BRAGUR, or BRAGA, an Asa, the god of poetry and musical declamation. At the banquets of Valhalla, he chaunts to the sound of his harp the praises of the gods and Einherier, and celebrates in high-flown language their virtues and warlike deeds. He is the husband of Iduna. He is called by the poets of the north, Bragur hin gamle (Bragur the ancient). Etym.: Icelandic verb bragga (to adorn, to embellish). Our English word to brag comes probably from the same root.
BREIDABLIK, name of the palace of Balder, in Asagard; it is tiled with pearls! Etym.: breid (broad, extended), blik (view).
BURE, father of Bor, and progenitor of the Asar race: his production, effectuated by the cow Audumbla, has been already related in the translator’s preface. Bure in Icelandic has the same meaning as Bör, i.e. son. Both the words come probably from the Hebrew or Zend, and mean the same thing, viz. origin or beginning.
DAG (day), the son of Delling.
DELLING, name of the father of Dag (day); the word means division.
DISA, pl. DISAR; name given to the Asynior, or goddesses. This word is evidently of Persian origin.
DISARSAL (hall of the Disar), name often given to the palace of Vingolf, the peculiar place of reunion for the goddesses in Asagard.
DOVRE, name of a chain of mountains in Norway, which seems to bear the same relation to Asagard as the natural mount Olympus in Greece bears to the mythological one.
DRAPA means funeral dirge, or song of the apotheosis. In it were celebrated the funeral ceremonies of a deceased hero, his glorious actions recapitulated, and his elevation to the rank of an Einherier and admission into Valhalla triumphantly announced. The English word dirge comes, perhaps, from the Icelandic and Swedish verb dyrka (to adore).
DRUPNER, name of a magic ring fabricated for Odin by the dwarfs, at the command of Asa-Lok. This ring had the faculty of dropping eight other rings on every ninth night: by this is typified the change of the moon and its phases. When Odin placed the ring Drupner on the bosom of his son Balder, when he laid his corpse upon the funeral pile, he whispered a secret in his ear. This may allude to the promise of resurrection, but none knew the secret, save Odin himself. The placing of the ring Drupner (the moon) on the bosom of Balder (the sun) may typify the eclipse of the sun by the moon intervening. Etym.: from the Icelandic verb driupa (to drop, or distil).