BÁL
nafnorðhvorugkyn
n. [old Scot. bale, i. e. a beacon-fagot, Lay of Last Minstrel 3. 27 note].
I. a flame, Nj. 199, Ld. 100, Stj. 45 (freq.)
II. Lat. rogus, a pyre, funeral pile; hlaða b., rogum struere, Eb. 314, 264; Fms. v. 328, esp. for burning dead bodies; a funeral pile in the old heathendom, til brands eðr báls, an old law term, ad urnam, N. G. L. i. 50: the phrase, vega e-n á bal, or, bera á bal, to carry to the pyre, Vkv. 14, cp. Vþm. 54, Fas. i. (Hervar. S.) 487; graphical description of those funerals, vide Edda 37, 38 (Baldrsbrenna), Fas. i. (Völs. S.) 204; cp. 333, Hkr. Yngl. S. ch. 27; cp. also the funeral of the mythical king Sigurd Ring, recorded by Arngrim Lærde in his Supplementum ad Compendium Hist. Norv. MS. (composed A. D. 1597), probably taken from a lost leaf of Skjöldunga Saga (Sögubrot), and mentioned by Munch, Norske Folks Hist. i. 274: mod. of a foaming wind, wrath, etc.—bálviðri, n. and balhvass, bálreiðr, adj., etc.