On the request of CaptainPenguin i have tried to use old Norrøn names for gods and the like since the Eregard people are somewhat like the old vikings. These are only ideas worked out from the language of old norwegian. I am not sure if this is the right place to post this since it was originaly only a Private Message to CaptainPenguin. But since I did put some work into it, it would be good to at least have it posted somewhere.
Here goes the PM.
Gods of Eregard
Well, as I take this task seriously I will try to make sense of the names.
For example: You said you wanted a god for fire.. The old norwegian
word for fire is Muspel*, or Muspellir. This way the name of the Gods will have meaning and not only sound cool in Old Norse.
Before i embark upon this task i have a few comments to the Eregard..
I see you have used the figure of Ymir, If you want to I could enlarge
the Eregard story of him. I do not know how familiar you are with
these stories. Do you know the story of Ymir?
You could blend it with your own story...
The story of Ymir
In the time, the time of old, neither earth nor the sky or the sea existed. Only the empty endless void known as the Ginnungagap
was there. On the north side of this void was Nifelheim the endless Ice.
In the middle of Nifelheim the well Hvergshjelme, the source of all water lies. From this well 12 rivers of frozen water ran into the void. On the southside of this void Muspelheim*[OOC](heim means the land of, or home),[/OOC]the eternal fires burning heat was guarded by Surt with his flaming sword.
In the middle of the the deep where fire and ice met, the first sign of life was created. From the drops of melted ice arose Ymir and the cow Audhumbla. Ymirs hunger was great, but his sister Audhumbla gave him food, from her breats four rivers of milk flowed, and this milk was Ymirs neutrition. When he was full he fell asleep, and sweated.
From his sweat came horrible creatures of darkness, Rimturser and Jotner.
Audhumbla was thirsty and drank from the ice rivers of Elivaagirs(Ã¥).
From where she had been licking the ice a creature came forward three days later. This was Bure, The first human like god!
Bure soon got a son of his own wich was named Bor, Bor married Besla,
a Jotne woman. She gave birth to three strong lads, when they were powrfull enough they killed Ymir with a block of ice.
When Ymir died his blood poured out and became a mighty wave and all the creatures of darkness drowned(Jotner and Rimturser), all but Bergjelme and his wife wich escaped in a boat. From them came all the Trolls and Daemons of the later time. Later on the three brothers created the world
of gods and humans. And thus was the world created, from Ymirs blood came the sea, from his body the earth, from his hair came the trees and other plants. from his bones the mountains were created, from his teeth
hills and cliffs and rocks. from his skull the sky was created and from his brain the clouds. Four dwarfs kept the sky up, Austre, Vestre, Nordre and Søre[OOC](this basicly means: East, West, North and south. But its is made to be names)
-From here on Ymir is gone from the tale. It is a long tale of wich some parts you proparbly know. It is to long for me to write here and now.
But if you are interested I could do it.
I have now studied some older book of myth, to long since I have read them. So i dont remember everything. The world story of Ymir I know by heart tough. I have put toghether many names in old Norrøn.
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First the elementals
Hvergelur- Tall mountain, or dangerous height. It is not an expression ever used in combination with normal mountains. It can be the soul/god of all mountains.
Eiktyrnde- It means guardian-or the sheperd of the forest. It would be a good name for a forest God.
Rimgur- It means wielder of snow and frost.
Nifelgur- The wielder of water. This way Rimgur and Nifelgur become brothers in a way. I thought this could be good since they are basicly the same elemental. If you dont want this you could use...:
Vannfallir -this means the fall of water.
Muspelhogg- A bite of fire. Or fast fire. He could live in Muspelheim, wich could be underground at the earths core?
These elemental gods are not beings in the same sense as the human gods. they could be physical beings if you like. But their nature is that of their elemental. They dont meddle in the affairs of the other gods since they care little for such affairs.
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The phanteon of human like gods
The chief could be the firstborn Mimherde. This means the one that
can reflect upon things. the wise one, the poet.<--poetry was a great symbol of wisdom in the viking era. You could be a great warrior, but without the ability to talk in poetry you were nothing but a barbarian.
The godess could be named Modirold, this means mother old.
*I dont know if you want me to create a myth around these gods, but i could do this and use threads from the Norrøn mythology.
I will create the story of Modirold-be sure to give me your oppinion and i could do the same for the other gods as well.
Modirolds story
The heat of the sun reached the cold of the moon and forth sprang the Mother of old, Modirold. She was the heart beat of all, the rythm of life.
In the beginning she was the virgin. Her number was eight, the number of the primar lusts. Later to become a barbaric number.
The day the sun rained fire she was struck down and gave birth to the eight firstbornes. Mimherde the first borne and the wisest, Solur(the time of the sun), Maantidir(the seasons of the moon), Nerthis wich care for nature and all things beautiful, and at last the three brothers wich came out of Modirold toghether. Nornd the god of war and battle, Nidhur the god of cunning and bravery(a trixter) and Hanthyr the warm hearted and kind.
Nidhur and Norn soon envied the Solur and Maantidir, for they seemed wise and distant, always looking to the sky and and the far shores.
They made up a plan, and tricked Hanthyr to show them the egde of the world. Solur and maantidir awed by the wiew of the egde, started to sing
of the sun and the moon. And then Nidhur talked words of honey to Hanthyr, he said that Solur and Maantidir wanted to fly to where they belonged and told the young Hanthyr that he had to push them were they to fly. Hanthir did as he was told.
In shame of dicovering what he had done, Hanthir killed himself.
From the metals of his body the remaining gods made weapons and found strenght and power. Modirold cried and mourned the loss of her three children, after her tears were trough she fell asleep. Then the gods made their home upon her body and forged the world with their tools.
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You could continue this if you want to, but at least it is a beginning of how the world came to be. Note that this is a mythology and does not have to be true to others than the Erengard.
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I hope that this will suffice for a start at least, I enjoyed writing it.
If there is something you wonder about, what some names mean or this and that. Dont hecitate to PM me. And tell me if you want more gods or anything .
A few last notes on Erengards world
I see you have used Hugin(n) and Jarl in your name list. You are proparbly aware that Hugin and Munin are the ravens of Odin and not the names of
people. But this is not to important since it is a fantasy game
Jarl is a title and not a name, but in the newer times it has been adopted
to become a regular name. But then it is prenounced Jarle or Jarlir.
A small note on the name Eregard by the way, gard means a farm.
Not in the sense of a farmers farm, but a land where a certain people live.
So this is good. Ere has no direct meaning, but it its similliar to Dere.
It means another people, or simply "them".
Fenris or Fenrir, it depends. Fenris is the newer name of this wolf that Loke
gave birth to. I would use Fenrir to give it a touch of old, or Fenris for people to recognise it...
Michael
