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"Nithing"
- Margaret
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 2440
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
- Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
- Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
- Location: Catskill, New York, USA
- Contact:
I just checked the etymology in my compact OED, and "nithing" is an old Anglo-Saxon word that has a completely different origin from "nothing," which is a contraction of "no" plus "thing."
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info
[quote=""annis""]And in the odd-spot category- just in case you thought that the practice of setting up a spite-stake, or nithing-post died out with the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, here's a post from a relatively contemporary pagan tp prove you wrong!
http://www.traditionalwitchcraft.net/mo ... ic&p=16273[/quote]
I would say it had died out, but was ressurected.
http://www.traditionalwitchcraft.net/mo ... ic&p=16273[/quote]
I would say it had died out, but was ressurected.
It's easy to see how the confusion between the words "nothing" and "nithing" can arise, but "nithing" doesn't mean that someone is worth nothing, but that they have the heinous qualities of "nith" i.e. extreme wickedness, maliciousness, sneakiness or cowardice and stinginess. It was one of the worst possible insults, and a person named a "nithing" might find that the shame made it impossible for him to remain part of his community. As an insult it was a sure-fire starter if you wanted to provoke a duel, and amongst the Vikings, when the insult was augmented by a nithing-post the insulted person could seek redress against the one who insulted him by legal process.
We tend to think of the Vikings as solving all problems by the sword, but in fact they were a litigious lot, who loved nothing better than having a legal debate to mull over.
We tend to think of the Vikings as solving all problems by the sword, but in fact they were a litigious lot, who loved nothing better than having a legal debate to mull over.