Postcards weekly

In the recent days I got not so many postcards and still here they are:

I got my first card from the Phillipines but there were no stamps :( It is such a pity... Only a stempel that the porto is paid..

Some cross-stitch

 I finally succeeded to find frames for my sweet couples which I stitched 3 years ago... Even with glass! :) Pls, enjoy!

And my Alpin Backpack-Deer. It was a New Year present for my husband and he aso had to wait for a frame till today. Though he has no glass I think the frame is just perfect! :) And I really loved the canvas, it looks so vintage ^____^

The two last postcrossing weeks

In the last two weeks I got really many card, which are just great and even up to my wish-list!! ^____^

Etymology of some women's names in German

I decided to take only names of the Germanic origin.

The first name which interested me was Irmhild. This name is finds its origin in Old High German (Althochdeutsch) and represents a compound of two roots: -irm- ("big", "great", "enormous", "mighty", "powerful") and -hild- ("fight", "battle"). In OHG -ermin-/-irmin- and -hiltja respectively. Thereby the name means "a great/mighty fighter".

With the first root as a component there are two more name which are actually even less spread as Irmhild nowadays. These are Irmgard and Irmtraud.

Let's take Irmgard. The root -gard- is an ancient predecessor of two modern words: "garden" and "guard" and its main meaning in OHG was "protection". So the name itself means "a great/mighty protector". On the Wikipedia I found an interesting piece of information about this name. From the mid 1910s till mid 1930s Irmgard belonged to the top ten of the most popular girls' names in Germany but since the late 1950s you can hardly hear this name in German-speaking countries.

Irmtraud has as its second component -traud-. In OHG is was "trûen", "trûwen" with the meaning "believe", "hope", "trust" (this one is still closely reated to the OHG root). The name's meaning is thus "a big/enormous hope".

As we've already taken the root -hild-, I can't but mention the legendary valkyrie Brunhild from the Nebelungs' Song! There are really many variations of writing this name, depending of the time it was used and the country of origin: Brynhild, Brynhildr, Brunhilda, Brünhild, Brünhilde etc. Speaking about the saga character we can't forget a real historic prototype the Visigothic Merovingian princess Brunhildis. But from the 8th up to the 10th century in the German-speaking area the i in the second syllable of the name Brunhildis influenced the u in the first one so that it took the so called umlaut (u --> ü), it got to Brünhildis.

"Brynhild" (1897) by Gaston Bussière

Brynhild & Buðli, a Faroese stamp

In the OHG the first component was brunia with the meaning "breast plate". As Brynhild was a warrior I think here is meant a part of armour. It's difficult to give the whole meaning of the name, but I believe it is like "a leader of the battle". But I may be wrong.

"Kriemhild's Accusation" (1879) by Emil Lauffer

In the Song of the Nibelungs Brynhild's malicious antagonist was Kriemhild. Her other name in the Völsungasaga was Gudrun. But now we take only the name with -hild. The other variants are Krimhild, Kriemhilde and the older one Grimhild. In the OGH grim- means "mask". So she was "one fighting behind the mask", as we know she wanted to get Sigurd by all means even deceiving him.

For my research I used Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Behind the name.

8 wichtige Momente

Erstens: Wolfram von Eschenbach läßt den Namen des Gralssuchers und Gralskönig Parzival »Schneid' mitten durch« (Percavel: Schneid' gut) bedeuten. Das altprovenzalische Wort Trencavel besagt dasselbe. Wolfram von Eschenbach hat den Carcassonner Vizegrafen Raimund-Roger Trencavel als Parzival besungen!

Zweitens: Trencavels Mutter hieß Adelaide. Sie ist das Vorbild für Wolframs Herzeloyde gewesen. Denn Adelaide war, bevor sie Raimund-Rogers Vater die Hand zum Ehebund reichte, von dem Aragonierkönig Alfonse le Chaste, Alfons dem Keuschen, umworben worden. Dieser König le Chaste muß für Wolframs »König Kastis«, dem verstorbenen Verlobten Herzeloydes, Vorbild gewesen sein!

Drittens: Adelaide und ihr Sohn waren der Ketzerei ergeben. Sie lehnten das Kreuz als Heilszeichen ab. Der Gral war, diese Erkenntnis habe ich gewonnen, das ketzerische Glaubenssymbol! Er ist, wie Wolfram von Eschenbach mehrmals sagt, von Reinen auf Erden gelassen worden. Damit hat er die Katharer gemeint, denn Katharer heißt verdeutscht Reine!

Viertens: Wolfram von Eschenbach nennt den Gralskönig Anfortas, dessen Leiden Parzival beendet, einen »guotman« und »guoten man«. Es wurden die Katharer von ihren Anhängern und Förderern als Gutmänner oder Bonshommes geehrt…!