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710 SKY AND STAES.
In ON. the two periods are named by the neuters ny ok nift,
habitually alliterating ; ny answers to novilunium, it signifies the
new light, and mcf the declining, dwindling, from the lost root
nrSa na^S, from which also come the adv. nr<5r (deorsum) and the
noun netS (quies, OHG. ginada). So that n$" lasts from the begin
ning of the first quarter to the full, and nr3 from the decrease of
the full to the extinction of light in the last quarter. The two
touch one another at the border-line between the faintest streaks
of waxing and of waning brightness. But nr<5 meant especially
the absence of moonlight (interhmium), and nv<5amyrkr total
darkness (luna silens) . Kind gods created these for men of old
to tell the -. year by ny ok mft skopo nyt regin oldum at ar-tali/ 1
Saem. 34 a . Hani styrir gongu tungls, oc rse cSr nyjum oc ni&um,
Sn. 12, Mani steers the going of the moon, and rules new moons
and full. Probably even here personification comes into play,
for in Voluspii 11 (Sasm. 2 b
) Nyji and NiS"i are dwarfs, i.e. spirits
of the sky, who are connected, we do not exactly know how, with
those lunar phases n$" ok niiS. 2 Of changeful things it is said ]?at
gengr eptir n^um ok nrSum/ res alternatur et subit lunae vices.
0. Swed. laws have the formula ny oc niffar , for at all times,
under any phase/ Grutalagli p. 108. So i ny ok nifta, Sudh.
bygn. 32. Upl. vidh. 28, 1. Vestg. thiuv. 22, 1; but here the
second word seems to have given up its neut. form, and passed
into a personal and masc. Mod. Swed. has ny och nedan ;
Dan. f
ny og nee,
(
y
det gaaer efter nye og ncee, hverken i nye eller
ncBj i.e. never, naar nyet tandes/ quando nova luna incenditur ;
this nse was in O. Dan. ned, need. To the ni^amyrkr above
answers a Swed. nedmork, pitchdark. The Norse terminology
differs in so far from the H.cGerm., that it expresses the total
obscuration by nrS, while we designate it by neumond (i.e. n^) ;
with us new-moon is opposed to full-moon, with the Scandina
vians nr3 to n^, each of them standing for one half of the moon s
course. Since a mention of the first and last quarters has come
into use, full-moon and new-nioon signify simply the points of
fullness and vacancy that lie between ; and now the Swedes and
Danes have equally adopted a fullmane, fuldmaane, as counter-
1 Ace. to Alvism&l, the alfar call the moon artali (OHG. jarzalo ?), Saem. 49b .
2 Comp. with nift ok n^ the Gr. evr] KCU vta.