Tag: linguistics
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Concerning ‘Red Gold’
When you look at gold, what color do you see? Probably some shade of yellow. Why, then, do Old Norse texts often mention ‘red gold’? Is it different from normal gold? If so, what is it? I was asked this question on Tumblr recently, so I took a moment to dig up an answer. Here’s…
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How Old is Written Language in Scandinavia?
Anonymous asked: how old is written language in scandinavia? a stuck up English teacher was acting like beowulf was the absolute first written literature from that entire region and that sounds super wrong to me I was hoping you’d know First of all, the date for the origin of Beowulf (as an Old English poem) is a hot…
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Old Norse Words for Warriors
ajax-odinson asked: Hey Fjorn! I love your work here. I’m curious about the Old Norse word for “warrior.” It seems there might be some debate between words like “drengr” and “rekkr” and others. Going along with this, what about the word for “army” or “war-band?” I have found “herlidh” and “hirdh” but I am unsure. Thank…
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Thoughts on Old Norse Words Ergi/Argr
Anonymous asked: thank you so much for the help! Do you think one can identify as ergi/argr as a gender? I know you said it was used as an insult but to reclaim it and use it as your own. Anyway I would love to hear more about your thoughts and views on things, if…
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More on Old Norse Orthography: Ö vs Ǫ
neonsuntan replied to your post: “How far should we go to preserve old Norse Orthography? Most…” Should we use ö, o, or ǫ for the first vowel in Voluspa? Also many of the original texts used an “av” ligature that simply isn’t supported in many fonts. (It’s Latin extended-d A739). Concerning ‘ǫ’ and ‘ö’: The ‘ǫ’ spelling is what…
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Old Norse Orthography
Anonymous asked: How far should we go to preserve old Norse Orthography? Most parallel translations use standardised letters but are we losing anything in not keeping all the quirks of the original? This is a beautiful question, so thank you for asking it. I find this to be a very interesting aspect of translation to discuss,…
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Language in Medieval Iceland
“There was a man named Thorarin who lived at Sunnudale. He was an old man with failing eyesight. He had been a fierce viking in his youth and though he was now old he was still not easy to deal with.” (Þorsteins þáttr stangarhöggs – Miller, 52.) They called their language the Dönsk Tunga, the Danish Tongue.…
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Learning Old Norse and Old English
noahandhisdragons asked: Just started following your blog here, truly wonderfully packed full kernels of knowledge. I am interested in learning old Norse as well as Old English. Any suggestions on best approaches (books, etc) to learn it on my own? I welcome you to my blog then! I am glad to know that you are satisfied…
