The Holy Land: Iceland and its Patronymic Naming System

Iceland is a repository of ancient Germanic religion and lore. If it were not for the Icelandic Elder and Younger Eddas along with the saga material and Galdrabooks we would know precious little about our ancient religion so we must always be grateful to this hardy and isolated Germanic people.

One thing in particular which interests me about modern day Iceland is their surname naming system which until the early 1980s was unique in the Germanic world and yet is hardly ever commentated upon. Generally new- borns' surnames are patronymic, sometimes matronymic. In other words their surname is their father's (sometimes the mother's) forename or middle name (if preferred) with sson if a son or dóttir if a daughter, added to it as a suffix. Occasionally as a surname some Icelanders have both a patronymic and a matronymic name as a sort of double barreled surname! Thus the surname is likely to change from generation to generation. There are some Icelanders who have inherited surnames either because they are of foreign origin or if their surname was incorporated before certain legal changes in 1925. Since the early 1980s other Germano-Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Faroe Islands have allowed for the use of patronymic or matronymic surnames. As an aside I have found during the last 2 or 3 years or so that I have been carrying out ancestral research that some of my paternal grandmother's ancestors from North Meols in Lancashire still practised a patronymic naming system in the 17th and 18th centuries and thus the surname changed from one generation to the next. North Meols was colonised by Scandinavian settlers and this is reflected to an extent in my autosomal DNA so it is quite possible that this is a remnant of 'Viking' practise in Lancashire.

Interestingly in Russia (heavily influenced by the ruling and dominant Swedish Russ) the middle name is a reflection of the father. Originally Russians had the same kind of system as in Iceland. Also Icelanders are not free to adopt alien and exotic names. Forenames have to be approved by the Mannanafnanefnd (Icelandic Naming Committee). Only names that can be pronounced using the Icelandic (Old Norse) alphabet may be used. This all goes to preserving the Germanic inheritance of the Icelandic people who by the way were the first to legally recognise the Odinic religion in 1973.

Icelandic as a language is peculiar in the North Germanic language group as it alone unlike modern Danish, Swedish and Norwegian (which are mutually intelligible) has changed very little from Old Norse due to Iceland's geographical isolation. This geographical isolation is helping to culturally and racially preserve the Icelandic people and has inculcated a strong sense of independence in the national character. One only has to recall the Icelandic government's refusal to bail out the Icelandic banks. To do so would have been to bankrupt this small country. So despite their small size as a population (322,000) they show a pluckiness that does them credit and shames the sheeple of England. If only Greece, Spain and Portugal (not to mention the United Kingdom) were to have followed their brave and sensible example!

Iceland has never started any wars or invaded any other country and this should be a lesson for us because by minding their own business they have retained their way of life and the biological integrity of their gene pool. It is to Iceland that we should look to as an example and revere as a holy land, not Israel. The moral difference between the peace-loving and hardy Icelanders and the war-mongering, genocidal but western-backed apartheid state of Israel could not be more astounding!

Odin and the North Country Charm against the Night Mare

Robert Graves in his The White Goddess (1948) brings to our attention an ancient charm dating back to at least the 14th century from the North Country which is attributed to Odin:

"The mon o' micht, he rade o' nicht

  Wi' neider swerd ne ferd ne licht.

            He socht tha Mare, he fond tha Mare,

            He bond tha Mare wi' her ain hare,

            Ond gared her swar by midder-micht

            She wolde nae mair rid o' nicht

            Whar aince he rade, thot mon o' micht."

A Christianised version of this charm appears in Shakespeare's King Lear, which I may add is a reference to the Celtic Sea God Llyr (Cymric) or Lir (Irish):

"Swithold footed thrice the wold.

           He met the Night-Mare and her nine-fold,

           Bid her alight and her troth plight,

           And aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee!"

The charm should be receited nine times or thrice times thrice, both 3 and 9 being sacred numbers in the Northern Tradition.

The Goat and its Relationship to the Northern European Thunder God

Misinformed bloggers on mythology would cite the evidence of Thor's goats in the Eddas as an indication of His 'lowly' status amongst the Aesir, particularly when compared to Odin. Believe it or not I have seen these foolish comments made by charlatans dabbling in mythology who have probably never even read the Eddas!

Most of my regular readers will know that I give great primacy to Thunor/Thunar/Thonar/Thor for He is more than likely the most ancient of our Germanic deities and unlike any other has close mythological cognates with the Baltic, Slavic, Celtic and Finno-Ugric peoples. However He is more often than not compared unfavourably with Odin but these who make such comparisons lack genuine understanding not only of our historical and sacred writings but of the very essence of the God Himself. I do not wish to digress further as this issue alone deserves a separate article and I wish to focus here on the goat and its significant relationship to the Thunder God amongst northern Europeans.

