Njörðr

Devotions for the Wisest Negotiator, Aesir's hostage, Father of Freyja and Freyr.

[dame-de-pique]

Unknown Photographer - Untitled (Woman by the Water’s Edge), 1915

[rabbitsmoontarot]

A healthy sense of wonder needs nurturing. The reward is great. 

illustration: Little Drops Of Water by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1910

[earth-witch]

[thepaganstudygrouppage]

Do you know if there's any legitimacy to the idea that Nerthus might have been Nehalennia and was eventually turned into Njord?

Hello!

I do not know. Maybe one of our new mods can pitch in here or one of our followers!

Shelby-Melissa

I poked around GLE’s blog and found some things. He (GLE) acknowledged that there’s speculation about this, but not quite in the same format:

(There is some speculation that Nehellenia and Nerthus are the same, but then there is also a lot of arguing about whether Nerthus and Njord are the same and that the masculine form and name was simply what stuck around. We don’t know that for certain either.)

He also says that Nerthus is the feminine form of the name Njord. There’s also uncertainty on whether she should be grouped with Norse deities at all, and where she fits if so. 

This idea isn’t a foreign one, for sure. It’s just can’t be proven or disproven with the information available right now. 

– Crow

[thorraborinn]

Just to be clear, the actual words Nerthus and Njǫrðr are not female and male equivalents, they are literally the same name (with about a thousand years of regular sound change between them).

Nerthus is believed to represent Germanic *Nerþuz. The progression is something like:

*Nerþuz > *Nerþuʀ

*Nerþuʀ > *Nerðuʀ (intervocalic voicing)

*Nerðuʀ > *Njǫrðuʀ (breaking)

*Njǫrðuʀ > *Njǫrðʀ (syncope of short unaccented vocals)

*Njǫrðʀ > Njǫrðr (rhotacism)

The only way to determine grammatical gender from the name in the spoken language(s) would be by the declension of adjectives and pronouns attached to it.

This is known as a u-stem (because of the ending *-uʀ). Feminine u-stems are very rare in Old Norse (that is, a thousand years after Tacitus’ mention of Nerthus) and all of them with one exception (hǫnd ‘hand’) became some other declension. However from comparative evidence we know there were once more.

[simena]

Richard Dey De Ribcowsky

[isuoiocchidentroilmare]

[isuoiocchidentroilmare]

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[riverbambi]

[urbanbeardsman]

Old farmer who lived on the south coast of Iceland , Breathtaking Photograph by  Ragnar Axelsson (RAX), via tocamelot

[woodbecca]

I love this photo so much

[williamcrisafi]

Me

[mymodernmet]

Find the Girls on the Negatives: Searching for the Origins of Stunning Photos Found in a Thrift Store

[wondrousworld]

Reine, Lofoten Islands, Norway by Vadim Balakin

[arsantiquis]

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Victory Returning from Trafalgar inThree Positions

[deprosasversosyotrasironias-blog]

By hblack

[atlasobscura]

Amazing photos from 8 of the World's Loneliest Lighthouses

Ah, the lonely life of the lighthouse keeper. In the heyday of sailing, long before automated beacons steered ships away from treacherous shores, brave men...

[thisnormallife]

cape kiwanda, or | sept 21st |

©thisnormallife

[whiskandwhittle]

[nahla73-deactivated20151221]

[victoriansolstice]

19th Century French Globe

[seafolklore]

shells by j4nf1