This Week's Requests (with announcement--for 10/30) (Patreon)

First, an announcement: In this weekly post I am announcing a move toward ending translation requests. I will still accept them in what has been the normal way in November (i.e., email Stella at admin@jacksonwcrawford.com before Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. US Mountain time and I’ll respond to them in a post on Patreon after that), but only from people who were already Patreon supporters in October or earlier. As of November 26, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. US Mountain time, we will discontinue taking translation requests.

I’m aware this may be a deal-breaker for some people, and if so, thank you for your support so far. On my end, handling the requests take too much time away from making the content that everyone can enjoy (including the regular videos, and the Crowdcast interviews that I’d like to do for you more frequently) and of course from what I can conservatively describe as my three other jobs. There’s also been some abuse of the system, and since I really don’t enjoy doing them anyway, I’m just going to stop.

In the future, you can reach out to Stella at admin@jacksonwcrawford.com if there’s something you badly want translated, but it will be handled separately from Patreon and at the usual rate I charge film/television and video game studios (with a small Patreon discount if you joined at least a few months before you made the request).

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In good news this week, I finally got to hold a copy of The Wanderer's Hávamál, pictured here, though it was just an advance proof and it didn't have the fancy embossed folding cover that the real thing (even the paperback) will have. It's slightly smaller (shorter) than the previous two books, so it fits in a jacket pocket (at least my kind of jacket; your wardrobe may vary).

Many kind people ask if it helps me more to buy the book on Amazon or straight from my publisher. As far as I know, it doesn't affect my royalties one way or the other (the way my contracts are written, I get paid by the number of books sold). However, if you're considering buying the book, it does help me if you pre-order it or buy it on the first day of release (November 20th), especially if you're getting it on Amazon, since Amazon pays a lot of attention to those numbers.

Our Crowdcast interview with Professor Ármann Jakobsson went splendidly, and I posted it on Youtube today to celebrate Halloween since its theme was the undead and trolls in Norse myths and sagas. Other videos posted this week included the analysis of the Old Norse text of Hávamál stanzas 78-89 and a video about two similar stories about Vanir gods drawn around in a consecrated wagon told by Tacitus in the first century AD and by an Icelandic saga about 1200 years later.

Speaking of Crowdcasts, a lot of you have been asking about issues in Indo-European language and culture. I want to give you a chance to ask someone who really knows what he's talking about, so I've got my good friend and colleague Tony Yates, who earned his Ph.D. in Indo-European Studies from UCLA and now teaches in the same subject there, to join us for a Crowdcast in early January (there will also be at least one other Crowdcast before that one, too). I know many of you will want to be there for this one, so take a look at possible times for it and tell us what might work best for you on this Doodle poll (I believe times will display in my time zone, US Mountain time, so you might want to check them against a world clock).

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. 

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.
10. I tend to 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.

—> Christoffer Eklund requests "You become free from the bonds that bind you. You are free from the bonds that bound you." (Icelandic: "Þú ert frjáls úr þeim fjörum sem binda þig. Þú ert frjáls úr þeim fjötum sem bundu þig.") in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

ᚦᚢ ᚢᛁᚱᚦᛦ ᚠᚱᛁᛅᛚᛋ ᛅᚠ ᚦᛅᛁᛘ ᛒᛅᛏᚢᛘ ᛁᛋ ᛒᛁᛏᛅ ᚦᛁᚴ ᚦᚢ ᛁᚱᛏ ᚠᚱᛁᛅᛚᛋ ᛅᚠ ᚦᛅᛁᛘ ᛒᛅᛏᚢᛘ ᛁᛋ ᛒᚢᛏᚢ ᚦᛁᚴ
Þú verðr frjáls af þeim bǫndum es binda þik. Þú ert frjáls af þeim bǫndum es bundu þik.
You become free from the bonds that bind you. You are free from the bonds that bound you.

—> Griz Mayhem requests "don't start no s***, won't be no s***” in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

Obviously no idiom exactly corresponding to the English one exists. Taking the English idiom very literally, it’s something like, “If you don’t put yourself in danger, you won’t be in danger,” which I guess I could render in Old Norse this way:

ᛁᚠ ᚦᚢ ᛚᛅᚴᛦ ᚦᛁᚴ ᛁᚴᛁ ᛁ ᚼᚬᛏᚢ ᛘᚢᛏ ᚦᚢ ᛁᚴᛁ ᚢᛁᛋᛅ ᛁ ᚼᚬᛏᚢ
Ef þú leggr þik eigi í hættu, munt þú eigi vesa í hættu.
If you don’t put yourself in danger, you won’t be in danger.

—> Michael Jakobsen requests "Your veil now, lifted away," "I see you running," "Deceiver, chased away," "It’s been a long time coming" in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

If “veil” means a wedding veil:

ᛚᛁᚾ ᚦᛁᛏ ᚾᚢ ᚼᛅᚠᛁᛏ ᚬ ᛒᚱᛅᚢᛏᚢ
Lín þitt nú hafit á brautu.
Your (bridal) veil now lifted away.

