[WikiEN-l] Citing Wikipedia within Wikipedia

Sun Jul 31 01:49:56 UTC 2005

Hi, list :)

So, here I am writing an article on a creature
from [[Norse mythology]], the primeval cow
[[Auðumbla]]. I start with quoting the relevant
primary source and then I say a few things
about the creature's name and its possible
anglicization. Often I call it quits at this
point and go to the next article but this time
I was interested in writing about parallels to
the primeval cow in other mythologies.

So I read up on Zoroastrian mythology, find a
scholarly article, a relevant primary source
in translation and I'm good to go.

But I also want to say a few words about [[Hathor]],
an Egyptian cow goddess. Unfortunately I'm far from
being an expert on Egyptian mythology and don't
have the knowledge to use the primary sources.
So I rely on secondary and tertiary sources. I fish
around a bit on the Internet but don't find anything
that looks especially reliable. The Wikipedia article
looks okay and has the information I want to use but
unfortunately it doesn't have any references listed.

So, I decide to, honestly, cite the Wikipedia article
on Hathor as my reference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au%C3%B0umbla

Is this a faux pas? I don't see anyone else doing this.

- - -

Here's another Norse mythology article; [[Lofn]]. This
time I quoted the most important primary source, mentioned
the others, cited my four references and I was out. A short
article for a minor character about whom very little can be
said.

Today I noticed someone added a link to the Greek Wikipedia
article on Lofn. Out of curiosity I took a look. Apparently
someone basically translated my English article. I'm fine
with that, of course. Happy, in fact. What bothers me a bit
is that all the references are simply omitted.

You could argue that it wouldn't be appropriate for the Greek
article to translate the reference section since those probably
aren't the references the translator is working from. I'm fine
with that. But shouldn't the English Wikipedia be cited as
a reference? And shouldn't direct quotes, like the Old Norse
text in this article, be sourced to their origin?

So, what do you reference pedants have to say
about all this? :)

Regards,
Haukur