Ankou. This article is about the personification.
For the ingredient, see red bean paste. Background[edit] This character is reported by Anatole Le Braz, writer and legends collector of the 19th century. Here is what he wrote about the Ankou in his best-seller "The Legend of Death": The Ankou is the henchman of Death (oberour ar maro) and he is also known as the grave yard watcher, they said that he protects the graveyard and the souls around it for some unknown reason and he collects the lost souls on his land.
. - War ma fé, heman zo eun Anko drouk. There are many tales involving Ankou, who appears as a man or skeleton wearing a cloak and wielding a scythe and in some stories he is described as a shadow that looks like a man with an old hat and a scythe, often atop a cart for collecting the dead. One tale[citation needed] says that there were three drunk friends walking home one night, when they came across an old man on a rickety cart.
Appearance in subcultures[edit] In popular culture[edit] Cichol Gricenchos. Death (personification) A Western depiction of Death as a skeleton carrying a scythe In some cases, the Grim Reaper can actually cause the victim's death,[2] leading to tales that he can be bribed, tricked, or outwitted in order to retain one's life, such as in the case of Sisyphus.
Donn. Freyja. Hel (being) In the Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, and Heimskringla, Hel is referred to as a daughter of Loki and Angrboða, and to "go to Hel" is to die.
In the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Hel is described as having been appointed by the god Odin as ruler of a realm of the same name, located in Niflheim. In the same source, her appearance is described as half black and half white flesh-coloured and further as having a gloomy, downcast appearance. The Prose Edda details that Hel rules over vast mansions with many servants in her underworld realm and plays a key role in the attempted resurrection of the god Baldr. Scholarly theories have been proposed about Hel's potential connections to figures appearing in the 11th century Old English Gospel of Nicodemus and Old Norse Bartholomeus saga postola, potential Indo-European parallels to Bhavani, Kali, and Mahakali, and her origins.
The Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, features various poems that mention Hel. Māra. Māra is the highest-ranking goddess in Latvian mythology, Mother Earth,[1] a feminine counterpart to Dievs (God).
She may be thought as the alternate side of Dievs (like in Yin and Yang). Other Latvian goddesses, sometimes all of them, are considered her assistants, or alternate aspects. Māra may have been also the same goddess as Lopu māte, Piena Māte (Mother of the Milk), Veļu Māte (mother of the souls/spirits), Zemes Māte (Mother of the Earth), and many other "mothers", like of Wood, Water, Sea, Wind. Māra is also depicted in Latvian mythology as the goddess of good fortune.
She is the patroness of all feminine duties (children, cattle), patroness of all the economic activities ("God made the table, Māra made the bread"), even money and markets. In western Latvia, and to a lesser degree in the rest of Latvia, she was strongly associated with Laima, and may have been considered the same deity. The festival Māras was held in her honor every August 15.
References[edit] See also[edit] Marzanna. Effigy of Morana (Death Goddess).
Czech Republic. Morana. Poland. Odin. Etymology[edit] Odin's name is formed from "óðr" and the suffix "-inn".
Old Norse had two different words spelled óðr, one an adjective and the other a noun. The adjective means "mad, frantic, furious, violent",[3] and is cognate with Old English wōd (hence the anglo-saxon Wōden).[4] The noun means "mind, wit, soul, sense" and "song, poetry".[5] Origin[edit] The 7th century Tängelgarda stone shows Odin leading a troop of warriors all bearing rings; Valknut symbols are drawn beneath his horse, which is depicted with four legs.
Tuoni.