Kurdalægon

Kurdalægon (Ossetian: Куырдалӕгон) is the heavenly deity of blacksmiths 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.

It is important to note that 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 Kwyrdalægon is a contraction of Kurd Alæ Wærgon, where Kurd and Alæ are epithets, meaning "blacksmith" and "Alan/Aryan", 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 of *kur- "to heat", "to incandesce". Ossetian alæ originates from arya-, and originally meant "Aryan", and later "Alan".

The original name Wærgon is derived from Old Ossetic *wærg "wolf" (see Warg). The linguist Vasily Abaev compares it to the name of the Roman god Vulcan.

See also

• Tlepsh
• Vulcan
• Kaveh the blacksmith

References

• Abaev, V.I. Historical-Etymological Dictionary of Ossetian language
• Talley, Jeannine Elizabeth (1978). The blacksmith: a study in technology, myth and folklore. University of California. p. 758. Retrieved 8 August 2012.