Óskar wrote:

> In Germanic
>languages, "sun" is feminine, while "moon" is masculine; in Romance
>languages, "sun" is masculine and "moon" feminine; it has nothing to
>do with how the speakers see the nature of those entities. It's just
>that the respective word stems or suffixes have traditionally been
>declined like other words in a certain group (gender).

I think you may have slightly overstated here. It seems to have some
significance that in the North 'sunna' and 'máni' do not have the same
genders as 'sol' and 'luna'. In the South the sun is a harsh (masculine)
master but in the North it's a kind mother. I for one, have trouble imagining
"too much sun" in Iceland but I certainly got enough of it during my sojourn
in Italy:)

Hmm... isn't 'sól' a latin loanword in Icelandic? If so it seems to have
changed it's gender to feminine.

Regards,
Haukur