HeroWars_at_yahoogroups.com writes:
>> I've been looking at old norse words for god and spirit, but old norse
>> dictionaries aren't that easy to find.
>
>I think nature spirits (and just about all spirits in old norse lore are
>nature spirits) were usually called alfr or vettr - AFAICT these terms are
>used interchangeably. But there are already elves in Glorantha, so that
>leaves the vettr (or landvettr). Then we have the disr, protectors of a
>family (probably bloodline in orlanthi terms) that are always female.
While i think Jonas is quite right, i have to quibble a bit about
spelling*. From what i remember of my old norse studies i think the
rendering in english should be something like:
Vetti (sing.), vettar (plur.) (follows the same declination as godi, godar)
Alf (sing.), alfer (plur.)
Dis (sing.), diser (plur.)
>
>It's not entirely clear from the myths, but presumably divine beings of
>lesser stature than the named gods were also thought to exist - in which
>case they would probably have been called aesr, plain and simple.
Aes (sing.; the ae- is not a diphthong BTW), aesir (plur.)
>
>
- While it wasn't uncommon for rune carvers to just denote the plural with
the suffix -r, the actual plural ending in the nominative contained a
vowel or an umlaut as well.