This Week's Requests (05/01) (Patreon)

I love ravens, so I was surprised and delighted to get this painting of Huginn and Muninn from Matt and Hope Hughes' Gjallarhorn playing cards. Thank you to the Hughes!

Other surprises, of other kinds, have come this week. Ever since my first semester of independent teaching at the university level (Spring 2017), I have said that any student who can compose a good, original skaldic poem in Old Norse will get an A in any class I teach. I originally meant it as a joke, but over the years a few people have tried. This semester, for the first time, a student in my Icelandic Sagas class actually did it successfully, teaching himself enough Old Norse along the way that he even managed to correct some of his own earlier errors. I'm pretty impressed so, of course, I'll honor my word.

I've also been in negotiations for some high-profile, intense consultation and media gigs. It's intense enough that I've hired a lawyer and an entertainment business consultant to help me navigate it all. Hopefully I'll have some updates on at least some of this for you all soon, but if any of it goes forward the nature of such work is that I can say almost nothing until public release of the media.

And just around Colorado, I was pretty surprised to be recognized in a favorite shop I hadn't been into in a long time--not from when I used to go there more, but from Youtube! It's still shocking to me when someone recognizes me in the real world from watching the videos.

Below are this week's translation requests; for next week, please just email Stella at admin@jacksonwcrawford.com by Tuesday and I'll post the next batch of requests here next Wednesday. In last week's update, I posted a video with tips on how to make requests that I recommend watching if you haven't yet.

All the best for now, and thanks as always for your support!

Jackson Crawford

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—> Carl Grasso requests "reindeer song" or "reindeer's song" in Old Norse and Younger Futhark.

I potentially would render this as a compound:

hreinsǫngr

ᚼᚱᛅᛁᚾᛋᛅᚴᛦ

However hreinn “reindeer” and hreinn “clean” are potentially confusable. For extra clarity, Old Norse often calls them hreindýr (literally “reindeer-animal,” and the origin of our English word), in which case I’d go with:

hreindýrs sǫngr

ᚼᚱᛅᛁᚾᛏᚢᛦᛋ  ᛋᛅᚴᛦ

—> Ember Cooke requests "bear-seeker" in Old Norse and Younger Futhark (m/f/n if possible).

I would probably make this a compound like so:

bjarnleitandi

ᛒᛁᛅᚱᚾᛚᛅᛁᛏᛅᛏᛁ

Agent nouns (“doer of verb”) in -andi and -ari are inherently masculine; however there is no contradiction in a masculine noun being used of a woman.

—> Joachim Hansen requests "Kristine and Luke. as long as i live the love i have for you will never die" (Kristine og Luke. så lenge jeg lever, vil min kjærlighet til dere aldri dø) (Kristine og luke. Så lenge eg lever, vil kjærleiken min til dykk aldri døy) in Old Norse and Younger Futhark.

Other than the names, this is pretty easy:

[namn] ok [namn], svá lengi sem ek lifi, mun ást mín til ykkar aldrigi deyr.

[namn] ᛅᚢᚴ [namn] ᛋᚢᛅ  ᛚᛅᚴᛁ  ᛋᛁᛘ  ᛁᚴ  ᛚᛁᚠᛁ  ᛘᚢᚾ  ᚬᛋᛏ  ᛘᛁᚾ  ᛏᛁᛚ  ᚢᚴᛅᚱ  ᛅᛚᛏᚱᛁᚴᛁ  ᛏᛅᚢᛦ

I’m always reluctant to write names in languages other than Old Norse in runes because it’s difficult to know whether to go by how it’s spelled today or by how it’s pronounced today—and then what rune would a Viking-Age Old rune-carver have used for sounds his language didn’t even have? I’d suggest two different possibilities for the names:

Use the Old Norse equivalents, i.e. Lúkas ᛚᚢᚴᛅᛋ and Kristín ᚴᚱᛁᛋᛏᛁᚾ

Use “daughter” dóttir ᛏᚢᛏᛁᚱ and “son” sonr ᛋᚢᚾᛦ

—> Andrew Såulf requests "sea-wolf" or "the sea-wolves" in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

seawolf
hafúlfr
ᚼᛅᚠᚢᛚᚠᛦ

the seawolves
hafúlfarnir
ᚼᛅᚠᚢᛚᚠᛅᛦᚾᛁᛦ

—> Ryan Loury requests stanza 8 of Hávamál:

Hinn er sæll
er sér um getr
lof ok líknstafi.
Ódælla er við þat
er maðr eiga skal
annars brjóstum í.

ᚼᛁᚾ  ᛁᛋ  ᛋᛅᛚ
ᛁᛋ  ᛋᛁᛦ  ᚢᛒ  ᚴᛁᛏᛦ
ᛚᚢᚠ  ᛅᚢᚴ  ᛚᛁᚴᚾᛋᛏᛅᚠᛁ
ᚢᛏᛅᛚᛅ  ᛁᛋ  ᚢᛁᚦ  ᚦᛅᛏ
ᛁᛋ  ᛘᛅᚦᛦ  ᛅᛁᚴᛅ  ᛋᚴᛅᛚ
ᛅᚾᛅᚱᛋ  ᛒᚱᛁᚢᛋᛏᚢᛘ  ᛁ

As usual, I turn “er” (“is, who/which”) into the more archaic form “es” in runes.