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.
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
Ciara
in reply to 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.
mythologyandhistory
in reply to Ciara • • •@CiaraNi
Beautifully said :)
Ciara
in reply to mythologyandhistory • • •