Vell

Meaning of Old Norse word "vell"

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

vell

n. [vella], gold, prop. molten, i. e. native, gold, or = Germ. ‘ge-diegenes gold,’ (perh. the word comes from the superstition as to serpents brooding and hatching gold, cp. fóru þeir til bælis drekans, ok sá þeir þar mikit gull, ok ‘heitt sem nýrunnit í afli,’ Ingv. 24.) The word is only used in poets, and in the compds, vell-auðigr, vell-ríkr, q. v.: poët. compds, vell-bjóðr, -broti, -meiðir, -rýrir, -stærir, -vönuðr, all epithets of a princely man.

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