Talk:Sonargöltr

Boar Bristle

Excuse my ignorance of all things boar, I did a google image search of "boar bristle" and came up with endless pages of human hair brushes. There were 3 pictures of wild boars. Are boar bristles simply the hair of a boar, or are boar bristles somehow different from normal boar hair? Are bristles in a certain place on the boar, like on the head or face? Or all over the body? Are bristles very stiff and strong like whiskers? Would it be uncomfortable to "lay hands on" boar bristle, maybe even drawing blood perhaps, thus giving the ceremony some significance of pain that makes it more memorable, and shows a strong commitment? Green Cardamom (talk) 19:44, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Fair question; all I really know personally is that the Old Norse sources, both on this and on Gullinbursti, say "bristles". But I do find in our own wild boar article: "The body of the wild boar is compact; the head is large, the legs relatively short. The fur consists of stiff bristles and usually finer fur." That tends to reinforce my hunch that the bristles cover all or most of the body, in the manner of guard hairs, with a softer undercoat perhaps being the only hair on the belly and such . . . so they're not like the vibrissæ on a cat, they're the dominant part of the coat. But there are no mentions of getting stuck and feeling pain in the texts, so either everybody was impervious—viking-style fortitude plus strong drink—or it's like a porcupine or a hedgehog; touched in a certain direction the spikes don't stick you. One scholar suggests they did divination by dipping the spines in the blood; the hlautteinar mentioned in a couple of accounts of blót seem to have been used in that way, although the accounts describe them as like an aspergill, so it's plausible that they would have done that with the bristles, too. But that was post-slaughter. Anyway, there are some thoughts, a naturalist may have a better answer. Yngvadottir (talk) 21:06, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Being Scandinavian I am familiar with the expression of pig's bristles (Danish: svinebørster, or just børster). Bristles of the pig/swine/boar is the long and stiff upper hair of the fur, covering especially the back of the animal, and mostly used for brooms, (tooth) brushes (sic) etc. It would also have been an important part of the combined ressources of the animal for the same reasons in earlier ages, both when alive and slaughtered. The bristles are quite coarse, but not so stiff that you might pinch yourself on them, not seriously that is. Anyone who has padded a pig has experienced the tickling hairs;) Rather the quote should be understood as another way of saying: 'They laid their hands on (the back of) the animal and swore an oath'. Though please also note, that Frey rode Gullinbursti, which is an enourmous boar, whose name literaly means 'Golden bristles' - referring to the properties of its glowing bristles. Perhaps to the pagans, there was something specific special or divine about the fur (bristles) or skin of the boar? Nikhave — Preceding undated comment added 19:28, 17 December 2014 (UTC)