Cool Saga Quote #1: "When I was your age..."

I suspect that Cool Quotes will become a feature of The Bitter Scroll, since there are so many cool quotes from Germanic literature, but since I've been reading the Saga of the People of Vatnsdal, it's first. It's a bit long, but check out the way Ketil the Large rails at his son to get him to do something with his life:

On one occasion Ketil said to Thorstein his son, "The behaviour of young men today is not what it was when I was young. In those days men hankered after deeds of derring-do, either by going raiding or by winning wealth and honour through exploits in which there was some element of danger. But nowadays young men want to be stay-at-homes, and sit by the fire, and stuff their stomachs with mead and ale; and so it is that manliness and bravery are on the wane. I have won wealth and honour because I dared to face danger and tough single combats. You, Thorstein, have been blessed with little in the way of strength of size. It is more than likely that your deeds will follow suit, and that your courage and daring will match your size, because you have no desire to emulate the exploits of your ancestors; you reveal yourself to be just as you look, with your spirit matching your size. It was once the custom of powerful men, kings or earls -- those who were our peers -- that they went off raiding, and won riches and renown for themselves, and such wealth did not count as party of any legacy nor did a son inherit it from his father; rather was the money to lie in the tomb alongside the chieftain himself. And even if the sons in herited the lands, they were unable to sustain their high status, if honour counted for anything, unless they put themselves and their men at risk and went into battle, thereby winning for themselves each in his turn, wealth and renown -- and so following in the footsteps of their kinsmen. I believe that the old warriors' ways are unknown to you -- I wish I could teach them to you. You have now reached the age when it would be right for you to put yourself to the text, and find out what fate has in store for you."

Thorstein answered, "If ever provocation worked, this would be provocation enough." He stood up and walked away, and was very angry.

Ah, for the good old days of raiding and plundering! Simpler times...

I love the writing style of the sagas. So down to earth, direct, practical. Very approachable. It's the same with their nicknames. On (or near) the continent you have names like Louis the Fat, Aethelred the Unready (OE Unræd, meaning ill-advised) and Charles the Bald, which are descriptive enough, but the Scandinavians have a certain knack for nicknames: Erik Blood-axe, Thorfinn Skull-splitter, Unn the Deep-Minded, Thorbjorn the Pock-marked, Asbjorn the Fleshy, Asgeir Scatter-brain, Hallfred the Troublesome Poet, An Twig-belly, Ragnar Shaggy-breeches, Thorarin the Evil, and (poor girl) Thordis the Stick.

Snow

Whaddya know? Here's a whole bunch of Icelandic words for snow. My favorite is definitely krap: 'slush'.

Who knew the eskimos had moved? ;-)

On a sadder note, it still hasn't snowed measurably this winter. Grrr.

In the Mood

[Derek's in luck, this one actually interests me. :-P]

=====================

Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so.

1) corndog
2) Jeni
3) Anastasia
4) Haligweorc
5) King Alfred

Next select five people to tag

1) Mikaela
2) polyglot conspiracy
3) sauvage noble
4) Unlocked Wordhoard
5) Shrine of the Holy Whapping


What were you doing 10 years ago?

January 1996: Starting second semester of sophomore year of college. Had a big blizzard that year: 4 feet of snow. Tons of classmates' flights didn't make it in time for start of classes. Then again, classes didn't start on time anyway, so it was OK. Taught a classmate from Hawaii how to make a snowball. Anyway, classes included Philosophy of Human Nature, Intro to New Testament, American Gov't II, some medieval English class (I remember reading Macbeth [again], Troilus & Criseyde, Donne, some passion play, some other stuff), and two other classes completely slipping my mind right now.


What were you doing 1 year ago?

January 2005: Course Development Director for an online university. Great job. Terrible workplace.


Five snacks you enjoy:

A. Cheese Nips (not Cheese-Its). I've often said that if limbo of the just existed and I went there, destined for fulfillment of all natural desires, but nothing more, I would be eating Cheese Nips (among, you know, doing other things, I imagine).
B. extra-sharp cheddar on triscuts (same as Derek)
C. M&Ms
D. shrimp cocktail (My family's recipe for cocktail sauce: add lots of horseradish, and look at a bottle of ketchup.)
E. Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch (I know it's not really a snack, but it's my favorite flavor of ice cream.)


