Re: Wolves

Hi there Patricia,

"Mála skrattann á vegginn"

Thanks Uoden

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patricia"
<originalpatricia@...> wrote:

>
> "speak of
> the wolf and he comes running
> there is another one
> mahl nicht die teufel an die wand this means do not paint the

devil on the wall - O an unfamiliar with the Wolf one but they
evidently mean much the same -

> speak of it and you will get it but may not want it when you do,

hoping I have not caused offence if I spell German words badly

> Patricia
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: llama_nom
> To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 2:41 PM
> Subject: [norse_course] Re: Wolves
>
>
> --- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Hjalmar Andersson <hjandr@>

wrote:

> >
> > Hi!
> >
> > I'm trying to find out more about the etymology of the ON word
> 'vargr'. In the attached file I speculate a bit on the basis of

what I

> have found out so far.
> >
> > /Hjalmar
>
> Hi Hjalmar,
>
> I just read these messages on the Yahoo Groups website, so I'm

not

> able to see you attachment. There is an interesting article on

the

> Swedish 'varg' in Elof Hellquist's Svensk etymologisk ordbok [
> http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/svetym/ ]. The site seems to

be

> having technical problems at the moment, but if I remember

rightly, he

> suggests there that PGmc, *vargaz meant criminal, as it does in

most

> old Germanic languages, and was only later applied to the wolf in
> Scandinavia as a noa-name. This is a polynesian term used by
> folklorists for a euphemism used in place of a taboo word or

divine

> name. He cites a German proverb which meant something

like "speak of

> the wolf and he comes running", and suggests that this

alternative

> name "criminal, strangler" was needed to avoid the danger that

such a

> dangerous animal would supernaturally hear its name spoken and be
> summoned by it. Contrariwise, derivatives of 'wulf' are used in

Old

> English to refer to criminals, pirates and violent people: wæl-

wulfas

> (vikings), wulf-héafod-tréow (gallows), wylfen (wolvish, used in

the

> poem Déor of the notorious Gothic tyrant Eormanric).
>
> Llama Nom
>