I'd like to thank people for pointing out my flawed assumption that R
forms were infrequent derivatives of the root *ud-
I've gathered a few more views of orlog, more religious than
linguistic, but they show my error in wanting to suggest the root was
leig- rather than legh-
I'll add them here anyway:
from
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ibn_fdln.htm
Þaðan koma meyiar, margs vitandi,
þrár, ór þeim sæ, er und þolli strendr;
Urð héto eina, aðra Verðandi
--scáro scíði--, Skuld ina þriðio;
þær lög löumlgðo, þær líf kuro
alda bornom, ørlög seggia.
(Thence come the maidens, Mighty in wisdom,
Three from the place, Under the tree,
Wyrd is called one, Another Verðandi
Scored they on wood, Scyld is the third;
There Laws they laid, There life chose,
To men's sons, And spoke ørlög.)
Völuspá 20-25
The Norns lög lögðo "laws lay down" or more literally "lay layers."
They also ørlög seggia "say ørlög." The word, ørlög is "ur-law,
ancient law", but it is equally ancient layers of fate and destiny.
There is a sense here of "weight of history" -- the layers are like
literal "logs" in a woodpile -- it is easy to move the top logs, but
very difficult indeed to shift the whole pile at once, or to move
only the bottommost layers. Recent layers of wyrd or fate, the
recent "layers laid down" or lög lögðo, may therefore be changed, for
example by the valor of a warrior, as seen in the Beowulf quote
above. But fate which involves many people, the destinies of whole
familes, entire nations, or all the Nine Worlds, the "ur-law" or
ørlög has much more depth, and is therefore much more difficult to
shift. (Paul C. Bauschatz. The Well and the Tree. Amherst University
of Massachusetts Press. 1982).
-------------
and from:
http://www.ealdriht.org/lawasw6.html
"The phrase lög leggja is the usual term in Old Norse for the act of
making laws, but the literal meaning of the phrase suggests something
else. Leggja is "to lay," "to place," "to do." Lög (the plural of
lag) is literally 'strada' or 'that which has been deposited or laid
down.' Lög leggja is, then, to lay down that which is laid down, or
to lay down or implant strata." (Bauschatz page )
"The prefix or- signifies something that is beyond or above the
ordinary. It suggests something of first rate or primary
significance, but it does not indicate the scale upon which the
significance is to be measured; hence, the rather vague 'above'
or 'beyond' quality it imparts. The ørlög is, then, a 'primal law'
(in importance), a 'highest law' (in elevation), an 'earliest law'
(in time), a 'first law' (in any numerical sequence), and so forth.
To take the more literal reading of lög, olög is 'the most
significant things laid down,' 'the earliest things
accomplished.' "(Bauschatz page )
our word do which derives from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to
lay." Deriving from the same root is Old English dóm, our modern word
doom. Old English dóm is defined as "judgement, ordeal, sentence,
law, and custom," among other things. Derived from a root meaning "to
lay," the word dóm was applied to various actions or deeds which
where laid in the Well of Wyrd. A judgement, a sentence, a law, a
custom, all of these are things which make up layers in the Well.
----
Sincerely Aydan