thence into the Teutonic, O. H. G. mantal]:—a mantle; occurring as early as in Kormak, but not used elsewhere by old poets, although freq. in the Sagas, Fms. i. 211, ii. 280, xi. 275, Fs. 60, Nj. 28, Fb. i. 20, ii. 131, Fær. 264, 266; the möttull was worn by both men and women; skikkja, which is the genuine Norse word, seems to be synonymous with möttull; thus skikkja, Fagrsk. 115 (line 25), is called möttull, 117 (line 24): the möttull was prob. a short light mantle, fastened by strings (tuglar) round the neck, whence it was called tugla-möttull, Fb. ii. 130, Fær. 263, or möttull á tuglum, and it seems usually to have been of foreign cut and of costly foreign stuff (a purple mantle is mentioned in Fagrsk. l. c.)

II. as a pr. name of a Finnish king, Fb. iii.