Guide To The Norse Gods and Their Names (original) (raw)
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Old Norse Nicknames: Origins and Terminology
Names, 2018
The pool of first names has always been relatively limited, thus most people were identified by their nicknames, especially before surnames became commonplace. The quantity of nicknames in Old Norse literature is large, and recurring nicknames provide a tool for understanding narrative transmission, cultural history, and etymology. Medieval explanations for giving nicknames are suspect, but they provide a glimpse into the possible reasons for so many of them coming down to us. An overview on nickname terminology is provided, as well as literary examples showing the fluidity of medieval terminology in nickname narrative explanations. The overall approach is therefore to explore the ways nicknames are described in the literature and how this information aids in understanding medieval Norse society and culture through its naming customs. *This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Names on April 24, 2018, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/00277738.2018.1452886
What Do the Gods Call the Sky? Naming the Celestial in Old Norse
Culture and Cosmos
The idea that gods, humans, and other beings have different words for the same things is an archaic one attested in several ancient Indo-European texts from India, Iran, Ireland, Scandinavia, and Greece. The 12th century Old Norse poem Alvíssmál lists different names for the sky, moon, and sun used among humans, gods, giants, elves, and dwarves. Although similar lists of words used among different supernatural beings exist elsewhere, the Norse list is unique in that it focuses on a vocabulary associated with the celestial. The Alvíssmál suggests that while the gods may see the sky as an unwavering vault, this same sky may be a ‘tall house’ to the prosaic and earthbound giants, and a ‘dripping hall’ to the dwarves who prefer to dwell underground. This paper argues that the various sets of non-human words for celestial features in Alvíssmál hint at an underlying awareness that the celestial world does not necessarily carry a fixed meaning, but can be imbued with a range of different i...
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Old Norse Mythology—Comparative Perspectives
2017
Hermann, Pernille, Stephen A. Mitchell, Jens Peter Schjødt, and Amber J. Rose, eds. 2017. Old Norse Mythology—Comparative Perspectives. Publications of the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature, 3. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Old Norse gods in contemporary Norwegian novels
The Vikings: New Inquiries into an Age-Old Theme, 2017
Old Norse mythology is one of the most prolific fields in modern times. From a scholarly renewed interest to a more popular based reception, the old myths and gods seem to have been revived. The following article deals with the representation and role of two of the Old Norse gods, Odin and Ty, in contemporary Norwegian literature. It discusses in a comparative way the image of the Old Norse gods as presented by the written sources about the Viking mythology, The Poetic Edda and The Prose Edda, and by the contemporary novels that have them as main characters. Contemporary problems that trouble the Norwegian society seem to find their expression in literature where the old gods are presented as driven by anger and a desire to take revenge, either because they have lost their power or because they are led by a sense of duty, integrity and doing what is right. In the so called age of globalization, the Norwegian writers that use Old Norse mythology as inspiration seem to be themselves d...
Pre-Christian Sacral Personal Names in Scandinaviaduring the Proto-Scandinavian Period
2009
This paper deals with personal names from the Proto-Scandinavian period that refer to religious concepts such as gods or holiness. Such names fall into four categories. The first one contains *ansuz 'as; heathen god' and the second one *albiz 'elf'. The third is made up of names cognate to the adjective *hailaga-'holy', and the fourth of names cognate to another adjective, *wīha-'holy'. Finally, it is argued that names of individual gods do not occur in Proto-Scandinavian personal names, although they do become very popular during the Viking Age.
2013
This article mainly deals with the origin of the proper names Ahti and Vellamo. They both occur in Finnic mythology, where Vellamo is a female water-deity while Ahti has several manifestations, e.g. a male deity of water and forest as well as a skilled warrior. Ahti also occurs in farm, village and family names, mainly in southern and western Finland. I propose that the proper name Ahti is diachronically a triple homonym. I suggest that two of these three homonymic lexemes have a Germanic etymology. The third lexeme is likely to be of Proto-Sami origin. In addition, I argue that the verbal root in the name Vellamo is a Germanic loanword, too. From this and my previous study on the topic (Heikkilä 2012b), I draw the conclusion that a significant number of names of characters in Finnic pre-Christian mythology stem from the Iron Age and are of Germanic origin. It also appears as if some fictional mythical characters may ultimately have been based on a real-world person.