medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Salutations!
"Trustworthy" is an excellent description of a
guardian angel. The idea that the guardian can be
trusted is rooted in the description of the angels as
"bodiless" and there unable to change their minds.
Unlike us, who can repent (beacuae we have a body),
the angels can neither repent nor sin by turning on
God after they have decided to either rebel against
him or remain loyal. Therefore, we can rely on our
guardian angel to not suddenly "switch sides" as it
were, and lead us down the primrose path by lying to
us after having gained our trust.
Stephen
--- "Cormack, Margaret Jean" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval
> religion and culture
>
>
> Greetings all,
> I´m trying to find a good english translation for an
> Icelandic word
> "hallkvæmur" used in the context of "My hallkvæmur
> guardian angel, Michael".
> The dictionaries say it means something like
> "useful, reliable"; even
> if I change that to "trustworthy" of the like I
> don´t find the term really suitable to
> the dignity of a guardian angel. Etymologically the
> word appears to be
> a composite of elements meaning "hold" and "come";
> I´m wondering if this
> is a loan translation of some very obvious Latin
> word that I´m missing?
> Or are there standard epithets that go with Michael
> that might fit the
> general meaning?
> Thanks,
> Meg
>
>
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