At 10:05:29 AM on Thursday, December 1, 2011,
craigmaxwellh62 wrote:

> Hi all,

> I've been observing a debate about the Anglo-Saxon rune
> Ior/Iar/Jór/Jör (depending on where you're getting your
> interetation..)

> There was some who understood it as referencing a Horse,
> whilst others felt it references the midgard serpert.. and
> then someone waded in and said 'The Old Norse word 'jór'
> means 'horse''

> Now, i've been lurking on this site for a bit but due to
> time constraints my understanding is still limited. But
> from what I know/recal, the ON for Horse is Hestur/Hross?
> I've had a quick look at the Cleasby/Vigfusson dictionary
> which seems to back this up, but i was wondering if
> someone else might be able to tell me if they know of any
> interpretation of horse in ON as being anything related to
> 'jór'?

There is indeed an Old Norse word <jór> 'stallion', but it's
found only in poetry; the ordinary words are <hestr>
'stallion' and <hross> 'horse, esp. a mare'. <Jór> is from
Proto-Germanic *ehWaz 'horse', cognate with Latin <equus>;
the Old English cognate is <eoh> 'warhorse, charger', which
is also the name of the e-rune. The specific ON development
goes something like *ehWaz > *ehwaR > *iohwaR > jór, where
the second step is w-breaking, and the last lumps together
stress shift in the diphthong created by breaking, loss of
/h/, and compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel.
OE also had breaking, whence the <eo>, but it kept the /h/
and lost the ending.

> My opinion is that it's talking about the world serpent,
> which from what i gather is Miðgarðsormr in ON, which is
> then often anglicised to Jörmungandr

No, <Jǫrmungandr> is an ON word. The first element,
<jǫrmun->, is from Proto-Gmc. *ermana ~ *ermina ~ *ermuna
'great, immense'; the second is ON <gandr>, whose exact
sense is uncertain, but which seems to refer to magical
things. <Jǫrmun-> has an OE cognate in <eormen->, which is
seen in <eormenláf> 'huge legacy', <eormengrund> 'wide
world' (cf. ON <jǫrmungrund> 'the earth'), and <eormenþéod>
'mighty people', among others. It is unrelated to <jór> and
<eoh>.

Brian