We know from both the Eddas that Thor's chariot was pulled by two goats. The Younger Edda gives the names of these goats:

Thor has two he-goats, that are called Tooth-Gnasher and Tooth-Gritter, and a chariot wherein he drives, and the he-goats draw the chariot; therefore is he called Öku-Thor. (Gylfaginning, translated by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur)

Rudolf Simek in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology defines Oku-Thor as 'driving Thor' and that the rumbling of thunder is likened to the driving of a chariot. There is a close resemblance between Oku and the name of the Finnish Thunder God Ucco although Simek discounts this as an explanation of the term, arguing that the flow of cultural transfer tends to be from the Germanic to the Finno-Ugric peoples but that is not in my opinion a sufficient argument for ruling it out altogether! Ucco or Ukko is derived from the Finnish terms for 'old man' and 'grandfather'. Ukko may originally have been called Perkele, a Baltic term. Like Thor Ukko possessed a Hammer, called Ukonvasar, 'hammer of Ukko'. Sometimes His weapon is depicted as an axe and called Ukonkirves. 

Heathen Finns like their Germanic, Baltic and Slavic counterparts would wear hammer or axe shaped amulets. The Sami had a similar deity, Horagelles whose name is similar in meaning to Ukko: 'grandfather' or 'great grandfather'. Interestingly the Sami also called this deity Thoron and even Thor!

It is natural that our ancestors conceived of the rumbling thunder as the sound of a chariot being driven across the sky but we must ask ourselves why it was pulled by goats rather than say horses? Both the Germanic Thunder God and the Balto-Slavic equivalents feature a chariot being pulled by goats

Perkunas, the Lithuanian Thunder God was seen a red-bearded man with an axe whose mode of transport was a chariot pulled by a billy goat. (See European Myth & Legend by Mike Dixon-Kennedy, 1997) The chariot of Perkunas is sometimes pictured as pulled by horses but often by goats, one black and one white which is a very obvious hint of solar symbolism. The goat is of course a solar symbol but the presence of both black and white ones strengthen this association. Additionally the male goat is a symbol of masculine virility, potency and vigour. The German Donar is particularly associated with mountains, many being named after Him. The Donnersberg in the Rheinland-Pfalz is a particularly well known example. The goat is also an animal which is at home in mountainous regions and its milk and meat would have formed a staple part of our ancestors' daily diet.

It is clear from Gylfaginning that Thor regarded His goats Tanngrisnir ('teeth barer') and Tanngnostr ('teeth grinder') as sacred due to the anger which He displayed when He discovered that Thjalfi had split the thighbone of one of the goats causing it to become lame. Scholars such as Simek point out that the names of the goats "are surely an invention and probably from Snorri himself as they are nowhere to be found except in Gylfaginning 20 and the thulur." The fact that the names are not mentioned in the Elder Edda does not make them an 'invention'. Snorri could have obtained his information from other sources including oral tradition but regardless of whether he 'invented' the names or not the fact remains that the goat has a long association with the northern European Thunder God as is evidenced from Slavic and Baltic sources. It is relevant for me to point out at this point that the Baltic mythology contains material so ancient that it can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European times.

PPe

Woden as the Sleeping King in the Mountain

In Germany there are a number of legends concerned with a sleeping king or emperor who will awake to save the Vaterland at the time of its greatest need. The sleeping hero is usually Karl der Große (not a hero but a Christian butcher in my opinion), Friedrich Barbarossa or Heinrich der Vogler (the Fowler, 876-936).

Karl der Große (Charlemagne/Charles the Great) was born in either 742, 747 or 748. There is no agreement on the date but we know he died in 814. He became King of the Franks in 768, King of Italy in 774 and Emperor in the West from 800. He is remembered particularly for his wars of extermination against the heathen Saxons in the 770s and the 780s along with the destruction of the Irminsul and many other shrines and temples.

Heinrich was the founder of the Ottonian dynasty, the first emperors of the First Reich. His son Otto I became Germany's first emperor. Heinrich became Duke of Saxony in 912 and was elected as the first Saxon king of East Francia (Deutschland) in 919. East Francia was the eastern division of the Carolingian Empire and lasted from 840 until about 962. This was the foundation for the modern German state. Wagner regarded Heinrich as a suitable historical figure for the pan-German movement to rally around and featured him in his 1850 music drama, Lohengrin.

