_Lay_, a song.

_Lea_, a meadow.

_Leeches_, doctors.

_Lief_, willing.

_Lift_, the arch of the sky overhead, the highest part of the sky.

_Linden_, the lime-tree.

_Linked mail_, armour made of rings linked together.

_Lintel_, the top of a doorway.

_List_, to wish, to choose.

_Litten_, lighted up; cf. red-litten, torch-litten.

_Long-ships_, ships of war.

_Lore_, learning, knowledge.

_Loth_, unwilling, grieved.

_Mar_, to spoil, disfigure.

_Mark_, boundary, borderland.

_Masters of God-home_, the gods of Asgard against whom the giants and
all foul monsters were constantly at war.

_Mattock_, a pick-axe.

_Mead_, a meadow.

_Mew_, a sea-gull.

_Mid-mirk_, thick darkness. _Mirk_, darkness.

_Midward_, prime, best days.

_Midworld_, the earth; the home of men as distinguished from Asgard,
the home of the gods, and Niflheim, the home of the dead.

_Minish_, to grow less.

_Moon-wake_, the long straight path of light made by the moon on
water.

_Murder-churls,_ fierce and suspicious men ready to slay a guest.

_Mute_, dumb, silent.

_Nether_, lower.

_Niggard_, grudging, miserly, unproductive, e.g. the Glittering
Heath is called "niggard ground."

_Norns_, the three maidens who decided the fates of gods and men.
Their names were Urd, Verdandi and Skuld, or Past, Present, and
Future, and they were more powerful than the gods themselves, e.g.
"Gone, forth is the will of the Norns, that abideth ever the same."

_Odin's door_, a warrior's shield.

_Odin's Hall_, Valhalla, to which went the souls of warriors slain in
battle.

_Pall_, a cloak of state; most commonly used in the expression "purple
and pall."

_Passing_, very; used to give emphasis, e.g. "He loveth her passing
sore," where both words are simply emphatic.

_Peace-strings_, the strings which tied a sword into its sheath when
it was not in use.

_Peers_, equals in age and rank.

_People's Praise_. Odin, chief of the gods. "The death of the People's
Praise" is Ragnarok, the time when Odin and all his fellow gods were
to be destroyed.

_Purblind_, dim-sighted. The syllable "pur" is a form of the word
pure, and gives emphasis to blind.

_Purple_, cloth dyed with a purple dye made from the murex, a
shell-fish found in the Mediterranean. The secret of making it was
known only to the "southern men" or Phoenician traders of Tyre and
Sidon.

_Quarry_, game, prey, the animal chased by a hunter.

_Quel