Chapter 3

Here, no doubt, an animal is sacrificed. I fancy the poet retained a term which had penetrated from Scandinavia to Lithuania without understanding it himself; for bluotkirl is merely the O. Swed. blôtkarl, heathen priest; the term is foreign to the Lithuanian language. (19)

A few more of these general terms for sacrifice must be added (see Suppl.).---OHG. antheiz [[victim, sacrifice]] (hostia, victima), Diut. 1, 240. 246, 258. 278; and as verbs, both antheizôn and inheizan (immolare), Diut. 1, 246. 258.---OHG. insakên [[to offer, sacrifice]] (litare), Gl. Hrab. 968, insakêt pim [[be offered (?)]] (delibor), ibid. 959 960, to which add the Bavarian stapfsakên [[to say a step?]], RA. 927; just so the AS. onsecgan [[to offer, sacrifice]], Cod. exon. 171, 32. 257, 23. onsecgan tô tibre [[to offer as sacrifice]] (devote as sacrifice), Cædm. 172, 30. tiber onsægde [[offered a sacrifice]], 90, 29. 108, 17. tifer onsecge [[offer sacrifice]], Ps. 65, 12. lâc onsecge [[offer sacrifice]] Cod. exon 254, 19. 257, 29; lâc onsægde [[offered sacrifice]], Cædm. 107, 21. 113, 15. Cod. exon. 168, 28. gild onsægde [[offered worship, sacrifice]], Cædm. 172, 11. and onsægdnes [[sacrifice, offereing]] (oblatio).---As inheizan [[to sacrifice]] and onsecgan [[to offer, sacrifice]] are formed with the prefix and-, so is apparently the OHG. ineihan pim [[be sacrificed (?)]] (delibor), Hrab. 960, which would yield a Goth. andáikan; it is from this OHG. ineihhan, which I think Graff 1, 128 has misread ireihan, that a later neihhan [[to sacrifice, offer]] immolare, libare Graff (2, 1015) seems to have risen by aphæresis (Gramm. 2, 810), as nëben from inëben; conf. eichôn [[to dedicate, consecrate, protect]] (dicare, vindicare), Graff 1, 127. To this place also belongs the OHG. pifëlahan [[to offer, sacrifice]] (libare, immolare), Diut. 1, 245. 248.---All this strictly denotes only the 'on-saying,' dedication, consecration of the offering; and it follows from the terminology at least that particular objects were selected beforehand for sacrifice. (20) Thus antheiz [[victim, sacrifice]] is elsewhere simply a vow, votum, solem promise, intheizan [[to vow]] vovere; hence also the AS. onsecgan [[to offer, sacrifice]] has determinative substantives added to it.

In the same sense biudan [[to bid, offer]] (offerre) seems to have been in use very early, AS. lâc bebeodan [[to offer sacrifice]], Cædm. 173, 9. ON. bodn [[boðn - vessel]] (oblatio). From this biudan [[to bid, offer]] I derive biuds [[table]] (mensa), ON. bioðr [[bjóð - small bowl?]] (discus), AS. beod [[table, dish]] (mensa, lanx), OHG. piot [[table (?)]], from its having originally signified the holy table of offerings, the altar.

The Goth. fullafahjan (with dat. of pers.) prop. to please, give satisfaction, is used forlatreuein, Lu. 4, 8 (see Suppl.).---In Mk. 1, 44. Lu. 5, 14 atbairan [[to bring, carry, offer]] adferre, prosferein, is used of sacrifice; and in AS. the subst. bring by itself means oblatio; so Wolfram in Parz. 45, 1 says: si brâhten opfer vil ir goten [[they brought many offerings to their gods]], and Fundgr. II. 25: ein lam zopphere brâhte [[brought a lamb to sacrifice]].---It is remarkable that the Goth. saljan [[to dwell, abide]], which elsewhere is intransitive and means divertere, manere [put up, lodge, John 1, 39. 40] is in Lu. 1, 9. Mk. 14, 12. 1 Cor. 10, 20. 28 used transitively for qumian and quein, and hunsla saljan [[to offer a sacrifice]], John 16, 2 stands for latreian prosferin, which brings it up to the meaning of OHG. and AS. sellan [[to give, supply]], ON. selja [[to sell, give]], tradere, to hand over, possibly because the solemn presentation included a personal approach. The OHG. pigangan [[to go to meet]] (obire) is occasionally applied to worship: piganc [[ritual]] (ritus), Diut. 1, 272. afgoda begangan [[to worship (lit. to go to meet) false gods]], Lacomblet 1, 11.---Gildan, këltan [[to give back, repay, yield]], among its many meanings, has also to do with worship and sacrifice; it was from the old sacrificial banquets that our guilds took their name. OS. waldandes (God's) gëld [[the ruling-one's yield]], Hel. 3, 11. 6, 1. that gëld lêstian [[to perform the yield(sacrifice)]], Hel. 16, 5. AS. brynegield [[burn-yield, burnt sacrifice]], holocaustum, Cædm. 175, 6, 177, 18. gild onsecgan [[to offer sacrifice (lit. to on-say the yield)]], 172, 11. Abel's offering is a gield [[yield, sacrifice]], 60, 5. deofolgield [[devil-yield]], idololatria, Beda 3, 30. Cod. exon. 245, 29. 251, 24. hæðengield [[heathen-yield]], Cod. exon. 243, 23. OHG. heidankëlt [[heathen-yield, sacrilege]] sacrilegium: gote ir gelt bringent [[bringing god their yield]], Warn. 2906. offeruncghëlstar, sacrificium [[offering-yield, sacrifice]], Is. 395. dhiu blôstar iro ghëlstro [[the sacrificer their sacrifice (?)]], Is. 382.---Peculiar to the AS. dialect is the general term lác [[sacrifice, offering]], neut., often rendered more definite by verbs containing the notion of sacrifice: onbléot þæt lác gode [[sacrificed the offering to god]], Cædm. 177, 26. dryhtne lác brohton [[brought sacrifice to the drightin]], 60, 2. lác bebeodan [[to offer sacrifice]], 173, 9. lác onsægde [[to offer sacrifice]], 107, 21. 113, 15. ongan lác [[to approach (with) sacrifice]], 90, 19 (see Suppl.). The word seems to be of the same root as the Goth. masc. láiks (saltatio), OHG, leih [[game, melody]] (ludus, modus), ON. leikr [[game, play, sport]], and to have signified at first the dance and play that accompanied a sacrifice, then gradually the gift itself. (21) That there was playing and singing at sacrifices is shown by the passage quoted further on, from Gregory's dialogues and Adam of Bremen.



ENDNOTES:

20. So the O. Boh. obiecati obiet (Königinh. hs. 72) is strictly opfer verheissen, to promise or devote an offering.  (back)

21. Serv. prilóg offering, what is laid before, prilozhiti to offer; Sloven. dar, darina, daritva = dwron. [Russ. darü sviatüye = dwra iera means the eucharist.] The Sloven aldov, bloodless offering, seems not to be Slavic, it resembles Hung. aldozat. Qusia is rendered in O. Slav. by zhrtva (Kopitar's Glagol. 72), in Russ. by zhertva [fr. zh'ariti to roast, burn ? or zháriti devour, zhëra glutton?].  (back)