trickstersmakethisworld:ScandinavianFolklore – The Power of NamesA focalpoint of pagan magic is that
trickstersmakethisworld:ScandinavianFolklore – The Power of NamesA focalpoint of pagan magic is that names have power, to the point where speaking thename of an enemy may give him strength. People would instead make upnicknames for particularly dangerous things (‘’noanamn’’ in Old Norse), whichbasically translates to ‘’taboo name’’. Thunder, for example, was nicknamed Godfather whilst the Devil wasoften called Hin Håle.The use of ‘’noanamn’’ is still prevalent amongst Scandinavian hunters and sailors The old Scandinavianpagan religion was inherently connected to nature. Nature was power, life andmagic to the point where many animals were considered to be supernaturalcreatures with magical abilities. The two biggest predators in Scandinavia,namely the bear and the wolf, were considered particularly powerful anddangerous. And speaking their true name makes them even more powerful. The bearwould be referred to as Bigfather,Sweetfoot, The Great One, Mister or Basseamongst others. As you may have noticed, many of these names are quiteflattering. People believed that the bear, whilst powerful, was also very vain,and by complementing him you could get into his good graces. The wolfwould have nicknames such as Padfoot,Greylegs, Greyshanks or Longfoot. To refer to the wolf by his true name wasincredibly dangerous as the belief was that this served as an invitation.And the wolf was a dangerous enemy, as it was not only physically strong, butalso possessed great magic and a considerable intellect. This practicewas so prevalent that linguists’ today have discovered that the contemporaryScandinavian words for wolf and bear were originally themselves ‘’noanamn’’. Varg (wolf) is actually an Old Germanic word meaning ‘’slayer’’ whilstbjörn (bear) simply means ‘’brown’’. Linguists’think that the Old Norse word for wolf was ulv, whilst the true name of thebrown bear is unfortunately lost to time. -- source link