This Week's Requests (10/23) (Patreon)

Today I lost my Grandma, Dorothy Crawford. She was a wonderful woman who in many ways was a mother to me, and an unfailing friend throughout my life. She exhibited grace in drinking each day's cup, whether it brought wine or vinegar, and she never lay down to sleep without knowing something she hadn't known when she woke up. If it hadn't been for her and for my Papa (who preceded her in death by ten years), I would have truly been nothing. It will take some time to adjust to her being gone.

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This week's videos have included a public announcement of my talk and book signing in Boulder, Colorado on December 9th, and the latest installment in the deep read of Hávamál (including runes), this one covering stanza 64 through the famous stanza 77. 

The Wanderer's Hávamál is due to be released November 20th. You can preorder it from Amazon or directly from the publisher; either way it will be mailed out to you as soon as it's printed. I still have not even seen a copy of the book, but rumor is I might get an advance proof (without the fancy embossed folding cover of the real thing) in a week or so.

There is still space to register for next week's Patreon-only Crowdcast with Professor Ármann Jakobsson of the University of Iceland.

Wardruna was here Thursday, and I got to go backstage after the show at Red Rocks with Mathias Nordvig. Einar posted a selfie of himself with me when I took the band out to explore Colorado, so that's probably the most people who will ever scroll past my face.

I've been approached about another major project that I'll look forward to announcing one day when I'm sure I can talk about it. At this point my plate is filled up way past the amount of time I have.

Below are this week's requests, as delivered to Stella at admin@jacksonwcrawford.com by Tuesday of this week at 9:00 a.m. U.S. Mountain Time or earlier. 

I will continue taking requests in the same way for next week's post, but may have an announcement about some changes to translation requests next week. There is also the possibility of delay due to funeral arrangements and probably a great deal of family coming to Colorado.

Thank you all for your support this week, and for now, all the best,

Jackson Crawford

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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 (or as near to that as I can).
3. Limit one request per month. Limit 18 words at $10 tier; 9 words at lower tiers.
4. This is not a commercial transaction. I reserve the right to refuse requests for any reason. Small translations are done for supporters as a personal favor. No translations for commercial purposes.
5. Please don't ask Stella to "hold" part of a translation for later; just submit it piece by piece.
6. Old Norse is a gendered language. Please specify male, female, or both for any adjectives.
7. Old Norse can't be written in Elder Futhark. Nor can modern names be written in any Futhark.
8. Old Norse is weird. Not everything you can say in a modern language can be translated very well into it. For one thing, it is a very concrete language. There may be no translation for some abstract words or even for unexpected things that speakers of Old Norse simply never conceived of (like "soul"). Surprisingly, military terms (even "soldier") are fairly hard to translate because the Norse were fighters but not much on professional, organized warfare.
9. I take no responsibility whatsoever for anything you do with these requests, including anything you or anyone else gets tattooed. Any use of a text I have translated is not to be construed as a sign of my approval or sanction.
10. I write Old Norse in runes in a more archaic form than I typically write it in the Roman alphabet. This includes e.g. es instead of er for "is," vas instead of var for "was," umb instead of um for the filler word, etc.

—> Daniel Schaefer requests "Crush and tear, The frozen sky apart; Shout and cheer, Revives the sleeping heart" in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

I’m interpreting “crush and tear” and “shout and cheer” as directions to a person, and “the sleeping heart” as the subject of “revives.” Probably the closest equivalent to “cheer” in this sense is “gør(va) góðan róm,” literally “make a good noise.”

ᛘᛅᚱᚦᚢ ᛅᚢᚴ ᚱᛁᚠᚦᚢ ᚢᛒ ᛁᚾ ᚠᚱᚢᛦᚾᛅ ᚼᛁᛘᛁᚾ ᚢᛒᛏᚢ ᛅᚢᚴ ᚴᚢᚱᚦᚢ ᚴᚢᚦᛅᚾ ᚱᚢᛘ ᛁᛏ ᛋᚢᚠᛅᛏᛅ ᚼᛁᛅᚱᛏᛅ ᚼᛁᛅᚱᚾᛅᛦ ᚢᛁᚦ
Merðu ok rífðu upp inn frørna himin; ǿptu ok gørðu góðan róm; it sofanda hjarta hjarnar við.
Crush and tear up the frozen sky; shout and cheer; the sleeping heart revives.

—> Libby Hultman requests "Let foolish Hati and Skǫll chase their days away." in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

ᛅᛚᛏᛁ ᚼᛅᛁᛘᛋᚴᛁᛦ ᚼᛅᛏᛁ ᛅᚢᚴ ᛋᚴᛅᛚ ᛅᛚᛅ ᛋᛁᚾᛅ ᛏᛅᚴᛅ ᚢᛒ
Elti heimskir Hati and Skǫll alla sína daga upp.
Let foolish Hati and Skǫll chase all their days away/up.

There’s no exact equivalent to the English expression “(verb) away” but “(verb) upp” probably comes closest. Also note that in Old Norse, “let (verb)” is one word.

—> Akiva Atwood requests "From Dusk to Dawn" in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

There is no equivalent expression in Old Norse, probably the most poetic way to say it would be:

ᚠᚱᚬ ᚼᚢᛘᛁᚾᚢ ᛏᛁᛚ ᚼᚢᛘᛋᛁᚾᛋ
Frá húminu til húmsins.

Which means “from the gray-lighted time (of dusk) to the gray-lighted time (of dawn).”

—> Jennifer Bailey requests "the gods will always smile upon brave women" in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

ᚴᚢᚦᛁᚾ ᛘᚢᚾᚢ ᛅ ᛒᚱᚢᛋᛅ ᛅᛏ ᚠᚱᚢᚴᚾᚢᛘ ᚴᚢᚾᚢᛘ
Goðin munu æ brosa at frǿknum konum.
The gods will always smile upon brave women.

—> Christiane Pelmas requests "Wise Ancestral Elders We are midwives to, and warriors for, the future generations" in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

ᚢᛁᛋ ᚠᚢᚱᛅᛚᛏᛦᛁ
vís foreldri
wise ancestors / forebears

“Ancestral elders” would be a weird way to put anything in Old Norse, I’d just stick with forellri “ancestors / forebears” which has a touch of the ancient about it.

There is a wide range of terms for “midwife,” and very little in the way of terms that specifically mean “warrior” (as I’ve discussed many times before). It gets even harder to say something that really means “warrior for,” but “guardian of” seems close in sense and fairly natural in Old Norse. Even “generation” (an abstract concept of people born about the same time) is a pretty alien concept in Old Norse. Maybe the most natural way to try to phrase something like this in Old Norse would be:

ᚢᛁᛦ ᛁᛦᚢᛘ ᚾᚬᛦᚴᚢᚾᚢᛦ ᛅᚢᚴ ᚢᛅᚱᚦᛁᛦ ᚴᚢᛘᛅᛏᛁ ᛘᛅᚾᛋᛅᛚᛏᛦᛅ
Vér erum nærkonur ok verðir komandi mannsaldra.
We are the midwives (literally, “near-women”) and the guardians of the coming human-ages / human-lives.