The only words of undoubtedly Norse element that occur in the present poem,
and were unknown to Southern English, are—_fro_ (from), _ille_ (bad),
_for-sweðen_ (to burn), _flitten_ (to remove), _laðe_ (barn), _lowe_
(flame), _mirk_ (dark), _ransaken_ (to search), _swaðe_ (flame), _til_
(to), _uglike_ (horrible), _werre_ (worse).[47]
The Ormulum, being more Northern, contains a _larger_ number of words that
must be referred to one of the Scandinavian idioms:[48]—_afell_ (strength),
_afledd_ (begotten), _beȝȝsc_ (bitter), *_blunnt_ (blunt, dull), _bracc_
(noise), *_braþ_ (angry), *_braþþe_ (anger), *_brodd_ (shoot), _brodden_
(to sprout), _broþþfall_ (fit), *_bun_ (ready, _bound_), *_clake_
(accusation), *_croc_ (device), *_derf_ (bold), *_dill_ (sluggish),
*_eggenn_ (to urge, egg on), *_egginng_ (urging), *_ettle_, *_flittenn_ (to
remove, flit), *_flitting_ (change, removal), *_forrgart_ (opposed,
condemned), *_forrgloppned_ (disturbed with fear, astonishment), *_gate_
(way), _gowesst_ (watchest), *_haȝherr_ (dexterous), _haȝherleȝȝc_ (skill),
*_haȝherrlike_ (fitly), _hof_ (moderation), _hofelæs_ (immoderately),
*_ille_ (bad), *_immess_ (variously), *_kinndlenn_ (to kindle), *_lasst_
(crime, fault), _leȝhe_ (hire, pay), *_leȝȝtenn_ (O.E. _layte_, inquire,
seek), _o-loft_ (aloft), *_loȝhe_ (fire), *_mune_ (must, will), _naþe_
(grace), _nowwt_ (cattle, O.N. _naut_; the Southern form is _neet_, _nete_,
A.S. _neát_), *_ploh_ (plough), *_radd_ (afraid), *_ros_ (praise), *_rosen_
(to boast), *_rosinng_ (boast), _rowwst_ (voice), *_scaldess_ (poets, O.E.
_scald_, a great talker, boaster, E. _scold_), *_sit_ (pain), *_sket_
(quickly), *_skirpeþþ_ (rejecteth), *_sloþ_ (track, path), _smikerr_
(beautiful, Eng. _smug_), _sowwþess_ (sheep), _stoffnedd_ (generated, O.E.
_stoven_, trunk, stem), *_summ_ (as), *_till_ (to), *_tór_ (hard,
difficult), *_trigg_ (true), _uppbrixle_ (object of reproach, O.E.
_brixle_, reproach), _usell_ (wretched), *_wand_ (rod), *_wandraþ_, O.E.
_wandreth_ (trouble), *_werre_ (worse).
As most, if not all, of the words in the foregoing list are not found in
works written in the Southern dialect,—so far as we at present know them—we
may reasonably suppose that they indicate fairly the Danish element in the
English literature of the 12th and 13th centuries. In the Northumbrian, and
the West, and East-Midland productions of a century later this element
prevails to a much larger extent, and Herbert Coleridge's list of such
words may be largely increased (Phil. Soc. Trans., 1859, p. 26-30).