Editing Baldr (section)

==Name==
The [[Old Norse]] [[theonym]] ''Baldr'' ('brave, defiant'; also 'lord, prince') and its various Germanic cognates – including [[Old English]] ''Bældæg'' and [[Old High German]] ''Balder'' (or ''Palter'') – probably stems from [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] ''*Balðraz'' ('Hero, Prince'; cf. Old Norse ''mann-baldr'' 'great man', Old English ''bealdor'' 'prince, hero'), itself a [[Morphological derivation|derivative]] of ''*balþaz'', meaning 'brave' (cf. Old Norse ''ballr'' 'hard, stubborn', [[Gothic language|Gothic]] ''balþa*'' 'bold, frank', Old English ''beald'' 'bold, brave, confident', Old Saxon ''bald'' 'valiant, bold', Old High German ''bald'' 'brave, courageous').{{Sfn|de Vries|1962|p=24}}{{Sfn|Orel|2003|p=|pp=33–34}}

This etymology was originally proposed by [[Jacob Grimm]] (1835),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grimm |first=Jacob |title=Teutonic Mythology |date=2004 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-43546-6 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=I2WhHX2peKEC&pg=PA220 220] |language=en |orig-year=1835}}</ref> who also speculated on a comparison with the [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] ''báltas'' ('white', also the name of a light-god) based on the semantic development from 'white' to 'shining' then 'strong'.{{Sfn|de Vries|1962|p=24}}{{Sfn|Orel|2003|p=|pp=33–34}} According to linguist [[Vladimir Orel]], this could be linguistically tenable.{{Sfn|Orel|2003|p=|pp=33–34}} Philologist [[Rudolf Simek]] also argues that the Old English ''Bældæg'' should be interpreted as meaning 'shining day', from a Proto-Germanic root *''bēl''- (cf. Old English ''bæl'', Old Norse ''bál'' 'fire'){{Sfn|Kroonen|2013|p=57}} attached to ''dæg'' ('day').{{Sfn|Simek|1996|p=26}}

Old Norse also shows the usage of the word as an honorific in a few cases, as in ''baldur î brynju'' ([[Saemundar Edda|Sæm.]] 272b) and ''herbaldr'' (Sæm. 218b), in general epithets of heroes. In continental Saxon and Anglo-Saxon tradition, the son of [[Odin|Woden]] is called not ''Bealdor'' but ''Baldag'' (Saxon) and ''[[Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies#Wessex and Bernicia|Bældæg, Beldeg]]'' (Anglo-Saxon), which shows association with "day", possibly with [[Dagr|Day]] personified as a deity. This, as Grimm points out, would agree with the meaning "shining one, white one, a god" derived from the meaning of Baltic ''baltas'', further adducing Slavic ''[[Belobog]]'' and German ''[[Berhta]]''.<ref>"''Bæl-dæg'' itself is white-god, light-god, he that shines as sky and light and day, the kindly ''Bièlbôgh, Bèlbôgh'' of the Slav system. It is in perfect accord with this explanation of ''Bæl-dæg'', that the Anglo-Saxon tale of ancestry assigns to him a son Brond, of whom the Edda is silent, ''brond, brand'', ON. ''brandr'' (fire brand or blade of a sword), signifying ''jubar, fax, titio''. Bældæg therefore, as regards his name, would agree with ''Berhta'', the bright goddess.</ref>