Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 13:55:14 -0400
From: Alex Feinman <afeinman@job.cs.brandeis.edu>
To: Carolingia Mailing List <carolingia@bloom-beacon.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: Heraldic help needed
Message-Id: <19990428135513.C6719@job.cs.brandeis.edu>
References: <3.0.32.19990428130238.006b10f4@po8.mit.edu> <Pine.OSF.3.96.990428131103.14132D-100000@emerald.tufts.edu>
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In-Reply-To: <Pine.OSF.3.96.990428131103.14132D-100000@emerald.tufts.edu>; from Jennifer McCabe on Wed, Apr 28, 1999 at 01:25:44PM -0400

Jennifer McCabe wrote:
> More Importantly:
> In Norse Mythology, Mitgaard = Earth, Asgaard = abode of the gods and of
> Valhalla where heros go (aka heaven); and I think Utgaard (possibly some
> other -gaard) = the nether realms (Hel's domain -goddess of the non-heroic
> dead).

Mitgaard is more commonly spelled Midgard, making (IMHO) the MIT pun a
bit more strained, but no less memorable. Hel's domain is often called
simply 'Hel'; I've not heard of Utgaard.

Norse mythology is rather fun in that there are multiple "Hell"s: Hel,
where dead souls go; Niflheim, a place to freeze to death very slowly;
Svartalfheim, a place to be buried alive; Muspelheim, a place to go to
burn to death...sense a pattern?

(the other realms: Vanaheim, Alfheim, Jotunheim, Nidavellir...)

> Notice: even the MITgaardian treasurer spells the name with MIT in
> capitals- not just the M. :)

We're all computer geeks to whom make and Make are *very* different; I
see MITgaard and Mitgaard as barely the same word. ;-)

> (Sorry, Marcus: you pushed my Mythology Button.:) 

And here as well...

A nice page on this is:
	http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~cherryne/mythology.html
(and of course, for all things mythological, see:
	http://pubpages.unh.edu/~cbsiren/myth.html)

Alexander the Landless
(another Alex heard from...)