Five songs you know all the words to:

A. Pretty much anything by They Might Be Giants
B. Pretty much anything by Billy Joel
C. Hammer of the Gods - Led Zeppelin
D. The Distance - Cake
E. Tango to Evora - Loreena McKennitt ;-)
(F. many others)


Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

A. Pay off debts
B. Help friends and family pay off debts
C. Save
D. Donate
E. Buy a hell of a lot of books, and beautiful bookcases worthy of their content


Five bad habits:

A. Not blogging for large spaces at a time
B. (See question about snacks)
C-Z. Vices that are between me, God, and my confessor.


Five things you enjoy doing:

A. learning/reading dead languages
B. hangin' wit' ze buddies (and other friends)
C. vegging out and watching Deep Space Nine (or Firefly or some other scifi show)
D. travelling
E. teaching


Five things you would never wear again:

A. Most of my Halloween costumes growing up
B. The particular combination of red and green I wore for about 30 seconds in college until then-roomate gaetanus looked at me and said, "That says, in big, bold letters, 'Santa's Elf'".
C. A red shirt I once had so long I hadn't noticed it had turned rather pink.
D. Unfortunately, many things I probably will wear again but shouldn't. I know of five colors. I don't know what clashes.


Five favorite toys:

A. books
B. digital camera
C. digital voice recorder (I get most of my ideas when I'm driving)
D. keyboard (musical kind), just for playing around
E. can't think of more at the moment
=====================

The Choices of Master Macduff

Though not written in anything so interesting as old English or Gothic, Shakespeare’s plays still suck me in, and since high school, Macbeth has consistently been my easy favorite. It’s dark, tragic, Scottish, has a ghost, and is generally overcast. Not to mention it’s a fascinating study of the psychology of sin, centuries before Crime and Punishment (another favorite work of mine).

Even Tolkien, who usually couldn’t be bothered with modern English and who seemed to think old Willy S. could have done a lot more with some of the traditions he probably had available to him, still couldn’t avoid picking at Macbeth for useful imagery. Tom Shippey notes how the march of Birnam Wood became the March of the Ents, the not-born-of-man prophecy became a prophecy about no man (but rather a woman and a hobbit), and also notes some other lines of the play (I don’t have the book handy) that JRRT seems to have taken and run with in his books.

My recent reading of Macbeth got me to thinking that perhaps part of the tragedy is how the evil done to Macbeth by the weird sisters (and for all his sin and ambition, he was still tricked and led into sin) never had a chance to fully unravel itself before Macbeth’s death. What I mean is this: Macbeth from the beginning knew the women were evil and (as Banquo counseled him) not to be listened to. Each time one of the witches’ prophecies came true in an unexpected way, this should only have been confirmed to him, and in fact he does admit this—yet psychologically he is unable to change himself as long as there is another prophecy to cling to with false hope.

Look at his reaction to Birnam Wood’s arrival at Dunsinane: He knows that his ambition is fruitless, that his line will not retain the Scottish crown (it will go to Banquo’s line), and that his doom is now at hand. But he still has that one hope that none born of man can kill him. Now, a rational person unbothered by unruly passions and unattached to the trappings of this world might suspect that this prophecy will turn around to bite him in the…well, be as untrustworthy just as the prophecy about Birnam Wood. But for whatever reason, he wasn’t ready to do that. Macbeth had to be shown to the bitter end the consequences of trusting demonic powers.

When he finally does learn the truth about Macduff, he finally fears for his life. Now what happens? Does he repent? Well, no, but perhaps he didn’t have a chance to. I mean, he’s still trying to save his life, and maybe if that threat had gone, he’d have had more time to think about his actions. Of course, then again maybe he wouldn’t have, and would just have become bitter in his exile. But I wonder if Macbeth might just have been psychologically ready to look at himself and repent once he’d had a chance to really hit rock-bottom.

We’ll never know, because his hand is forced. Macduff, now motivated by revenge for his family’s deaths, will either kill Macbeth or bring him away in chains like a Roman triumph parade, and Macbeth is forced to choose without thinking. I’m reminded of the scene in Lord of the Rings (the book) where Sam wakes up and his suspicion of Gollum pushes Gollum away, and leaves him to choose his evil side more or less permanently. Of course Sam was justified in suspecting Gollum, just as Macduff’s feelings are also understandable. Unfortunately, sometimes only going the extra mile to be virtuous and charitable—to a truly heroic extent—is what will draw out the best good of a situation.

