what a splendid reply, I shall not be going down to
the Cemetery, I shall be taking your words for it - so to say.
A Hazel Branch was the usual post to use when constructing a
Niðstang, this would be the Insulting "message" unfortunately you had to
kill a horse and chop off the poor thing's head, in Egil
Skallagrimsson's Saga Egil did this and caused the horse's head to be turned
to face where King Eirik and his Srewish wife Gunnhild were living http://nidstang.ragnarokr.com/ this
is the link in case you have a spare horse and hate someone enough, I fear the
horse would doubtless be worth the more, if ridden.
Yggdrasil - the World Tree was a Giant ash of course, it's
name means "The Terrible One's horse" and no doubt the tree on which Iduna's
Apples grew would have been a guarded Treasure.
So, from off the top of my head that's all I can call to
mind at present, I shall give it some thought, thank you for your input,
it was of value.
Subject: Re: [norse_course] Re: English
to Norse (sword names)
Hi, Patricia,
For what it's worth, the explanation why cemeteries were chosen
as places to grow yew-trees is as follows. The wood of the yew is
particularly suitable for making bows (for archers) being
amazingly pliant and tough (try bending a yew sapling -- if you don't mind
nipping into the nearest cemetery -- and you'll see what I mean).
Unfortunately, once archers discovered this, every yew-tree was fair game
(so to speak) and the yew-tree population in the British Isles soon began to
plummet. Someone, probably a landowner or, perhaps, a church official, hit
on the bright idea of growing them behind cemetery walls. No one
would dare desecrate sacred ground; besides, there was also the deep-seated
fear of venturing too close to the abode of the dead. From what I remember
when I first read this explanation -- somewhere -- the practice
dates right back to the Middle Ages.
Trees, of course, were also of sacred significance to the Celts and
their priests, the Druids. The oak, the hazel, the holly, the ash, etc. were
revered (the word 'druid' comes from the Gaelic/Celtic word 'dar' -- an
oak-tree + the suffix '-uid', roughly meaning 'the people of').
I haven't come across any specific reference to the place of trees in
Norse mythology, apart from the obvious 'ygdrasil.' Do you have
any information yourself ?
Slan agus beannacht,
Mike Patricia <originalpatricia@...>
wrote:
Xeon Saell,
Yews are trees usually found in Cemeteries here in
England, but I know not why, and their branches were once used to make
Bows for Arrows, the rune Yr signifies a yew.
Dales were and still are Valles between either medium
tall hills and are visualised as representing a countrified -
agricultural oops do I mean pastoral life
Subject: [norse_course] Re:
English to Norse (sword names)
Thanks a lot for your help, Llama! I must think
of some way to "beautify" these names as they seem kind of awkward
to the average reader, though.
By the way, Ull's hall is
called Ydalir and it translates to "Yew Dales". What are Yews and
Dales? Is it some kind of magical morning dew or water droplet
etc.?
Thanks! Xeon.
> > Hi
Xeon, > > "Heiti" (poetic names) for bows: >
> Almr, dalr, bogi, (elm, dale, bow) > ýr ok tvíviðr,
(yew and two-wood) > sveigr, glær ok þrymr, (bent, sea?,
stretch?) > sómr, skálgelmir. (honour/fitness, bowl-?) >
> "Stinger" might be 'biti' or 'bítr', but these seem to be
prefered > for sword names. I don't know if there's a
different word > for "arch" that doen't mean "bow" as well, but
'bogi' seems to cover > both. 'Dalr' must be from the
curved shape of a valley, and perhaps > by extension other
curved things. I've read one theory about the > name
Heimdallr that relates it to this, in the sense of "horn"--and
> in Hervarar saga, the Huns are said to have horn-bows.
So maybe > that's the connection. Sveigr is related to
the verb sveigja "bend > [a bow]". Skál is a bowl--could
that be a reference to the bow's > curved shape too? >
> 1) bogi/dalr/sveigr inn mikli (inn stóri). > 2)
undrbiti > 3) biti inn efsti > > I don't know what
-gelmir is. It occurs in a lot of mythological >
names. 'Gellr' means "shrieks, twangs" (gjalla "to
shriek/twang") > and is the word used for the noise of a
bowstring, so maybe you > could include that as one element:
Undrgjalli, or something like > that. Careful though: as
we found out recently the Icelandic Hobbit > translates Gollum
as Gollnir! > > Not sure what 'sea' has to do with
bows. Could there be a > connection with similar words
for "glistening, splendour" > and "amber"? > >
Llama Nom > > > > > --- In
norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "xeon_ies" <xeon@...> wrote: >
> > > Hi Llama! > > > > I've decided
to adopt the names Dugvandill and Harmbrenna for the > >
sword names. > > And one more thing in which I'm thinking of
giving a name to Ull's > bow > > too. :-D > >
> > What does the following words translates to? >
> > > 1) "The Great Arch" > > 2) "Wonderous
Stinger" > > 3) "Final stinger" > > > >
Thanks, > > Xeon.