Hi Torsten,
I think I saw this a while ago, but I wasn't exactly sure of the
etymology then.
> Ah, you want confusion? Absalon, archbishop of the Nordic
countries,
> employer to Saxo, one of the men behind the conquest of Arkona, was
> of the old and powerful Trugot family. The name is unetymologizable
> in Danish.
I would guess it's the same as Absalom, one of the sons of David.
It's not that strange that a bishop would have a biblical name or?
This web page however finds the naming strange since it means "father
is Shalem("the stable one")" wich was the god conected to the evening
star- part of the "Castor and Pollux" in Ugarit.
http://www.winternet.com/~swezeyt/bible/oedipus/swezoed5.htm
But Absalom's mother was a daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur, who
also gave Absalom refuge after the murder of Amnon.
Remember that Geshur was an Aramaic kingdom at the Kinneret not far
from Bashan. [ Deu 33:22 "And of Dan he said, Dan [is] a lion's
whelp: he shall leap from Bashan."]
I guess one could also say that it's not that far from where the
city of Dan was either...;-)
Perhaps the Danish bishop had this in mind when he named himself
Absalon.;-)
Anders