Stæla

Meaning of Old Norse word "stæla"

As defined by the Cleasby & Vigfusson Old Norse to English dictionary:

Old Norse word stæla can mean:stæla

stæla

d, [stál], to steel, put steel into, a blacksmith’s term; hence to temper, hann lét stæla oddana, Str. 77; sverð stælt með eitri, a sword tempered with poison, poisoned, Bær. 15 (= eitri herðr); stæltr lé, Grág. i. 501.

stæla

II. metaph. to intercalate a poem with burden (stál); stefjum verðr at stæla brág, Mkv. 11; þá tók Sighvatr at yrkja drápu um Ólaf konung enn Helga, ok stælti eptir Sigurðar-sögu … þú skalt fara til móts við Sighvat skáld mitt ok seg honum svá, at ek vil eigi at hann stæli drápu þá, er hann yrkir um mik, eptir Sigurðar-sögu, heldr vil ek at hann stæli eptir Uppreistar-sögu, … Sighvatr sneri þá drápunni, ok stælti hana eptir Uppreistar-sögu. Fb. ii. 394;—Fms. v. 210 (l. c.) has ‘drápu’ wrongly for ‘sögu;’ for the sense is that the poet intended to borrow the subject for the burden from the Saga of Sigurd Fafnisbani, but the king bade him not do so, but take the burden from the History of the Creation: specimens of such poems, furnished with intercalated sentences taken from mythical subjects or old wise sayings, are the drapa of Kormak on Earl Sigurd, and the Edda (Ht.) 13:—neut. stælt, intercalated sentences (stál) in an old poem, þessa fígúru er vér köllum stælt, Skálda 198; standa þessir hættir mest í því sem stælt er kveðit, 206; þetta er stælt kallat, Edda (Ht.) 125; hjá-stælt, the ‘stál’ at the end of a verse line, id.,—ok skal orðtak vera forn minni, Edda (Ht.)

stæla

2. hence in mod. usage stæla means to plagiarise, imitate; stæla eptir e-u.

Possible runic inscription in Younger Futhark:ᛋᛏᛅᛚᛅ
Younger Futhark runes were used from 8th to 12th centuries in Scandinavia and their overseas settlements