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Viking Tales of the North


 


Vocabulary

Page 1

Æger. The god of the sea.
Æger’s Daughters. The waves.
Alfheim. The palace of Frey.
Allfather (the Great Spirit). he that lives through all generations, and whom we dare not name; the Creator of the sun, the Ruler of all things; the Lofty one, the Ancient, the Revealer of mysteries, the Manifold, the great almighty God, whom all nations have sought in their mythological systems. He is the father of gods and men; nay, he is the Indescribable. (1)
Agantyr. jarl of the Orkneys. — See “The Saga of Thorstein, Viking’s Son,” ch. 24.
Asas. The Norse deities, whose chief was Odin.
Asgard. The celestial abode of the gods.
Ask. the first man created by the gods.
Astrild. The goddess of love. She is not mentioned in the Norse mythology, but appears in the poems of the later Norse skalds. The name is from the Teutonic root ast, love, and is connected with Easter (Germ. Oster), the feast of Venus among the Britons and Germans.
Balder. Odin’s and Frigg’s son. The god of innocence, piety, and light. he was often called the white god.
Balders-Hage. Balder’s meads. A sanctuary in Sogn in Norway, consecrated to Balder.
Bele. Son of Skate. — See “The Saga of Thorstein, Viking’s Son,” ch. 17.
Berserk. Etymology contested. it undoubtedly comes from berr (Germ. bär; Eng. bear, ursus) and serkr (cp. sark, Scot. for shirt). Hence bear-coats; and we also have men called wolf-coats. Berserks were wild warriors, or champions, in the heathen age.
Berserk-Gang. Berserk’s-course. The fit of fury which seized the berserk when dangerously excited by his martial frenzy.
Bifrost. The trembling bridge. The bridge betwixt heaven and earth, guarded against the giants by Heimdal. The rainbow.
Bjorn Blue-Tooth. — See “The Saga of Thorstein, Viking’s Son.” ch. 3.
Blood-Eagle. To carve the blood-eagle is an expression in the sagas referring to a cruel punishment given to detested enemies or the most wretched villain. it consisted in cutting the figure of an eagle on the back of the sufferer, parting the ribs from the back-bone and drawing the lungs from out the opening.
Brage. The god of poetry and song.
Bran. Fridthjof’s dog. His name seems to have been suggested to Tegnér by a passage in “Ossian” (Temora 8).
Breidablik. Balder’s dwelling. The broad-shining splendor, where nothing impure is found.
Bretland. The land of the Britons.
Chess. The game of chess has been known in the North from the earliest times, and is mentioned again and again in the sagas. The Icelanders are to this day excellent chess-players.
Day. The son of Night and Delling (day-break).
Delling. One of the asas. the last husband of the giantess Night. Delling’s son is Day.
Dises. Goddesses.
Dises’ Hall. Pantheon.
Dwarfs. The Cyclopes (Gr. Kuklwpez) in miniature. Pigmies hideous in form and malevolent in disposition, but excelling in mechanical skill. They made Draupner, Skidblander, Gungner, etc. They dwelt in rocks and caverns, and had quickened as maggots in the body of the slaughtered Ymir.
Dwergmál. Dwarf-language, echo.
Earth. (Jord). Daughter of Night, spouse of Odin, mother of Thor, sister of Day, Etc.
East Sea. The Baltic.
Efje Sound. At the Orkneys.
Einherjes. The happy heroes in Valhal.
Ellide. Fridthjof’s ship.
Fafner. The famous dragon, who sat brooding over the enormous wealth procured for the death of Otter. — See Norse Mythology. p. 375.
Fenris. One of the three monster-offspring of Loke and Angerboda. The giant wolf who devours Odin in Ragnarok.
Folkvang. Freyja’s hall.
Forsete. The son of Balder and Nanna; God of justice.
Framness. A promontory in Sogn, Norway, where Fridthjof’s estate was situated.
Frey. Njord’s son; the god of harvest.
Freyja. Njord’s daughter, Oder’s wife; goddess of love.
Fridthjof. The thief or spoiler of peace.
Frigg. Odin’s wife.
Fylke. originally meant a district capable of supporting an armed force of fifty warriors, and having its own independent chief.
Gandvik. (Serpent-bay). The White Sea, so called from its tortuosity.
Gefjun. The goddess of virgin-purity.
Gerd. Frey’s wife.
Gimle. The home of the righteous after Ragnarok.
Gjallarhorn. Heimdal’s trumpet. It sound was heard through all the worlds.
Glitner. Forsete’s dwelling.
Groning Sound. (Gronsound). The sound betwixt the Danish Isles, Zealand, Moen and Falster.
Hagbart. One of the heroes in the Norse sagas. He was betrothed to the princess Signe, but enmity arose between her father, king Sigar, and him. Sigar took Hagbart prisoner and hanged him. Signe would not survive her lover, but set fire to her bower and perished in the flames. Hagbart and Signe in the North answers to Romeo and Juliet or Abelard and Heloise in the South and West.
Halfdan. Son of Bele.
Hávamál (Song of the High one). One of the poems of the Elder Edda. A collection of maxims given by Odin.
Heimdal. The god of the rainbow, the warder of the gods.
Heimskringla. The earth’s circle; the world.                 
Hel. Goddess of death; daughter of Loke and Angerboda.
Helge. Son of Bele.
Hilding. The foster-father of Fridthjof and Ingeborg.
Hoder. the god of darkness and winter. Balder’s blind brother and by Loke’s instigation Balder’s murderer.
Holm-gang. A duel, so called because it was generally fought on a holm (rock-island).
Idavellir. Ida-vales. Ida’s plains; the place where the gods assemble.
Idun. Brage’s wife; the goddess of youth.
Ingeborg. Daughter of Bele.
Iron-head. Kol’s and Trona’s third child hight Harek Iron-head.
Jadar. The present Jæderen in Stavanger Amt, Norway.
Jarl. Earl.
Jotunheim. The home of the giants.
Jumala. (the Supreme). From time immemorial the Finnish term for the Great god. To him no tokens were attributed and no distinguishing qualities. He was the Only, the Highest, he who himself invisible governed all. In Bjarmeland was set up his image, by itself; the lower deities had nothing such. Northward on a cape by Vin-a (the river Dvina) stood this Jumala idol, within a post consecrated thereto and surrounded by a lofty paling. Rich and sacred it was and became a kind of national sanctuary for the Finnish tribes. It is worth of remark that the name Jumiel occurs in the list of angelic princes given in the apocryphal book ascribed to Enoch. The Finnish name of God is still Jumala.



ENDNOTES:
1. (transcriber’s note) This is an attempt to identify Odhinn with the Christian god as there have been attempts to identify Baldr with the Christian Christ. The attempt should be viewed with great skepticism. Back



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