Kurdalægon (), also spelled and known as Kuịrdalägon, Kurd-Alägon, Aläugon, Kurd-Alä-Uärgon, is the heavenly

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

s in Ossetian mythology. His epithet is "the heavenly one"; he shoes the dead man's horse, thus helping him on his journey to the other side. He is a close friend of the Narts. Despite being associated with other blacksmith deities in different Indo-European mythologies (like Vulcan) he does not have the status of a god. Ossetian mythology is considered to be monotheistic, with only Xwytsau being considered God, and all the others (called ''zædtæ'' and ''dæwdžytæ'') being considered deities of a lower class.

Etymology

Ossetian is a contraction of , where ''Kurd'' and ''Alæ'' are

epithet An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...

s, meaning "

" and "

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Kurdish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' * ...

Aryan ''Aryan'' (), or ''Arya'' (borrowed from Sanskrit ''ārya''), Oxford English Dictionary Online 2024, s.v. ''Aryan'' (adj. & n.); ''Arya'' (n.)''.'' is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood ...

", respectively, and ''Wærgon'' is the original name of Kurdalægon. The whole phrase means "Alan/Aryan Blacksmith Wærgon". ''Kurd'' originates from ''*kur-ta-'' or ''*kur-tar-'', which is

agent noun In linguistics, an agent noun (in Latin, ) is a word that is derived from another word denoting an action, and that identifies an entity that does that action. For example, ''driver'' is an agent noun formed from the verb ''drive''. Usually, '' ...

of ''*kur-'' "to heat", "to incandesce". Ossetian ''alæ'' originates from ''arya-'', and originally meant "

", and later "

". The original name ''Wærgon'' is derived from Old Ossetic ''*wærg'' "

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

" (see

Warg In the Philology, philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction, a warg is a particularly large and evil kind of wolf that could be ridden by Orc (Middle-Earth), orcs. He derived the name and characteristics of his wargs ...

). The linguist Vasily Abaev compares it to the name of the Roman god Vulcan. But since the name in its normal form is stable and has a clear meaning—''kurd'' ("smith") + ''Alaeg'' (the name of one of the Nartic families)+ ''on'' ("of the family")—this hypothesis has been considered unacceptable by Dumezil.G. Dumezil ''La religion romaine archaïque'' Paris, 1974, part II, chap. 2. It. tr. Milano 1977 p. 284 n. 12.

References

Sources

* Abaev, V.I.
Historical-Etymological Dictionary of Ossetian language
' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kurdalaegon European gods Ossetian mythology Smithing gods

Etymology

See also

References

Sources