m., gen. ar; the masc. inflex. -undr reminds one of the Gothic (Gramm. p. xxxii. B. V); in old writers the word is found only four times, always in the sense of a judge, and referring chiefly to Gothland in Sweden; Höfundr (a mythol. pr. name) var manna vitrastr, ok svá réttdæmr, at hann hallaði aldri réttum dómi, … ok af hans nafni skyldi sá höfundr heita í hverju ríki er mál manna dæmdi, Fas. (Hervar. S.) i. 523, cp. 513: as also in Hrólfs S. Kraka (referring to Gothland), höfundr einn var þar til settr at skora þetta mál með sannindum, settusk margir í þetta sæti, ok kallaði höfundr öngum sæma, Þórir gengr seinastr ok sezk hann þegar í stólinn; höfundr mælti, þér er sætið hæfiligast, ok muntu dæmdr til þessarar stjórnar, Fas. i. 58: sigr-höfundr, the judge of victory, the Lord of battle, a name given to Odin by Egil, Stor. 21: lastly in Thorodd, skáld eru höfundar allrar rýnni eða máls-greina, sem smiðir málmgripa (?), eðr lögmenn laga, the poets are judges in all matters of grammar and syntax, as smiths in workmanship, and lawyers in law, Skálda (Thorodd) 164; this passage as well as the preceding is erroneously rendered in the earlier translations, as also in Lex. Poët.

II. an author, originator; the revival of this ancient word, in quite a different sense, is curious; it does not occur in any of the earliest glossaries of the 17th century nor in the Bible nor in Vídalín, but, as it seems for the first time, in the Lexidion Islandico-Latinum, published at Copenhagen A. D. 1734, as a rendering of the Latin auctor, and was probably inserted by some learned philologer (Jon Ólafsson?) from the passage in Skálda, by a mistake.

2. by the end of the century it came to be used = a writer, and is now freq. in that sense, either rit-höfundr or singly; but still in 1781, in the preface to Fél. of that year, ritsmiðr (writ-smith) and höfundr are both used, shewing that the latter was not yet settled, though at present the use of this word is quite fixed.