This Week's Requests (07/17) (Patreon)

I'm spending the latter part of July, and probably the first part of August, careening around remote parts of Wyoming and Montana visiting family, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to get this post done today. But I'm even less sure I'll be able to get to it on Wednesday next week (there's no internet, and rarely cell reception, in much of "Crawford Country"), so please bear with me if it takes me a little longer in the next week or two.

The Wanderer's Hávamál is still on schedule, as I mentioned in our most recent, and I thought successful, Patreon-only Crowdcast. For the next Crowdcast (you can pencil in August 20th), I'm working to bring in my colleague, archaeologist Prof. Howard Williams at the University of Chester, so you can talk to him about his fascinating work, which focuses on the archaeology of death and burial in early medieval Scandinavia and Britain. 

Videos uploaded this week covered the San Juan Mountains (a "favorite places" update), and the first installment in a new series exploring the rules and structure of Old Norse poetry.

Below are this week's requests. 

Thank you very much, as always, for your support. All the best,

Jackson Crawford

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Below are this week's translation requests. Key things to keep in mind about translation requests:

1. Send them to Stella at admin@jacksonwcrawford.com (remember the "w").
2. I'll respond to them in a weekly post on Wednesdays.
3. Limit one request per month. Limit 18 words at $10 tier; 9 words at lower tiers.
4. Please don't ask Stella to "hold" part of a translation for later; just submit it piece by piece.
5. Old Norse is a gendered language. Please specify male, female, or both for any adjectives.
6. Old Norse can't be written in Elder Futhark. Nor can modern names be written in any Futhark.
7. Old Norse is a very concrete language. There may be no translation for some abstract words.
8. I reserve the right to refuse requests if I find the content embarrassing or objectionable.
9. I take no responsibility whatsoever for anything you or anyone else gets tattooed.

—>Ryan Loury requests Hávamál, stanza 8, in Old Norse and Younger Futhark (the request I got said stanza 9, but the phrases requested sound like stanza 8).

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

Hinn es sæll
es sér um getr

lof ok líknstafi.
Ódælla es við þat
es maðr eiga skal
annars brjóstum í. 


(A man is happy

if he finds praise and friendship
within himself.

You can never be sure

of where you stand

in someone else’s heart.

As I usually do, I’ve replaced er, “is; who/which” with the more archaic es when transcribing in runes. Um “filler word” is rendered ub in Viking-Age runes, as it was umb in a more archaic stage of the language.)

—> Griz Mayhem requests "I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee." in Old Norse and Younger Futhark (the "you" in question is plural with a mixed gender audience)

ᛚᛅᚴᚠᛅᚱᚦᛅᛘᛅᚦᛦ  ᚢᛅᛋ  ᛁᚴ  ᚠᚢᚱᚦᚢᛘ  ᛋᛁᛘ  ᛁᛦ  ᛁᚾ  ᚦᚬ  ᚴᚢᛘ  ᛅᚱᛁᚾ  ᛁ  ᚴᚾᛁ  ᛘᛁᛦ
Langferðamaðr vas ek forðum, sem ér, en þá kom ǫrin í kné mér.
I was once a person of long journeys, like y’all, but then an arrow came into my knee.

(For adventurer, I used langferðamaðr, “person of long journeys,” an attested term. Old Norse doesn’t use “take” in the idiomatic sense here; an arrow “comes into” the body part it strikes, which is how I’ve rendered it.)

—> Rémi Cruzel requests "You are a berserker. Make pain and rage your strength," in Old Norse and Younger Futhark (This is addressed to a man. The concepts of "pain", "rage" and "strength" evoked are about "mental pain/strength" - that the man endured - more than a "physical" meaning.)

ᚦᚢ  ᛁᚱᛏ  ᛒᛁᚱᛋᛁᚱᚴᛦ  ᛚᛅᛏᚢ  ᚼᛅᚱᛘ  ᛅᚢᚴ  ᚱᛅᛁᚦᛁ  ᚢᛁᛋᛅ  ᛏᚢᚴᛦ  ᛁ  ᚦᛁᛦ
Þú ert berserkr. Láttu harm ok reiði vesa dugr í þér.
You are a berserkr. Let pain and rage be strength in you.

(Harm is from harmr, obviously related to our word “harm,” but used especially of mental anguish or sorrow. Dugr is the most abstract word for strength; it is discussed like a body part in Old Norse, so instead of “your strength” Old Norse literally says “strength in you.”)

—> Clayton Schock requests "Skin made of iron, steel in my bones." in Old Norse and Younger Futhark (male speaker, if that's relevant)

ᛁᛅᚱᚾᚼᚢᚦ / ᚼᚢᚦ  ᚴᛅᚱᚦ  ᛅᚠ  ᛁᛅᚱᚾᛁ  ᛋᛏᛅᛚ  ᛁ  ᛒᛅᛁᚾᚢᛘ  ᛘᛁᛦ
Járnhúð / húð gǫrð af járni, stál í beinum mér.

(The first option, járnhúð, is a compound, “iron-skin.” The second option, húð gǫrð af járni, is closer to English “skin made of iron.”

—> Casey requests "If you get hurt, hurt them too. If you get killed, walk it off." in Old Norse and Younger Futhark (f speaker to mixed audience, if relevant)

ᛁᚠ  ᚦᚢ  ᚢᛁᚱᚦᛦ  ᛋᛅᚱ  ᛋᛅᚱᚦᚢ  ᚦᛅᚢ  ᛁᛏ  ᛋᛅᛘᛅ  ᛁᚠ  ᚦᚢ  ᚠᚬᛦ  ᛒᛅᚾᛅ  ᛏᛅᚴᛏᚢ  ᛚᛁᛏᛁᛏ  ᛅᚠ
Ef þú verðr sár, særðu þau it sama. Ef þú fær bana, taktu lítit af.
If you get hurt, hurt them too. If you get killed, “take little of it.”

(“Walk it off” is an idiom that it’s hard to find an equivalent of. Probably the closest Old Norse idiom I’m aware of is to say taktu lítit af, literally, “take little of it,” which is to say something like “Don’t make a big deal out of it.” As to the “them” in “hurt them too,” replace þau with þá ᚦᚬ if they’re male only or þær ᚦᛅᛦ if they’re female only.)