Ergi
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Ergi (noun) and argr (adjective) are two Old Norse terms of insult, denoting effeminacy or other unmanly behavior. Argr (also ragr) is "unmanly" and ergi is "unmanliness"; the terms have cognates in other Germanic languages such as earh, earg, arag, arug, and so on.
To accuse another man of being argr was considered a níð (defamation), and thus a legal reason to challenge the accuser in holmgang. Or if holmgang was not a wanted option, the accuser could be outlawed (full outlawry) or he had to pay the offended party full compensation. The Grágás law code states:
- "There are three words—should exchanges between people ever reach such dire limits—which all have full outlawry as the penalty; if a man calls another ragr, stroðinn or sorðinn. As they are to be prosecuted like other fullréttisorð and, what is more, a man has the right to kill in retaliation for these three words. He has the right to kill in retaliation on their account over the same period as he has the right to kill on account of women, in both cases up the next General Assembly. The man who utters these words falls with forfeit immunity at the hands of anyone who accompanies the man about whom they were uttered to the place of their encounter” (Meulengracht Sørenson 17).
The practice of seiðr was considered ergi in the Viking Age [citation needed], and in Icelandic accounts and medieval Scandinavian laws, the term argr sometimes implied receptive homosexual intercourse (see Homosexuality and Ásatrú).
Curiously, in modern Scandinavian argr has evolved to mean "angry" (Swedish, Norwegian arg, Danish arrig). In modern Icelandic the word has evolved to "ergilegur", meaning "[to seem/appear] irritable".
