dymbil-dagar

m. pl. the ‘dumb-bell days,’ i. e. the three days before Easter; hence dymbildaga-vika, u, f. [Swed. dymmel-vecka; Dan. dimmel-uge], Passion week, Bs. i. 71, Fms. x. 72, H. E. i. 491, Sturl. i. 25; during the dymbildagar the bells in Icel. were rung with a wooden tongue called dymbill, m.; a dymbill is often mentioned among the inventories of Icel. churches of the 14th century, e. g. kirkja á dymbil, Vm. 47, 51: it is, however, likely that the word dymbill itself is simply derived from the Engl. dumb-bell, as in the Roman church the bells were dumb or muffled in the Passion week: Björn (Lex.) mentions that in the century before his time people used to strike the time to a dance with the dymbill. It was also an old Icel. custom that the father of a house inflicted a general chastisement on his children and household on Good Friday for the sins of the past year, gently or strongly as they had been obedient or not; hence the popular phrase, líðr að dimbildögum, or koma dymbildagar, = the dimmel-days are nigh, i. e. the day of reckoning will surely come; cp. H. E. iv. 180, 181 (note).