2 thoughts on “heaðu-rōf”

  1. heaðu-rōf is another word that rings Welsh bells for me. I’m only guessing though… ‘haeddu’ is ‘worthy’ and rhyfel is ‘war’ or ‘battle’. I would be interested to know if the connection is a real one.

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  2. Thanks for sharing! The prefix heaðu- means ‘war’ or ‘battle’. It’s hathu- in Old Saxon and Old High German, and it is also related to the Old Norse god Höðr, the blind god who was tricked into shooting his brother Baldr with the deadly mistletoe arrow. The association of the blind god with warfare seems rather incongruous to some scholars (see Wikipedia article, scroll down to Skaldic poetry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B6%C3%B0r). The origin of rōf is unknown, but the Old English word means ‘strong, brave’ or ‘famous, noble’. It’s the same word in Old Saxon. So there doesn’t seem to be a connection here with, haeddu and rōf relating to worthiness, rhyfel and heaðu to war.

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