Buri (mythology)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Audhumla licks Buri out of the frosted, salty stone. From an Icelandic manuscript from the 18th century.

Buri , old Norse Búri , is the progenitor of the gods in Norse mythology .

Buri is only mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda . According to this, the cow Audhumla licked him within three days from a salty stone with frost on the surface. On the first day she pulled out Buri's hair with her tongue, on the second the head and on the third the rest of the body. Buri is described as a male being who was beautiful, tall, and strong. He fathered a son named Burr , who took Bestla , the daughter of the frost giant Bölthorn , as his wife. Their sons were Odin , Vili and Vé - the first gods.

Like the name of his son Burr, the name Búri is derived from the ancient Germanic * buriz “son, born”. So both names basically mean the same thing. In research, Buri's name is translated as “producer, father” and, accordingly, Burr as “father, son” - probably because of the succession of generations. How he begat his son is not explained; either by itself or by way of sexual reproduction.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Prose Edda, Gylfaginning 6
  2. ↑ Original Germanic * buri- is reconstructed from Gothic baur 'Geborener', Old English byre 'son, youth' and Old Norse burr 'son', see Robert Nedoma: Old Germanic anthroponyms. In: Dieter Geuenich , Wolfgang Haubrichs , Jörg Jarnut (Eds.): Supplementary volume No. 32 to the Real Lexicon of Germanic Antiquity - Person and Name. 2nd Edition. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin - New York 2001, p. 111.
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Meid : The Germanic religion in the testimony of language. In: Heinrich Beck, Detlev Ellmers, Kurt Schier (eds.): Germanic Religious History - Sources and Source Problems - Supplementary Volume No. 5 to the Real Lexicon of Germanic Antiquity. 2nd Edition. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin - New York 1999, ISBN 978-3-11-012872-7 , p. 495. Online.
  4. ↑ Jan de Vries : Old Germanic Religious History - Vol. 2: Religion of the North Germanic . Verlag Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin / Leipzig 1937, p. 395.
  5. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , p. 64.
  6. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , p. 64 does not decide on one of the two possibilities - John Lindow: Handbook of Norse Mythology. USA 2001, ISBN 1-57607-217-7 , p. 90 says that most of the research is based on sexual reproduction, without giving any reason.