Ærnen intrans., wk. ‘to ride, go on horseback; go, pass’, etc. OE ærnan intrans. and trans. (See also irnen, eornen below.)
The verb is rare in OE, and its precise sense is hardly determinable from the two passages, from the OE Bede and Orosius respectively, cited in Bosworth-Toller. Madden, however, Glossarial Remarks 3.470, cites an illuminating passage from Alfred's Laws: gif hie fah mon geierne oþþe geærne ‘reach (a church) by running or by riding’ (see Alfred's English Laws, Cap. 5). This passage where the two verbs are contrasted, the latter being here transitive, is also quoted by Toller in the Supplement. With this cp. the quotations from La
amon in (ii) below. The verb, in the Pret. Pl., occurs also in the Battle of Maldon, where it is transcribed ærdon by Hearne. All editors except Thorpe, Müller, Grein, and Wülcker agree in reading ærndon.