Re: [tied] Yggdrasill

on 12/6/01 10:12 PM, Glen Gordon at glengordon01@... wrote:

>
> Piotr:
>> yggr 'the terrible one' (one of Odin's numerous epithets), related
>> to ON uggr 'fear' and English ugly (<-- ON uggligr)
>>
>> drasill ~ drösull 'steed'
>
> And of course this seems true... but I can't help but think that
> this word is, impressionistically at least, like... oh I dunno...
> like *eggja-tre, let's say?
>
> I mean, let's think about it for a sec. Terrible steed? How does
> a gigantic tree that holds up the sky, connecting the three
> worlds together, end up being referred to as a "terrible steed"??
> Can someone explain me this? So, being an awkward name given
> its mythological function, I can't help but suspect that the name
> is tampered by wordplay...
>
> So sue me ;)
>
> - love gLeN
>
>
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Could this tree be the one on which Odin hung for nine days and nine nights,
thus being Odin's steed, a "horse" on which he rode? This does not seem to
me far-fetched at all as Germanic kennings go. Turville-Petre says (49):
"Oinn, swinging on the tree of the world, was in the company of the dead,
sharing the wisdom which only they possess."