ruth: The quality of being compassionate; pitifulness; the feeling of sorrow for another; compassion, pity.
Sorrow, grief, distress; lamentation.
spald:
a. trans. To splinter, split, break up, lay open or flat. b. intr. To go apart, to splay out
Hence spalding, a split and dried fish, a speldring; spalding-knife, a knife for splitting fish.