It’s my belief that everyone, no matter how well things seem to be going for them on the outside, has to struggle with something dark in the inside, and we never know how our actions will play into that struggle—even if it’s not our fault. Lack of guilt is little consolation when you learn that you could have done extra to help a friend.

Anyway, back to Macbeth: All of this has led to two creative projects. One was simply a poem inspired by the play, that I have submitted to the Lent/Easter edition of Dappled Things. (I'll post again when it comes out.) The other, which will be longer in coming, is another collaboration with Mikaela. We enjoyed our work on The Lay of Life and Loss so much, we found ourselves planning (rather ambitiously) another whole set of songs last night, inspired by various themes, scenes, and sometimes single lines from Macbeth. The fact that Starbucks was closing is the main reason I don’t have more to say right now, but based on how our ideas were flowing last night, something interesting will most probably come of it.

Random-Question Break

[Stolen from haligweorc] My answers are in italics.

1. When you looked in the mirror first thing this morning, what was the first thing you thought?
Nothing. Seriously, I am not a rational being for a couple of hours after I wake up. I am a night person.

2. How much cash do you have on you?
$11.00

3. What's a word that rhymes with TEST?
-fest. I like that it's a German loan-suffix (not a word on its own) that means pretty much the same in English as in German.

4. ... planet?
Janet. (Maybe b/c I saw Derek's answer, but I do have a friend so named.)

5. Who is the fourth person on your missed calls?
Maria B.

6. What is your favourite ring on your phone?
The Muppet Show Theme

7. What shirt are you wearing?
A green one. With long sleeves.

8. What do you label youself as?
Someone who knows how to spell 'yourself'.

9. Name the brand of shoes you've recently worn.
Dunno.

10. Bright room or dark room?
Dark.

11. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Coughing up a lung, reading from Kenneth Sisam's Middle English Reader (with ME Glossary by JRR Tolkien).

12. What did the last text message on your phone say?
"Merry Christmas!"

13. Where is your nearest 7-11?
Down the street. (What a boring question.)

14. What's a saying you say a lot?
Whaddyagonna do?

15. Who told you they loved you last?
My cousin

16. Last furry thing you touched?
Friend's dog.

17. How many drugs have you done in the past three days?
Sudafed, Tylenol Sore Throat, NyQuil, Dimetap

18. How many rolls of film do you need to get developed?
Who still uses film?

19. Favourite age you've been so far?
Honestly, I've never cared.

20. Your worst enemy?
Have to agree with Derek: sin.

21. What is your current desktop picture?
The Linux Penguin

22. What was the last thing you said to someone?
"Bye."

23. If you had to choose between a millions bucks and being able to fly, which would you choose?
[Cue BNL Song] $1,000,000.

24. Do you like someone?
I like most people. (Hah. That's what you get for not being specific.)

25. The last song you listened to?
Bli hos meg, by Dina (Norwegian)

Some Saxon for your Saturday (early ed.)

Today's link isn't about Anglo-Saxon (Old English), but Old Saxon, the language of the Saxons that stayed behind on the continent, also known as Low German. (The modern descendent of Old Low German is Plattdeutsch, or Plattdüütsch.)

Among the many interesting features of the Northvegr site is this Latin to Old Saxon dictionary.

If you're enough like me that you're still reading my blog, you may enjoy browsing random pages and seeing what words you can recognize from modern English. For example, take the entry:


sermo quidi, mahal, spel, sprâca, vvord.


How many of these words have English relatives? Answer: All but one (and I'm pretty sure the one has an Old English cognate). First, let's take the easiest: the last word is, in fact, "word", with the Old Saxon spelling convention of using two separate v's instead of a 'w'. So if the words are all related to speech, can you guess the rest? (Don't worry about mahal for now.)

sermo > sermon
quidi > quoth
spel > [go]spel (< godspell, 'good news')
sprâca > speak (cf. German sprechen)

Without looking anything up at the moment, I'm guessing mahal is related to Old Norse mál (as in the Hávamál) and Old English maðelian. (Beowulf's speeches usually begin with Beowulf maðelode ... "Beowulf matheled")

Here's an even easier one:


mare meri, geban, lagu; sêo, flôd, strom, vvatar.


Once again, all but one (geban) of the Saxon words have cousins several times removed in modern English. To wit: mere/mer[maid], lake; sea, flood, stream, water.

