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Völva
In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning "prophetess", "staff bearer" and "sorceress", and they are frequently called ''witches'' both in early sources and in modern scholarship. In Norse mythology the seeress is usually referred to as ''völva'' or ''vala''. Seeresses were an expression of the pre-Christian shamanic traditions of Europe, and they held an authoritative position in Germanic society. Mentions of Germanic seeresses occur as early as the Roman era, when, for example, they at times led armed resistance against Roman rule and acted as envoys to Rome. After the Roman Era, seeresses occur in records among the North Germanic people, where they form a reoccurring motif in Norse mythology. Both the classical and the Norse accounts imply that they used wands, and describe them as sitting on raised platforms during séances. Ancient Roman and Gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hel (location)
Hel (Old Norse: ), also known as Helheim, is an afterlife location in Norse mythology and paganism. It is ruled over by a being of the same name, Hel. In late Icelandic sources, varying descriptions of Hel are given and various figures are described as being buried with items that will facilitate their journey to Hel after their death . In the ''Poetic Edda'', Brynhildr's trip to Hel after her death is described and Odin, while alive, also visits Hel upon his horse Sleipnir. In the ''Prose Edda'', Baldr goes to Hel on his death and subsequently Hermóðr uses Sleipnir to attempt to retrieve him. Etymology The Old Norse feminine proper noun ''Hel'' is identical to the name of the entity that presides over the realm, Old Norse ''Hel''. The word has cognates in all branches of the Germanic languages, including Old English (and thus Modern English ''hell''), Old Frisian ''helle'', Old Saxon ''hellia'', Old High German ', and Gothic '' 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰''. All forms ultimat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Þorbjörg Lítilvölva
('Thorbjörg little-''völva;'' CE) was a renowned seeress (''völva'') in Norse colonial Greenland during the late Viking Age. She is featured in the ''Saga of Erik the Red'' and her description is the most detailed presentation of seeress behavior, associated customs, and material culture – such as her distinctive clothing and use of a wand – found in the sagas of Icelanders. ''Saga of Erik the Red'' According to the saga, times were tough in Greenland; hunters caught few animals, and some simply didn't return at all. In the Norse settlement lived a seeress by the name of Þorbjörg, called the ''lítilvölva'' (meaning 'little (or lesser) seeress'). She had nine sisters, all of whom held the gift of prophecy, but Þorbjörg had outlived them all.Kunz (2000: 658). Every winter, Þorbjörg visited each farm to which she was invited in the district. She regularly received invitations from those who wanted to know their future, or the future of their farms. One winter, Þor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freyja
In Norse mythology, Freyja (Old Norse "(the) Lady") is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future). Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chariot pulled by two cats, is accompanied by the boar Hildisvíni, and possesses a cloak of falcon feathers. By her husband Óðr, she is the mother of two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi. Along with her twin brother Freyr, her father Njörðr, and her mother ( Njörðr's sister, unnamed in sources), she is a member of the Vanir. Stemming from Old Norse ''Freyja'', modern forms of the name include Freya, Freyia, and Freja. Freyja rules over her heavenly field, Fólkvangr, where she receives half of those who die in battle. The other half go to the god Odin's hall, Valhalla. Within Fólkvangr lies her hall, Sessrúmnir. Freyja assists other deities by allowing them to use her feathered cloak, is invoked in matters of fertility and love, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germanic Paganism
Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological dating, chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the British Isles, modern Germany, the Netherlands, and at times other parts of Europe, the beliefs and practices of Germanic paganism varied. Scholars typically assume some degree of continuity between the beliefs and practices of the Roman era and those found in Norse paganism, as well as between Germanic religion and reconstructed Indo-European religion and post-conversion folklore, though the precise degree and details of this continuity are subjects of debate. Germanic religion was influenced by neighboring cultures, including that of the Celts, the Roman people, Romans, and, later, by Christianity. Very few sources exist that were written by pagan adherents themselves; instead, most were written by outsiders and can thus present problems for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedge
A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced (3 feet or closer) shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoining fields or one field from another, and are of sufficient age to incorporate larger trees, are known as hedgerows. Often they serve as windbreaks to improve conditions for the adjacent crops, as in bocage country. When clipped and maintained, hedges are also a simple form of topiary. A hedge often operates as, and sometimes is called, a "live fence". This may either consist of individual fence posts connected with wire or other fencing material, or it may be in the form of densely planted hedges without interconnecting wire. This is common in tropical areas where low-income farmers can demarcate properties and reduce maintenance of fence posts that otherwise deteriorate rapidly. Many other benefits can be obtained d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metonymy
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word " suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such as salespeople or attorneys. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come ; , a suffix that names figures of speech, . Background Metonymy and related figures of speech are common in everyday speech and writing. Synecdoche and metalepsis are considered specific types of metonymy. Polysemy, the capacity for a word or phrase to have multiple meanings, sometimes results from relations of metonymy. Both metonymy and metaphor involve the substitution of one term for another. In metaphor, this substitution is based on some specific analogy between two things, whereas in metonymy the substitution is based on some understood association or contiguity. American literary theorist Kenneth Burke considers metonymy as one of four "master tro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proto-Finnic Language
Proto-Finnic or Proto-Baltic-Finnic is the common ancestor of the Finnic languages, which include the national languages Finnish and Estonian. Proto-Finnic is not attested in any texts, but has been reconstructed by linguists. Proto-Finnic is itself descended ultimately from Proto-Uralic. Background Three stages of Proto-Finnic are distinguished in literature. * Early Proto-Finnic, the last common ancestor of the Finnic languages and its closest external relatives — usually understood to be the Sami languages, though also the Mordvinic languages may derive from this stage (see Finno-Samic languages). This reconstruction state appears to be almost identical to Proto-Uralic. * Middle Proto-Finnic, an earlier stage in the development on Finnic, used in Kallio (2007) for the point at which the language had developed its most characteristic differences from Proto-Uralic (mainly: the loss of several consonant phonemes from the segment inventory, including all palatalized conson ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Runes
Runes are the Letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see ''#Futharks, futhark'' vs ''#Runic alphabets, runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a phoneme) but they were also used to represent the concepts after which they are named (ideographic runes). Runology is the academic study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runestones, and their history. Runology forms a specialised branch of Germanic philology. The earliest secure runic inscriptions date from at latest AD 150, with a possible earlier inscription dating to AD 50 and Tacitus's possible description of rune use from around AD 98. The Svingerud Runestone dates from between AD 1 and 250. Runes were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianisation, by approximately AD 700 in central Europe and 1100 in northern Europe. Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
