The paper argues for the identification of the “Myth of Baldr’s Death,” one of the most famous mythological narratives of pre-Christian Scandinavia, as a Norse counterpart to the Vedic “Myth of the Wounded Sun,” a mythological narrative already attested in the Rigveda, India’s oldest collection of sacred scriptures (last half of the 2nd millennium BCE). The claim is substantiated by novel formal analyses and semantic interpretations of the name and patronymic of Baldr’s wife Nanna Neps-dóttir (“Maiden Sky’s-daughter”) and of the name of Baldr’s killer Hǫðr (‘Darkness’), proposals that find support in several onomastic, lexical, and phraseological parallels in other Indo-European traditions.

Ginevra, R., The Myth of Baldr’s Death and the Vedic Wounded Sun, in Laura Massett, L. M. (ed.), Castalia: Studies in Indo-European Linguistics, Mythology, and Poetics, Brill, Leiden and Boston 2023: 80- 105. 10.1163/9789004538283_006 [https://hdl.handle.net/10807/234550]

The Myth of Baldr’s Death and the Vedic Wounded Sun

Ginevra, Riccardo
2023

Abstract

The paper argues for the identification of the “Myth of Baldr’s Death,” one of the most famous mythological narratives of pre-Christian Scandinavia, as a Norse counterpart to the Vedic “Myth of the Wounded Sun,” a mythological narrative already attested in the Rigveda, India’s oldest collection of sacred scriptures (last half of the 2nd millennium BCE). The claim is substantiated by novel formal analyses and semantic interpretations of the name and patronymic of Baldr’s wife Nanna Neps-dóttir (“Maiden Sky’s-daughter”) and of the name of Baldr’s killer Hǫðr (‘Darkness’), proposals that find support in several onomastic, lexical, and phraseological parallels in other Indo-European traditions.
2023
Inglese
Castalia: Studies in Indo-European Linguistics, Mythology, and Poetics
9789004538283
Brill
Ginevra, R., The Myth of Baldr’s Death and the Vedic Wounded Sun, in Laura Massett, L. M. (ed.), Castalia: Studies in Indo-European Linguistics, Mythology, and Poetics, Brill, Leiden and Boston 2023: 80- 105. 10.1163/9789004538283_006 [https://hdl.handle.net/10807/234550]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10807/234550
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