BRYTI
nafnorðkarlkyn
old gen. brytja, mod. bryta, m. [A. S. brytta = villicus; old Dan. bryde], a steward, bailiff. This word occurs twice or thrice in Icel. books, of the bailiffs, of private farms, Nj. 201, Þorf. S. Karl. 408, Fs. 147; also of the two bishops’ bailiffs, Bs. i. 247, 477, 839, 848, where bryti is inferior to ráeth;smaðr, a steward, and denotes the head-labourer in the bishop’s homestead. In Denmark it was more in use, cp. a treatise of N. M. Petersen (‘Bonde og Bryde’) upon the subject, publ. in Ann. for Nord. Oldk. 1847; even used in Denmark as a pr. name, as Steward, Stewart in the Brit. Isles, Hkr. i. 228; bryta eðr hinum bezta manni er í bæ er staddr, Gþl. 428: the bryti was in Norway the head-bondsman, tveir þrælar, þjónn ok bryti, N. G. L. i. 70, 36.