A little more challenging:


dux folc-togo, heri-togo, lêdo, lêdor.


Dux yields "duke" in English, hence the last two Saxon entries being obviously related to "leader". Any ideas on the first two? Yes, folc is "folk". No, togo does not mean Saxon leaders wore togas. Heri-togo is a direct cognate of German herzog, which also means "duke". Heri, like Heer in modern German, means "army". The togo is related to the German verb ziehen, to draw, pull, 'tug', and its inflected form, -zog-. (Der Herzog hat seinen Anzug angezogen. The duke put on his suit.) Anyway, a duke was someone who led (togo) his people (folc) and army (heri).

As you may notice, Low German, along with Dutch and Frisian, occupies linguistically a middle-position between English and German. (Just like Old English occupied a middle position between all of the above and Old Norse.)

Now one for you Tolkien fans:


legio eorid, ierid.


The Rohirrim in Tolkien's books speak Old English (the Mercian dialect), which has eored, from eoh horse and râd > ride/rode. Tolkien's idea for Rohan was to imagine what an Anglo-Saxon kingdom might have been like if horses had played a bigger part in their society, as they did on the continent. Along with eoh, Old English also has mearh, mare, and hros, hors, horse. Ironic that they inherited so many words for an animal that has comparatively little role in their history compared to the continent. (I think Tolkien thought the Battle of Hastings might have gone better if Harald had had more mounted units.)

...Ok, one more:


margarita mere-griota, mere-grita.


Margarita is Latin for pearl. This entry almost sounds like the Latin term was once a loan-word from Germanic. Saxon mere-grita is just what it looks like: "mere-grit", or "lake-sand", or even "water-pebble" (it's only a coincidence that the drink is served in a glass encrusted with salt). Then again, it could be that when a Roman said "margarita", what a Saxon heard in his head was "mere-grita". The Old English would be mere-greot. According to Liddel and Scott, the Latin source, the Greek margaritês, is itself a loan-word from Persian. Beyond this, the Indo-European entry for mori- doesn't suggest any connection. Oh well.

Incidentally, the Perseus Digital Library is a very handy tool for inquiries like this.

Medieval hands

No, I mean handwritings. It's been a busy month-plus, but with any luck some of the many, many blogposts that are currently sitting in 'draft' status will graduate to the public soon. In the mean time, here's your link for the week:

Medieval Writing

This site gives examples of various medieval scripts with accompanying paleography exercises to help you learn to decipher. Enjoy!

Th'Appalachia's the Thing--Not

Living as I did recently very close to Appalachia, and having had a professor a bit odd in his adopted obsession for it, I thought I'd draw attention to this post over at Language Log.

Every linguistic change is brought about by the majority of a language's speakers regardless of their knowledge of its history. This may sound like a truism, but aside the last five hundred years of changes, our language is exactly as it was in 1505. (Which isn't nearly as drastic a set of changes as those of the previous 500 years.)

Anyway, hence the gleaming truth of Sally Thomason's observation: "There are said to be features of Shakespeare's English that are preserved in Appalachian English but not in Standard English; but they would be noticeable only because they have vanished from Standard English. The many features of Shakespeare's English that remain in Standard English are not noticeable: they're just ordinary." Yet they're there. They're just not interesting enough to pass for urban legend. It'd be like saying, "Did you know that the language of Shakespeare's descendants has only one word for 'snow'??"

The error is not is the observation of many "archaisms" of Appalachian ("Southern Mountain") dialects. It is in forgetting that there are also many in standard modern English. For example, take the sentence: "Alfred was grim late in his life; his king dead, he sang of frost and blindness and death." This sentence is 100% archaic. With very few differences in pronunciation, it is exactly the same as it would have been a millennium ago. It is in fact an "Old English" sentence. (See more cool sentences like this, and hear their pronunciation, here.)

See also this LSA article, which calls the association of Appalachian and Shakespearean English one of "the most persistent myths about language."

For those interested (my old professor, for instance), here is an annotated bibliography of Appalachian English.

Hwæt, se boardgema in gear-dagum...

I like boardgames as much as the next guy. But I love Beowulf, definitely more than the next guy. So I was glad to see (thanks to Scott Nokes) a detailed and overall favorable review on Cinerati of a new boardgame, Beowulf the Legend, by Fantasy Flight. Artwork for the game is by John Howe, well known Tolkien artist.

