And in Völuspa' the gods make the first man and woman out of two
trees, respectively Askr "ash" and Embla "?"--often interpreted as
some sort of derivative from almr "elm", but I don't think anyone
really knows. Another theory relates Embla to Gk. ampelos "vine".


--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <600cell@...>
wrote:

>
>
> Hello all,
>
> As well as the example Patricia gave, Hazel posts are used in

Egils

> saga to mark out the boundaries of the area where the judges sit

at

> the Gulaþing assembly. They are used to mark out the boundaries

of

> the site where a "pitched" battle is to be fought in Egils saga

and

> Hervarar saga. And they mark the area in which a duel is fought

in

> Korma'ks saga. To "hazel (ON hasla) a field for someone" means to
> challenge them to battle.
>
> Tacitus, writing about the continental Germanic tribes in the 1st
> century AD, describes the practice of divination with pieces of

wood

> from a "nut-bearing tree" (Mattingley translation) marked with
> letters. Norse sources mention such "lot twigs", but I don't know
> if any particular tree is specified.
>
> At the end of one of the two extant versions of Ragnars saga, the
> followers of Ogmund the Dane meet a giant moss-covered "wooden

man"

> (tre'maðr) on the Danish island of Samsø, who chants some verses

at

> them, lamenting the fact that people no longer make human

sacrifices

> to him. Certain groves were held sacred, both real (as can be

seen

> by placenames) and mythical (Glasir, Glasislundr). In the late

11th

> century Adam of Bremen described a religious ceremony at Uppsala
> involving large scale sacrifice with bodies hung on trees of a
> sacred grove.
>
> Völuspa' and Gylfaginning mention a wood in the east called
> Ja'rnviðr "Iron Wood", but I don't know if the name is supposed to
> indicate a particular type of tree, real or imaginary.
>
> Llama Nom
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patricia"
> <originalpatricia@...> wrote:
> > Saell Michael -
> > what a splendid reply, I shall not be going down to the
> Cemetery, I shall be taking your words for it - so to say.
> > A Hazel Branch was the usual post to use when constructing a
> Niðstang, this would be the Insulting "message" unfortunately you
> had to kill a horse and chop off the poor thing's head, in Egil
> Skallagrimsson's Saga Egil did this and caused the horse's head to
> be turned to face where King Eirik and his Srewish wife Gunnhild
> were living http://nidstang.ragnarokr.com/ this is the link in

case

> you have a spare horse and hate someone enough, I fear the horse
> would doubtless be worth the more, if ridden.
> > Yggdrasil - the World Tree was a Giant ash of course, it's

name

> means "The Terrible One's horse" and no doubt the tree on which
> Iduna's Apples grew would have been a guarded Treasure.
> > So, from off the top of my head that's all I can call to mind

at

> present, I shall give it some thought, thank you for your input,

it

> was of value.
> > Kveðja
> > Patricia
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Michael Murphy
> > To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 10:55 AM
> > Subject: Re: [norse_course] Re: English to Norse (sword

names)

> >
> >
> > Hi, Patricia,
> >
> > For what it's worth, the explanation why cemeteries were
> chosen as places to grow yew-trees is as follows. The wood of the
> yew is particularly suitable for making bows (for archers) being
> amazingly pliant and tough (try bending a yew sapling -- if you
> don't mind nipping into the nearest cemetery -- and you'll see

what

> I mean). Unfortunately, once archers discovered this, every yew-

tree

> was fair game (so to speak) and the yew-tree population in the
> British Isles soon began to plummet. Someone, probably a landowner
> or, perhaps, a church official, hit on the bright idea of growing
> them behind cemetery walls. No one would dare desecrate sacred
> ground; besides, there was also the deep-seated fear of venturing
> too close to the abode of the dead. From what I remember when I
> first read this explanation -- somewhere -- the practice
> > dates right back to the Middle Ages.
> >
> > Trees, of course, were also of sacred significance to the
> Celts and their priests, the Druids. The oak, the hazel, the

