--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patti (Wilson)"
<originalpatricia@...> wrote:

> Do you think it has any thing to do with a "potato haulm" the word seems
> similar - that is
> AFAIK a stack - in earth of potatoes.

Modern English 'haulm' is the regular development from Old English
'healm', cognate with Old Norse 'hálmr' "straw". The OED has:

a. collective sing. The stems or stalks of various cultivated plants,
as peas, beans, vetches, hops, potatoes, etc., now less commonly of
corn or grass; esp. as left after gathering the pods, ears, etc., and
used for litter or thatching; straw.

b. with a and pl. A stalk or stem (of a bean, potato, grass, etc.).

c. attrib.

1862 T. HUGHES in Macm. Mag. V. 241/2 They..came upon haulm walls and
hurdles, within which were a flock of sheep.