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Re: The etymology of the German Hell...

Subject: Re: The etymology of the German Hell...
From: "Heidi Graw"
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 09:43:10 GMT
Newsgroups: sci.lang
<phoglund@xxxxxx> wrote in message 
news:1155892159.521832.150910@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

>>Heidi Graw kirjoitti:

>
> *****
>
>> Is this German "hell" in any way connected to the P.Gmc. *khaljo  and/or
>> from PIE *kel- meaning "to cover, conceal save [as in save to keep]?"

>phoglund wrote:
>According to Wahrig, it comes from a PIE root *kel- meaning "rufen",
>i.e. to call, to shout, and it is related to such German words as Hall
>(as in "widerhallen") and Schall, Schelle. Intermediary stages are
>Middle High German hellen "ertönen" (i.e. "to resound, to ring out")
>and hel "tönend, laut, licht glänzend" i.e. "loud, luminous" - I
>guess you can speak about loud colours or say that a colour is too
>loud, in English, too.

Oh wow...does that ever help towards clearing up a mystery!   I had come 
across a kenning for Hel that refered to her as "Gna of Glitnir."...a stanza 
found in the Ynglinga Saga 20 which someone else roughly translated:

From the translater:

"Here's a more or less literal prosaic translation of the stanza:

"I speak no secret, (when I say) that the Gná of
Glitnir keeps Dyggvi's corpse for her amusement,
because the sister of Wolf and Narfi chose the
kingly one, and Loki's maiden has entangled the
overlord of Yngvi's nation."


Hel loud and luminous, possibly wildly colourful...like a rainbow, perhaps? 
Hmmmm... One can't conceal much if one is brilliantly loud about it.  ;-)

If anyone else has more to add, please do so!

Thanks so much!  ;-)

Heidi




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