This game looks interesting in that it seems like it might capture a certain flavor of the poem. The goal is very Germanic: glory. With each event, players gain fame, which is ultimately the goal: "In most of the episodes players compete for fame and awards ... Whoever has the most fame and the most treasure to their name becomes Beowulf's successor and wins the game." Compare the last three lines of the poem, spoken about Beowulf: "They said that he was, among all the world's kings, The most generous of men, and the most gracious, The most protective of his people, and the most desirous of honor [lof-geornost]."

Another interesting aspect is how the proud warrior-players handle situations. Players handle the various episodes (minor, major, and treasure: 36 total) by playing Activity Cards such as Travelling, Friendship, Wit, Courage, and Fighting. At certain episodes, you all play cards in turn, going clockwise from player to player, after the fashion of betting: your card has to be worth the same or more than whatever card's currently worth the most. I mean, your goal isn't just defeating the monster, it's that everyone might know that you defeated the monster--and in impressive fashion. So when you see how your companion is getting ready for the attack, you don't dare do anything less than he, or he'll get more of the glory! Think of how Beowulf's companions all went to sleep with their weapons waiting for Grendel, but Beowulf, before retiring, made sure everyone knew that he wasn't even going to use his sword to kill Grendel--that would be too easy!

There are also simultaneous play episodes (Hrothgar's Hall, Grendel's Attack), when "Beowulf" asks all his companions to tackle the situation together. There are episodes of Risk (Sail to Geatland) and Opportunity (Great Rewards, Break Ranks?, Many Friendships), which may leave you with fame, treasure, misfortune, or injury.

The rules (pdf) list the following episodes (running commentary sold separately):

King Hygelac's Court (hwaet, no Scyld Scefing?)
Sail to Denmark (keepin' your head above water...)
King Hrothgar's Hall (welcome to Denmark, Mr. Lambert)
Prepare for Encounter (can you stand the suspense?)
Grendel's Attack (Moor's Attacks!)
Great Rewards (will you get some?)
Celebration (yes, you can earn praise among men for how hard you party)
Sea-Hag's Attack (= Grendel's Mother)
Prepare Pursuit (gatherin' the posse)
Hunting the Sea-Hag (follow your hart)
Encounter the Sea-Hag (underwater and stuff)
Sail to Geatland (makin' a wave when you can...)
King Hygelac (who da man?)
Presentation of Gifts (no this isn't a Swedish Mass)
Raid against Friesland (many are killed but few are Frisian)
Swedish Betrayal (Westu hál; ferðu, Heardred)
Beowulf becomes King (aaah, he da man)
Strong Alliances (anytime you need a friend...)
Geatland Prospers (good times)
Peace Returns (Good Times!)
Many Friendships (will they last?)
Golden Goblet (what could possibly...)
Dragon's Rampage (o-oh)
Iron Shield (as opposed to the Steel Curtain)
Break Ranks (will you, too, leave me?)
Dragon Battle (fighting that pernicious Thread of fate)
Recover Treasures (you can't take it with you)
Death of Beowulf (will you, now, be da man?)

Looks like I'll have to add this to my Christmas list. :-)

Some Futhark for your Friday

Stumbled across this recently:

An English Dictionary of Runic Inscriptions in the Younger Futhark

Briefly, "futhark", from the first 6 runes--for f, u, th, a, r, k--is like "alphabet" from alpha + beta. (The th-sounds had their own letter: þ) The Younger Futhark are distinguished from the Elder Futhark by being a) a smaller set of letters (16, to the 24 Elder) and b) used for Old Norse, while the Elder Futhark inscriptions tend to be in a Proto-Norse language or dialect of proto-Germanic. They are also distinguished from the Anglo-Saxon set of runes, the Futhorc (the 4th rune is O not A), which number as many as 33. See also Wikipedia's main page on runes.

From the Description page comes this piece of information, which I guess I never realized and surprised me:

There are approximately 6,000 inscriptions in the younger futhark produced between AD 750-1500 in Scandinavia, Britain and Ireland, and the North Atlantic islands. The language of these inscriptions is the earliest recorded form of Old Norse, yet their evidence for Old Norse vocabulary has not been incorporated into the standard dictionaries of that language.

So, in the words of Uncle Argyle, that is something we shall have to remedy, isn't it?

(Also a surprise: I just noticed that Uncle Argyle played William Stryker in X-2.)