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.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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