Linguaphile wrote:As far as I can tell, it's not Tibetan, it's.... English! And Icelandic.
Huhhhh, that's really interesting! I mean, I did at first find "Nordic" stuff when googling for it myself (and knew about Icelandic placenames with jökull in them from watching travel shows, etc. but didn't know what it meant) but ignored all of that since I thought it couldn't possibly be related, but I guess I shouldn't have assumed that it'd be a Tibetan word. It's just that Tibetan words are so often used untranslated in contexts of Tibet-related stuff that I figured it had to be a Tibetan word...
Linguaphile wrote:sounds as though it can be used for mountains permanently covered in snow and ice that occur in other locations
So it's that typical English extension, then. Hmm.
Linguaphile wrote:It makes sense, and I think they didn't explain what it means because they were using it as an English word and perhaps assuming people would know it. (My suspicion: English-speakers who are more familiar with the geography of permanently snowy mountains do know the word.)
That's probably true, thanks.
Linguaphile wrote:(Although from what I can figure out, they've misunderstood the etymology somewhat; jökull means "glacier" or "ice cap", not "icicle".)
Apparently Old Norse jǫkull could also mean "icicle".
Linguaphile wrote:If I am right about this, then "a white Jokul God without flesh and blood" would mean a snowy mountain god - it is white because it is covered in snow and it is "without flesh and blood" because it takes the form of a mountain rather than a human form.
Ooh, that makes sense too.
Linguaphile wrote:Maybe in Tibet it has some other meaning or origin, but... the fact is that I did find jokul meaning a mountain that is always covered in ice and snow, from jökull (glacier, ice cap) in Icelandic, and Tibet does have that type of geography (mountains always capped with ice and snow). You also found many references to snow-capped mountains. I think that's right on, but again, it's English-from-Icelandic, not Tibetan. I think that meaning fits all of the contexts you provided so it is probably what is meant.
Yeah, thanks! It's kinda funny (and embarrassing?) because it sounds kinda like a Tibetan word in the English form at least to me, but then again, if I had first encountered in a non-Tibetan context I wouldn't have thought that, so... I don't know if this is evidence of some kind of subconscious racism against Tibetans, but I hope not... it's just, like I already said, I've noticed that in Tibet-related contexts Tibetan words are often used untranslated and sometimes unexplained, so I didn't think it wouldn't be like that in this case.