Old Language: OLD NORSE
Indo-European > Germanic > North Germanic > Old Norse
Few old languages excite the imagination as much as Old Norse. To think of Old Norse is to conjur up images of marauding Vikings braving the waves in longships, performing epic sagas by firelight, carving tales of Gods and Giants into mystical runes. Old Norse represented the northern branch of Germanic, and was divided into two varieties, East Norse and West Norse, the latter often being called Old Icelandic. These forms were the parent dialects of today's modern Scaninavian languages.
Few old languages excite the imagination as much as Old Norse. To think of Old Norse is to conjur up images of marauding Vikings braving the waves in longships, performing epic sagas by firelight, carving tales of Gods and Giants into mystical runes. Old Norse represented the northern branch of Germanic, and was divided into two varieties, East Norse and West Norse, the latter often being called Old Icelandic. These forms were the parent dialects of today's modern Scaninavian languages.
Old Norse is credited with some of the earliest inscriptions in any Germanic language, even Gothic, written in the runic script or 'elder futhark', an alphabet common among many Germanic languages (including Old English). Norse poetry and heroic literature is among the most celebrated of the early Middle Ages. Norwegian skaldic poets performed in the halls of kings and lords, and their style was 'more ornate and more melodious' than most other Germanic poetry (Gordon, p.xxxix).
The Viking expansions of the eight to eleventh centuries brought Norse into contact with many other languages. In Normandy it influenced the local variety of French, introducing such words as 'vague' (cf mod. Swedish våg); in Russia, many words and names have Varangian origins (such as 'grad' (cf Old Swedish garðr). No language was more influenced by Norse than English. The Danes settled in England in great numbers, particularly in the north and east (the old 'Danelaw'), as is evident in the many northern place-names that end in '-by', and surnames that end in '-son'. The Lakeland 'Fells' are of Norse origin (cf Old icelandic fjall). Even at this point of contact, however, Old Norse still enjoyed a degree of mutual intelligibility with Old English and other similar Germanic languages.
The East/West division became much greater during the later Middle Ages. Danish and Swedish (as well as the Gotland dialect Old Gutnish) came under the increasing influence of Low German, while the isolated Icelanders retained many of the phonological and grammatical features of Old Norse (such as the dental fricatives þ and ð). The thirteenth century scholar and poet Snorri Sturluson has left some incredible works detailing the lives and mythologies of the Old Norsemen, including the prose Edda, the Heimskringla, and (possibly) Egil's Saga.
examples of old norse
Þat er upphaf þessa máls, at Oku-þórr fór með hafra sína ok reið, ok með honum sá Áss er Loki heitir. Koma þeir at kveldi tile ins bónda ok fá þar náttstað. En um kveldit tók Þórr hafra sína ok skar báða; eptir þat váru þeir flegnir ok bornir til ketils. En er soðit var, þá settisk Þórr til náttverðar ok þeir lagsmenn. Þórr bauð til matar með sér bóndanum ok konu hans ok bornum þeira; sonr bónda hét Þjálfi, en Roskva dóttir. .
From Snorri’s ‘Edda’: ‘Þór & Útgarða-Loki’, c. 13th C (West Norse/Old Icelandic).
Þá mællti Haraldr Ænghla konongr viðr Norðmenn þá er með hanum varó, ‘Kenndo þér þenn hinn myckla meðr þæim blá kyrtli oc hin faghra hialm, er þer skaut sér af hestinum frem?’ Þæir svaraðo, ‘Kennom vér; þet var Norðmanna konongr,’ Þá mællti Ænghla konongr, ‘Mikill maðr oc hofðinghleghr er hann, oc hitt er nú venna at farinn sé at hamingiu.’.
From ‘Fagrskinna: the Battle of Stamford Bridge, 1066’, c.1250 (West Norse/Old Norwegian).
A tīonda āre hans konungx rīke, thæn gamble ōwinin vekte vp ā mōt hānom ēn man som hæt Magnus, konungxins son aff Danmark, som ā sit mødherne ātte konunger at vara ā mōt laghum, som forbiūdha at ūtlænningia sculu rādha.
From The Life of Saint Eric, in the Codex Bildstenianus, Uppsala, c.14th C (East Norse/Old Swedish).
So gingu gutar sielfs wiliandi vndir suia kunung þy at þair mattin frir Oc frelsir sykia suiariki j huerium staþ. vtan tull oc allar utgiftir. So aigu oc suiar sykia gutland firir vtan cornband ellar annur forbuþ. hegnan oc hielp sculdi kunungur gutum at waita.
From ‘Gutasaga', c.13th C (East Norse/Old Gutnish).
a short old norse bibliography
- E.V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse (Oxford: 1927)
- Sigfrid Valfells & James E Cathey, Old Icelandic: An Introductory Course (Oxford: 1981)
- more to follow...
some old norse links
- more to follow
posted by petescully @ 06:10
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