LinguaLab.net (asker) Mar 25, 2009:

Thank you Thank you for alerting me of this book, I have let the author know that the word may not give people the associations she had in mind!

Jytte Crooks Mar 25, 2009:

Himmelmor I have also seen the book on Google - and I agree it is a term the author has invented. But my understanding is that a himmelmor is someone who actually actively helps another person to die - the book is also about the right to give active help to die (the writer is standing over her own mother - who is terminally ill and in a lot of pain - with a pillow in her hands - ready to suffucate her mother, but because she fears that if her mother strugles against it she would not be able to carry it through "Resultatet er en stærk, gribende og særdeles ægte bog om en mors pinefulde død; om retten til at give aktiv dødshjælp og om det enkelte menneskes hjælpeløshed"

David Young (X) Mar 24, 2009:

Himmelmor - an invented word This is not a term my Danish wife is familiar with and the only google hits I get refer to a book with that title on the right to a die in a dignified manner. So it would appear that the authors invented this word (I haven't read the book), maybe as a counterpoint to "Himmelfar" (a.ka. God) and/or jordemor. So I suggest we feel free to invent an English term, e.g. Heavenly Mother, Celestial Mother, Elysian Mother. These could be as a counterpoint to Heavenly Father or Earth Mother, which are both fairly familiar English expressions. I don't know whether they work as a job title, but I don't know whether "God" works as a job title either :)