From: Brian M. Scott
Message: 56797
Date: 2008-04-05
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "jouppe" <jouppe@...>This is too silly for words. My academic position is in
> wrote:
>> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
>> <BMScott@> wrote:
>>> At 11:11:59 AM on Thursday, April 3, 2008, tgpedersen
>>> wrote:
>>> [...]
>>>> The usual explanation for 'cat' in Germanic and Celtic
>>>> is that it is a loan from Latin; but if it is so, then
>>>> 1) why does Freya have a cat-drawn chariot
>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freyja
>>>> qoute: '"People of many races visited this burning.
>>>> First is to be told of Odin, how Frigg and the
>>>> Valkyries went with him, and his ravens; but Freyr
>>>> drove in his chariot with the boar called Gold-Mane, or
>>>> Fearful-Tusk, and Heimdallr rode the horse called
>>>> Gold-Top, and Freyja drove in her chariot drawn by
>>>> cats..." (Gylfaginning (49))"'; why this if they only
>>>> knew the cat from the Romans; this doesn't look like a
>>>> late accretion?
>>> It strikes me as a detail that could have been added or
>>> modified at just about any point. I also note that while
>>> Freyr has Gullinbursti/Slíðrugtanni, Heimdallr has
>>> Gulltoppr, Þórr has Tanngnióstr and Tanngrisnir, and
>>> Óðinn has Sleipnir, Freyia just has anonymous cats.
>> It strikes me that there would have been plenty of time
>> for the innovation to enter the Icelandic litterature.
>> The sagas supposedly also contain elements modelled on
>> christian tales. The oldest elements of the sagas can
>> hardly be proven much older than mid first century.
> Two of our tenured members are struck by insights which
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