Re: Re[2]: [tied] Slav names from *Walh-

Brian, the quotation is suggestive of your point but not decisive for me.

Patrick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
To: "Patrick Ryan" <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 12:36 AM
Subject: Re[2]: [tied] Slav names from *Walh-


> At 10:03:57 PM on Thursday, March 27, 2008, Patrick Ryan wrote:
>
> > From: "alexandru_mg3" <alexandru_mg3@...>
>
> >> If you like the 'warrior'-semantism of Walhalla that I
> >> like either (and for sure: this semantism is there)
> >> welh2- 'to strike, to wound' contains it too...but please
> >> remember also that we have there 'that ones that
> >> gloriously have died in the battle and due to this have
> >> arrived nearby their God'.
>
> [...]
>
> >> Remains to see now what nuance is preferable:
>
> >> "that ones, [deadly] wounded [in a glorious
> >> battle]..."
> >> or
> >> "that ones, the strongers, [that have died in a
> >> glorious battle] ..."
>
> >> and I think that the first ones sounds better...to define
> >> the heroes...
>
> [...]
>
> > 'Death' qualifies no one to enter Valhalla; dying bravely
> > is necessary, else why would the Valkyries bother to
> > 'chose'?
>
> ON <valr> 'the slain'; OE <wæl> 'slaughter, carnage; field
> of battle; dead bodies'. ON <valkyrja>, OE <wælcyrie>
> 'chooser of the slain'. Nothing to do with strength: the
> salient point is that they're the slain. ON <valgaldr>
> 'spell to raise the dead', <valgjarn> 'greedy for carrion',
> <valblóð> 'blood of the slain', and OE <wælpi:l> 'deadly
> arrow', <wælbenn> 'deadly wound', <wælfu:s> 'awaiting death'
> and many others leave very little room for doubt.
>
> Note that there's more than one way to interpret 'choosers
> of the slain': it makes a nice story to have them choose the
> most heroic, but they could equally be those who decide who
> dies. Gylfaginning 36, which couples them closely with the
> Norns, suggests as much:
>
> Þessar heita valkyriur; þær sendir Óðinn til hverrar
> orrosto, þær kiósa feigð á menn ok ráða sigri. Guðr ok
> Rota ok norn en yngzta er Skuld heitir, ríða iaf[nan] at
> kiósa val ok ráða vigum.
>
> These are called valkyries; Odin sends them to every
> battle, they allot death to men ['choose the approach of
> death to men'] and govern victory. Guðr and Rota and the
> youngest norn, who is called Skuld, always ride to choose
> the slain and govern (the) killings.
>
> Brian
>
>
>