A note on this word ærið I have just heard from Grace of her interest
in our mutual difficulty with the word and Grace
did suggest that it
might have a relationship with the word used to
mean "Honour" .
I have found an entry in the supplement of CV
that had the word -
ærr-lauss - without
honour - since neither Grace nor myself have
the notion that it has anything to do with
sheep
It seems in the beginning of the chapter that
Thjostolf - our friendly
neighbourhood homicidal maniac is protesting his
going in search of the
wethers along of Glum's servants whom he calls
Thralls then Grace's idea
will be in the right direction - it is beneath this
man's over-estimated dignity
to go searching for sheep.
But ærið is
definitely not in the book
I am feeling a trifle sheepish that I had not
noticed this before
Patricia