Recent searches
Search options
Did you know that to the #Vikings names REALLY mattered?
When a child was born healthy & the family could afford it, it was washed, dressed & named.
The latter sealed a social contract, as killing a named child was murder.
Furthermore, to protect your child against curses in a god's name, you would give them that god's name!
E.g., a boy named Steinn (stone) could be dedicated to #Thor and thus be Þorsteinn (Thor's Stone).
Now a curse including Thor wouldn't take.
@mythologyandhistory I didn't know the original curse-protecting origin. Nice. My favourite variant is Thorbjørn. Thor's bear.
I find something reassuring about the fact that the name lives on and on, that among all the space litter and artificial intelligence and climate-destroying technologies, there are Thor's Bears among us, their name grounding us in an older, realer world.
Beautifully said :)
@mythologyandhistory Interesting to see this now, since I just picked up Horizon: Zero Dawn yesterday. It starts with someone who looks like he could be a viking taking the future main character as a baby to her naming ceremony. During the scene it's casually shown that it's a post-apocalyptic world with ruins of a high-tech society strewn about and avoided whenever possible.
I had no idea the naming thing was based on an actual Viking tradition!
It is! Many cultures still celebrate the name day more than birthdays because of this!
Thanks for the comment 