If “veil” is more of a general “false impression,” which in Old Norse might be more likely to be expressed as a “concealing hood” :

ᚼᚢᛚᛏᛅᛦᚼᛅᛏᛦ ᚦᛁᚾ ᚾᚢ ᚼᛅᚠᛁᚾ ᚬ ᛒᚱᛅᚢᛏᚢ
Huldarhǫttr þinn nú hafinn á brautu.
Your concealing hood (veil) now lifted away.

ᛁᚴ ᛋᛁ ᛅᛏ ᚦᚢ ᚱᛁᚾᛦ
Ek sé at þú rennr.
I see that you run. (Old Norse doesn’t use anything very close to the participles in -ing that English uses everywhere).

ᚠᛅᛚᛋᛅᚱᛁ ᛅᛚᛏᛦ ᚬ ᛒᚱᛅᚢᛏᚢ
Falsari, eltr á brautu.
A deceiver, chased away.

“It’s been a long time coming” is an English idiom that doesn’t work word for word in another language. Probably the closest literal equivalent is:

ᚦᛅᛏ ᚼᛅᚠᛁᛦ ᚢᛁᛦᛁᛏ ᚬ ᚠᛅᚱ ᚼᛁᚴᛅᛏ ᛚᛅᚴᛁ
Þat hefir verit á fǫr hingat lengi.
It’s been on a journey here for a long time.

—> Sal Perniciaro requests "sword of gods" in Old Norse and Elder Futhark

ᛋᚢᛁᚱᚦ ᚬᛋᛅ
sverð ása
sword of gods

—> Laura Bailey requests "goodbye mom I love you" in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

ᚠᛅᚱᚢᛅᛚ ᛘᚢᚦᛁᚱ ᛁᚴ ᛅᚾ ᚦᛁᛦ
Farvel, móðir, ek ann þér.
Goodbye, mom, I love you.

—> John Whitaker requests "All this has happened before, and all this will happen again." and "Battle-prow or Prow of Battle" (My intent is to use it as a kenning for a Dane ax, i.e. it cuts through enemies like a ship cuts through water.) in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

ᛅᛚᛏ ᚦᛁᛏᛅ ᚼᛅᚠᛁᛦ ᚢᚱᚦᛁᛏ ᚠᚢᚱ ᛅᚢᚴ ᛅᛚᛏ ᚦᛁᛏᛅ ᛘᚢᚾ ᚢᛁᚱᚦᛅ ᛅᛒᛏᚱ
Allt þetta hefir orðit fyrr, ok allt þetta mun verða aptr.
All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.

For battle-prow, my suggestion might be:

ᛒᛅᚱᛅᛏᚢᛒᛅᚱᚦ
baráttubarð

or write as two words:

ᛒᛅᚱᛅᛏᚢ  ᛒᛅᚱᚦ
baráttu barð

I like it for the alliteration of the “battle” (baráttu) and “prow” (barð), plus barð can mean a “beard” or an “axe-blade” too.

—> Robert Wilkins requests “rest in peace shieldmaiden” and “in loving memory” in Old Norse and Younger Futhark

If you want to say literally “rest in peace” that’s:

ᚼᚢᛁᛚᛏᚢ ᛁ ᚠᚱᛁᚦᛁ
hvíldu í friði

There’s also a phrase we actually see in association with tombs on Viking-Age runic inscriptions. It may seem weird from our perspective, but in the unorganized Norse view of the afterlife they seem often to have believed that the dead stayed in the grave. This phrase is:

ᚾᛁᚢᛏ ᚴᚢᛒᛚᛋ
njót kumbls
be happy in the grave

Shieldmaiden is skjaldmær ᛋᚴᛁᛅᛚᛏᛘᚬᛦ

ᛁ ᚬᛋᛏᛅᛦᛘᛁᚾᛁᚴᚢ
í ástarminningu
in loving memory

—Lewis Tatham requested a translation of these modern lines, which apparently are displayed somewhere in the Epcot center: 

ᛏ ᚼ ᚢ ᛌ ᚴ ᛆ ᛚ ᛂ ᚴ ᚴ ᛁ ᚠ ᛁ ᚱ ᛆ ᛌ ᛁ ᛐ ᛆ ᛌ ᛐ ᛆ
ᚾ ᛁ ᚮ ᚱ ᛂ ᚴ ᛂ ᚱ ᛆ ᚴ ᛆ ᛂ ᛐ ᛐ ᛁ
ᚮ ᚴ ᚠ ᛁ ᚮ ᚴ
ᚮ ᚠ ᛐ ᛂ ᚱ ᛚ ᛁ ᚴ ᛆ ᚠ ᚱ ᛁ ᛐ
ᚮ ᚴ ᚠ ᚱ ▯ ᚮ ᛌ ᛂ ᛘ

▯ = backwards ᚴ

The requester reads these as:

Þú skal ekki firasitasta
Niorekerakaelli
Ók fiok
Oft er lík a frið
Ók frᛷosem

Which looks about right. The first line might be meant to read:

Þú skalt ekki vera síðasta.
You won’t be the last.

The second-to-last line might be intended as:

Oft er lík á friði.
A body/corpse is often in peace.

But I’m not sure what to do with the rest. The requester suggests issuing a complaint, but in my experience, no one there will read it or care, and there are better ways to spend one’s time.