Hi Simon,
Here, to all interested, is also a useful place to look for
the meanings of words, in cases where there is some
uncertainty as to exact valour:
http://www.dokpro.uio.no/ordboksoek_nynorsk.html
In the case of 'vesal' it gives the answer:

vesal a1 (norr vesall, vesæll; -sal sm o s *sæl)
1 liten, tynn; veik veik og v- / vere v- i fingrane
2 ussel, ring, skrøpeleg kjenne seg v- av frost / eit v-t verk

vesal = adjective (from Old Norse vesall, vesæll)
1) small, skinny, weak. 'to be v- in the fingers'.
2) ignobel, inferior, frail; 'to feel v- by frost'; ' a v- piece of
work'.

I feel that testing also against Norwegian meanings
gives a good check of the stability of a given meaning.
For if a given meaning has endured the centuries throughout
a wide geographic area, then it indicates that a particular
meaning has a kind of solidity, perhaps deriving from
frequent usage, or from usefulness of the term.

Geir T. Zoëga also gave the following meanings for modern
Icelandic:
vesall adj. = wretched, poor, miserable.
(lasinn) unwell, indisposed.
vesaldarlegur adj. = poorly-looking, miserable, paltry.
vesal-dómur wretchedness, penury.
vesalingur m. = wretch, poor fellow.
vesalmenni n. = a mean person, wretch.
vesalmenska f. = meanness, wretchedness; penury.

In fact, there are many English words here, that I do not
know the exact meaning of either.
(penury = niggardly frugalty)

Here is another fascinating link for such as enjoy rare
dictionaries:

http://www.hist.uib.no/kalkar/
Example: wy ere holden for spaatt oc widunder aff dennem,
som wy skulle haffue lydighed aff. (1583)
[quote from Otto Kalkar: "Ordbog til det ældre danske sprog",
page 815. look under VIDUNDER] (just an example)

The quote displays some of the mysteries of Old Danish,
interesting for such as would like to know more about
how Old Danish differed from Old Norse. Note for example how
"to be" (jeg er= I am) has the plural form "wy ere".
Also note the interesting form "dennem". To me that looks
like the dative form of the demonstrative pronoun, which
has long since come out of usage. I wouldn't know, btw, off hand
what the Icelandic equivalent would be. I would look under "sjá",
or "þessorr", which, however, only has "þessom" as dative
candidate for comparison.

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, simonfittonbrown@... wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Just thought I'd share this with you - it's Michael Barnes's reply
to a
> question of mine asking whether VESALL indicated pity or contempt:
>
> I think contempt in the Hrolfs saga context is exactly what VESALL
indicates;
> not so much pity, I would say.

By the way, I looked on the web for more information
concerning Barnes' textbook on Old Norse, but what I found
seemed rather meagre: Not in amazon, not in barnes, and only
little at the London University (City College?).
In fact, there was a mention somewhere of two or three
different textbooks by Barnes, that were supposed to form
a set. But as far as I could tell, there was only data
indicating a first volume. Do you know if there is a web site
that gives more information than I was able to find?

Another English textbook on Old Norse is by one called
"Gordon". Is there any one who has tried it?
To me it seems to be fairly well organized and useful.
Though it would most likely skip some of the finer
points, because it was only intended as introductory text.


Best regards
Xigung

>
> HTH
>
> Simon