Talk:Sæhrímnir

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Revert[edit]

I've reinserted the explanation of Saehrimnir as related to sea foam/ice. I initially and very charitably inserted is as an alternative reference, despite the fact that it's obviously the correct one. Hrim is cognate with rime, the English word meaning ice. The connotation is sea foam, or sea ice, as numerous authors point out. I've linked to two of them. Reverting because you don't like the references seems very dodgy, particularly when the only reference linking the name with soot is inaccessible to others. The reference which "Bloodofox" deleted and claimed was a 'very poor reference' was from a work by John James Garth Wilkinson. Those ignorant of his work will find his Wikipedia page here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_John_Garth_Wilkinson

A quote:

"The vigour of his thought won admiration from Henry James, Sr. (father of the novelist) and from Ralph Waldo Emerson, through whom he met Thomas Carlyle and James Anthony Froude; and his speculation further attracted Alfred Tennyson, the Oliphants and Edward Maitland.

He wrote an able sketch of Swedenborg for the Penny Cyclopaedia, and a standard biography, Emanuel Swedenborg (1849); but these were not his only interests. He was a traveller, a linguist, well versed in Scandinavian literature and philology"

Frankly the alternative is a ridiculous etymology - "sea soot" doesn't make sense. "Sea ice" clearly does. For the importance of rime (hrim) in Teutonic mythology see, eg, p 532 of Volume II of Grimm's Teutonic Mythology. You can see there also that Hrimnir means rime, not soot.

 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.108.110.95 (talk) 07:38, 22 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Now Bloodofox has described Viktor Rydberg's dictionary as a "poor and unacceptable" reference. Viktor Rydberg's Wikipedia page is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Rydberg

"Abraham Viktor Rydberg (Jönköping, December 18, 1828 – Djursholm, September 21, 1895) was a Swedish writer and a member of the Swedish Academy, 1877-1895. "Primarily a classical idealist",[1] "Viktor Rydberg, poet, novelist, essayist, idealist philosopher and one of the prominent figures in Swedish intellectual life in the latter half of the nineteenth century",[2] has been described as "Sweden's last Romantic" and by 1859 was "generally regarded in the first rank of Swedish novelists." [3] "The leading cultural figure of his day, he also wrote works on philosophy, philology, and aesthetics."[4]"

This is frankly getting silly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.108.110.95 (talk) 08:44, 22 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Neither are reliable sources and Rydberg is particularly infamous. Note that he has long since been dismissed in modern scholarship (as mentioned in the article about him that you draw from; command or cntrl 'f' "Davidson"). Please get your hands on some modern scholarly material handling the etymology of the name. I will now expand the article and maybe the results will make more sense to you thereafter. :bloodofox: (talk) 08:49, 22 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps, but given the prominence of both authors I think any issues with their work should be expressly addressed in the article rather than references just being deleted. There are, of course, lots of claims made in Grimm's work which wouldn't stand up to modern scrutiny - that doesn't mean it can be dismissed out of hand without comment, I think you'd agree!

Would be very interested to see the information you have if it goes into more detail on the etymology and directly addresses the traditional intepretation found in Rydberg.

I have now expanded the article by a fair amount. For an English breakdown of the etymology, see the Lindow reference. While the etymology you have provided is not the 'traditional' (?) etymology, having it there would help flesh out the article, yet I must stress that if it is re-added, it must be done so with proper context and not just presented as fact. In relation, note that the information from Grimm is presented as exactly what it is—information from Grimm—and not as fact. :bloodofox: (talk) 10:35, 22 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Sooty sea beast"? Not likely[edit]

Of course it's a boar.

Boars were prestigious game among the Germanic peoples, and boar's flesh was considered the fit food for heroes.

No Norse hero would have considered gnawing on seal-blubber a proper feast in the afterlife. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.127.152.206 (talk) 14:37, 26 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]