1. Midnaetti. About 11 p.m. 2. Otta. ” 2 a.m. 3. Midur-morgun (or Hirdis-rismal). ” 5 a.m. 4. Dagmal. ” 8 a.m. 5. Hádegi. ” 11 a.m. 6. Nón. ” 2 p.m. 7. Midur Aptan. ” 5 p.m. 8. Nattmal. ” 8 p.m. In an earlier work,[94] the same divisions of time are mentioned, but with some difference in the equivalents, thus:—‘Otta is with them three o’clock in the morning; Midur morgon or Herdis rismal, five o’clock; Dagmal, half past eight; Haadege, eleven; Nonn, three in the afternoon; Midur afton, six in the morning (sic: obviously should be ‘afternoon’); nattmal, eight, and midnatt twelve o’clock at night.’ A little thought will make apparent the reasons for these discrepancies in time, for not only is the method exceedingly rough, but of course the horizontal bearing or azimuth of the sun at a particular time is not the same throughout the year, and it also varies with the latitude. For example, taking the latitude of Iceland as 65°, and the obliquity of the ecliptic in A.D. 1000 as 23° 34′, which is substantially accurate, and calculating the sun’s bearing at three o’clock p.m. throughout the year, we get:— Midsummer: S. 57° 9′ W. Equinox: S. 47° 49′ W. Midwinter: S. 40° 36′ W. (not visible) while on shifting the latitude to 51° 30′ (about that of London) we get a bearing of 68° 17′ for 3 p.m. at midsummer. It appears, however, from the fact that one of the eight points was midnight, and another ‘hádegi’ (high day or noon), that the scheme would aim at dividing the equinoctial day into three-hour intervals. Dagmál would then be about 9 a.m. and Nón 3 p.m. The latter word originally meant the ecclesiastical ‘nones’ (3 p.m.) and in old Icelandic ‘eykt’ is used as synonymous with ‘nones’. In the Icelandic Ecclesiastical Code, or Kristinret, instructions are given for the correct location of the mark for ‘eykt’. ‘It is eykt’, says the law, ‘when the south-west airt is divided into three, and the sun has passed two divisions and has one to go.’ This gives us a bearing of S. 52° 30′ W. for ‘eykt’ or nones, which would be, in Iceland of the eleventh century, pretty correct for 3 p.m. between the equinoxes and the summer solstice, during nearly the whole time, that is, when the sun would be visible at this hour in these northerly latitudes. (See accompanying diagram.)