Friedrich I (Barbarossa, 1122-1190), Duke of Swabia from 1147-1152, became King of Germany in 1152 and Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation in 1155. He became known as Barbarossa because of his red beard. A detailed history of mediaeval Germany may be found in Benjamin Arnold's Medieval Germany 500-1300. A Political Interpretation, 1997.

Regarding Karl der Große he is said to slumber in many places, in particular in the Desenburg near Warburg, in the castle of Herstalla on the river Weser, in the Karlsburg on the river Spessart, in the Trausberg and in the Donnersberg in the Pfalz. Interestingly the Donnersberg is named after the German God of Thunder, Donar. The Romans called the mountain Mons Jovis after their Jupiter who as we know is also a deity associated with thunder and lightning. The highest point of the mountain is called the Königstuhl (King's seat) and the mountain itself is the highest peak in the Pfalz.

Heinrich der Vogler is said to sleep in the Sudmerberg near Goslar. Goslar as my Harz born mother always used to fondly tell me was a Kaiserstadt (an imperial city). However the German king who is most often associated with this legendary motif is in fact Barbarossa.

"The German people still maintain the same faith, for their hero has been seen by many of them in the Kyffhäuser mountain, in the old palatinate of the Saxon imperial house. There, in a cavern, with all his knights and squires around him, he sits to this day, leaning his head upon his arm,at a table through which his beard has grown, or round which, according to other accounts, it has grown twice. When it has thrice encircled the table, he will wake up to battle. The cavern glitters with gold and jewels, and is as bright as the sunniest day. Thousands of horses stand at mangers filled with thorn-bushes instead of hay, and make a prodigious noise as they stamp on the ground and rattle their chains. The old Kaiser sometimes wakes up for a moment and speaks to his visitors. He once asked a herdsman who had found his way into the Kyffhäuser, 'Are the ravens' (Odin's birds) 'still flying about the mountain?' The man replied that they were. 'Then', said Barbarossa, 'I must sleep a hundred years longer.'

"That Frederick and all the rest of the caverned princes and warriors are no other than Woden and his wild host, is clear from many details of the legends concerning them. People who visit the Emperor in the  Kyffhäuser receive just such presents as are given by the wild huntsman,-horses' legs or heads that afterwards turn into gold; and there is a lady in the Kyffhäuser, who is variously called the Princess, the Kaiser's housekeeper, Mademoiselle or Jungfer, and sometimes Frau Holle (Holda), who is beyond doubt Woden's wife Fria."(Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore, 1863, Walter Keating-Kelly)

Tales of famous mediaeval kings can also be found in the folk-lore of other European Aryan peoples but what is significant about the legend of Barbarossa in the Kyffhäuser is the direct association with the God Woden. This is what makes the study of folk-lore so important to us. Folk-lore provides a continuation of the myths of the Eddas into post-conversion times up to the modern era.

Balder, Woden and Thor reflected in Teesdale Place-Names

Baldersdale lies within the traditional English county of the North Riding of Yorkshire, close to County Durham. The river Balder flows through Baldersdale until it joins the river Tees (the boundary between Durham and the North Riding) at Cotherstone on the Yorkshire side of the river. It is speculated in Steel River by David Simpson (1996) that the river Balder was named after the Germanic God of light. Sir Walter Scott makes reference to this in his poem Rokeby:

"Balder named from Odin's son;

And Greta, to whose banks ere long

We lead the lovers of the song;

And silver Lune from Stainmore wild

And fairy Thorsgill's murmuring child.

"Beneath the shade the Northmen came,

Fixed on each vale a Runic name.

Reared high their altar's rugged stone,

And gave their gods the lands they won.

Then, Balder one bleak garth was thine,

And one sweet brooklet's silver line;

And Woden's croft did little gain

From the stern father of the slain."

 "Woden's croft" is a reference to Woden Croft situated near Cotherstone, south of the river Tees. Cotherstone is an Old English place name, meaning 'Farmstead of a man called Cuthere'. (A Dictionary of Old English Place-Names, A.D. Mills, 1991). The river Greta (meaning 'stony stream' in Old Norse) is a tributary of the Tees and flows through the North Riding. Stainmore (originally Stanmoir) means 'rocky moor', derived from the Old English stan, later replaced by the Old Norse Steinn + mor.

Another verse from Rokeby refers to Thorsgill Beck, a stream which joins the River Tees at Startforth, south-west of Barnard Castle but on the Yorshire side of the river:

"To Odin's son and

Spifia's spouse,

Near Startforth

high they paid

their vows,

Remembered

Thor's victorious fame,

And gave

the dell the

Thunderer's name."

Startforth is derived from Stradford (Domesday Book, 1086) and earlier Stretford (1050), meaning 'Ford on a Roman road', from the Old English straet + ford.