ausa vatni (3)

ausa vatni
sprinkling of water (en.)
The entry for ausa vatni in Cleasby Vigfusson states that it "is a standing phrase for a sort of baptism used in the last centuries, at least, of the heathen age. The child when born was sprinkled with water and named, yet without the intervention of a priest; this rite is mentioned as early as in the Hávamál, one of the very oldest mythological didactic poems on record, where it is attributed even to Odin."

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