by Lindvaettr » Fri Apr 26, 2013 4:41 am
I like the story of mine, so sorry if I get to into this.
My last name comes from Old Norse, where it meant that the person had a linden tree growing on their property that had a guardian spirit inside it that would protect the family and their crops and such. I think I remember reading somewhere that the family was also expected to protect the linden tree. Anyway, the guardian spirits were called Vörðr (which is where I got my old username, Vordr, from). We get the words "ward", "warden" and "wraith" from the word "vörðr.
There were also other spirits, called Vættir, that lived in the roots of the linden tree. They didn't only live in the roots of linden trees. They were just spirits, or wights, and included your standard nature spirits (sea spirits, etc.), and also elfs (Álfar), dwarfs (Dvergar), giants (Jötnar), and the gods (Æsir and Vanir).
Anyway, that's a digression. Lindvaettir is a semi-madeup Old Norse word for "Linden Spirits" (I'll get to that), which I made up because I didn't like Vordr.
Interesting fact: Lindvaettir is actually plural because I made a mistake.. I keep meaning to make HarpingCarp change it, but I haven't gotten around it it. It should be Lindvaettr.