My understanding in the dream was that this was some sort of assembly or parliament convened by a person called Jeff. Upon waking, I thought gorming might come from the same root as gormless, the first morpheme of which comes from a word meaning “notice, understanding.” Gorm is also a verb with various meanings, ranging from “stare” to “smear” to “devour” to “make a mess of.”
No idea who Jeff might be.
14 comments:
The fathers of both my best friend in high school and my first boyfriend were named Jeff or Geoff (spellings uncertain to me), and a more recent mate bears that latter name, though he tends to go by "Jaffa", the same as a local confectionery. Mentioning this in case a J/G swap could help.
The name Jeffrey means God's Peace, but since the book just mentions Jeff, it could indicate just to take the first part of that name, which would simply mean God.
The fact that the history book said that it was first called a Gorming but then mentions this would afterward be known as the "First Gorming", suggests there would end up being more than one such Gorming, whatever that turns out to be.
Gorm also means "fool" or a stupid, person or wanting sense/ crazy and thus the act of gorm-ing could be a reference to being turned into or becoming a fool.
A few very different ways you could go with this, but one is that of God becoming a fool or stupid person (on purpose) is what we see in various stories. Michael in the LDS Temple drama was born as a Man after creating the world, and forgot everything in the process of doing so. He became stupid, in other words - Gormed.
Jesus would be another example, obviously. The angel showed Nephi the "Condescension of God" in which Jesus was born as a Man, and like Michael, forgot everything in the process, becoming a fool or an ignorant person.
I don't know if this is a good take or not, so just throwing it out there. As you say, it all depends on what Jeff means and what the ambiguous title of Gorming implies (e.g., was Jeff gormed, did Jeff do the gorming, was the reference to multiple gormings implying multiple to Jeff or just that Jeff was the first one to have such a gorming, etc.).
The connection to Michael might not be such a bad idea, in thinking of it.
You mention the dream in the context of an assembly. Joseph Smith's writings are unique in stating that Michael presided over an assembly at the very beginning, and this was a first assembly that would be repeated at the end of time, in which Michael's family would be reunited back together at the same spot in which their initial gathering took place - Adam-ondi-Ahman.
There is no Gorm in Elvish, but there is Gor, and the choice of Gorming in your book may have been an attempt to include a double meaning reference to that language.
Gor has a few meanings, one of which actually has to do with assembly or gathering together in the style I am referring to ("all together, every, each"). Importantly, though, is that is word is also a direct reference to Michael in my interpretation, who I have called Gim Goru.
Again, we'd have to imagine that the "m" was added as a connector for "-ing" that then also allowed us to use Gorm from the English language. I'm not sure if that is valid, but given that a Book is what is on my mind and that the Book is a history book dealing with a lot of things, including what happened at the very beginning of this creation (and before), it seemed like a plausible read to think through.
And if Jeff does turn out to mean God on one level, then the Michael-Adam reference would also be on target. Brigham Young had his (in)famous Adam-God doctrine, which, as Daymon noted in his own writings, was likely based on at least some true things he learned or picked up from Joseph.
Jeff as God was my first thought as well. After all, it’s basically the Tetragrammaton.
https://narrowdesert.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-spanish-tetragrammaton.html
One of the assumptions behind those “Gim G” names was that word-initial G can be lost, as when Gim Githil became Inwithiel. Dropping the G and looking up “orm” on Eldamo led me to “ormagod” (punningly appropriate if Jeff is “a god”), defined as “a (Spanish) chestnut.” The chestnut is (in JS Sr.‘s version of the vision) the fruit of the Tree of Life, which ties in with your “condescension of God” reference.
Gorming also reminded me of Glamgornigus, the name of an imprisoned god in The Tinleys. Searching my blog for that name brought up only one post, and that post also mentions an Elvish word for chestnuts!
https://narrowdesert.blogspot.com/2024/05/hometo-omleto.html
When I googled "gorm name meaning", I got the following:
The name Gorm, often associated with the Viking era, has two main meanings. Firstly, it can refer to "he who worships God" and is derived from Old Norse Guðþormr ("God's hammer"). Alternatively, it can mean "blue" in Irish and Scottish Gaelic.
https://tinyurl.com/rsztahun
The j-e link between Jeff and Jesus intrigues me.
Staying on this line of thinking with the Gim G's, it is actually the very concept of the Condescension of God that helped me imagine Pharazon as Gim Githil when I started working through that story.
The Book of Mormon says that Jesus took upon himself the sicknesses of his people so that he could learn how to succor them, and I've imagined his apostles and servants doing the same. And not just becoming pretend sick.
The Numenoreans were really sick long before Pharazon came on the scene. I had imagined Gim Githil taking on himself their sickness, just like it seems many of these other Fathers did, and becoming Pharazon.
That story would would seemingly link "Gorming" as a reference to becoming a Fool to those books you posted a few days ago titled "The Golden Fool" and "Fool's Gold". Both seemed to me as symbolic references to Pharazon, at one level at least.
And going back to your posts you linked, you have Jefe as "Chief, Boss, Head", etc., which again would be a direct hit for Gim Githil, since Ingwe's name means "Chief", and we had that lesson driven home with Roman Reigns.
If I was still working on that storyline, I would say this would be an extremely strong link or hit as to the identify of "Jeff" being associated with Gim Githil/ Ingwe in some way. The riddle's solution would have made a lot of sense.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Gorming is at hand.
It is interesting that you conceptually and linguistically tie "Revelation" with the Second Gorming/ Coming.
In Daymon's Cultural History, which I know you've read, he repeatedly referred to Ether 4:7, and the phrase which Jesus spoke about people exercising faith in him like the Brother of Jared. Once they would do this, Jesus would "manifest unto them the things which the Brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them of all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ".
He goes on to give his own definition of revelations meaning not something received from or by something, but revelations in this instance being all of the events where Jesus condescends and reveals himself to Men:
"In the fifth volume I give my interpretation of that phrase, 'all my revelations', but I can summarize it as: all the epiphanies where Jesus revealed himself to beings residing on Earth."
A revelation as a "gorming".
Bill, how in the world did you pull that rabbit out of the hat? Are you re-reading it or did you just spontaneously make that connection from something you read years ago?
I was quoting (slightly modified) Yeats. The falconry imagery with which that poem opens is interesting in light of Daymon’s books.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming
Thanks for clarifying - pretty much assume any poetry quotation/ joke is going to be lost on me.
Daymon was/ is also fond of poetry, and would integrate it liberally into his Cultural History. He used Yeats' "Happy Townland" in his final volume, in connection with some of his thoughts and assumptions regarding the work of John
Leo - I haven't read the Cultural History for several years. I just had a memory of Daymon writing about that when I saw William's apparent Yeats modification, and then did a search on my kindle version of those books to find the quote.
Post a Comment