holly,

> the ash, etc. were revered (the word 'druid' comes from the
> Gaelic/Celtic word 'dar' -- an oak-tree + the suffix '-uid',

roughly

> meaning 'the people of').
> >
> > I haven't come across any specific reference to the place of
> trees in Norse mythology, apart from the obvious 'ygdrasil.' Do

you

> have any information yourself ?
> >
> > Slan agus beannacht,
> >
> > Mike
> > Patricia <originalpatricia@...> wrote:
> > Xeon Saell,
> > Yews are trees usually found in Cemeteries here in
> England, but I know not why, and their branches were once used to
> make Bows for Arrows, the rune Yr signifies a yew.
> > Dales were and still are Valles between either medium

tall

> hills and are visualised as representing a countrified -
> agricultural oops do I mean pastoral life
> > Patricia
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: xeon_ies
> > To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 1:05 PM
> > Subject: [norse_course] Re: English to Norse (sword
> names)
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks a lot for your help, Llama! I must think of

some

> way to
> > "beautify" these names as they seem kind of awkward to
> the average
> > reader, though.
> >
> > By the way, Ull's hall is called Ydalir and it
> translates to "Yew
> > Dales". What are Yews and Dales? Is it some kind of
> magical morning
> > dew or water droplet etc.?
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Xeon.
> >
> >
> > >
> > > Hi Xeon,
> > >
> > > "Heiti" (poetic names) for bows:
> > >
> > > Almr, dalr, bogi, (elm, dale, bow)
> > > ýr ok tvíviðr, (yew and two-wood)
> > > sveigr, glær ok þrymr, (bent, sea?, stretch?)
> > > sómr, skálgelmir. (honour/fitness, bowl-?)
> > >
> > > "Stinger" might be 'biti' or 'bítr', but these seem

to

> be prefered
> > > for sword names. I don't know if there's a

different

> word
> > > for "arch" that doen't mean "bow" as well,

but 'bogi'

> seems to cover
> > > both. 'Dalr' must be from the curved shape of a
> valley, and perhaps
> > > by extension other curved things. I've read one
> theory about the
> > > name Heimdallr that relates it to this, in the sense
> of "horn"--and
> > > in Hervarar saga, the Huns are said to have horn-
> bows. So maybe
> > > that's the connection. Sveigr is related to the

verb

> sveigja "bend
> > > [a bow]". Skál is a bowl--could that be a reference
> to the bow's
> > > curved shape too?
> > >
> > > 1) bogi/dalr/sveigr inn mikli (inn stóri).
> > > 2) undrbiti
> > > 3) biti inn efsti
> > >
> > > I don't know what -gelmir is. It occurs in a lot of
> mythological
> > > names. 'Gellr' means "shrieks, twangs" (gjalla "to
> shriek/twang")
> > > and is the word used for the noise of a bowstring,

so

> maybe you
> > > could include that as one element: Undrgjalli, or
> something like
> > > that. Careful though: as we found out recently the
> Icelandic Hobbit
> > > translates Gollum as Gollnir!
> > >
> > > Not sure what 'sea' has to do with bows. Could

there

> be a
> > > connection with similar words for "glistening,
> splendour"
> > > and "amber"?
> > >
> > > Llama Nom
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "xeon_ies"
> <xeon@...> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Hi Llama!
> > > >
> > > > I've decided to adopt the names Dugvandill and
> Harmbrenna for the
> > > > sword names.
> > > > And one more thing in which I'm thinking of giving

a

> name to Ull's
> > > bow
> > > > too. :-D
> > > >
> > > > What does the following words translates to?
> > > >
> > > > 1) "The Great Arch"
> > > > 2) "Wonderous Stinger"
> > > > 3) "Final stinger"
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Xeon.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > A Norse funny farm, overrun by smart people.
> >
> > Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
> >
> > To escape from this funny farm try rattling off an e-
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> >
> > norse_course-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > A Norse funny farm, overrun by smart people.
> >
> > Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
> >
> > To escape from this funny farm try rattling off an e-

mail

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> >
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> >
> >
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