Hjálmar's death song - from Örva odd saga (Old norse song)

[claudichameleon]

i swear the old guy who sang this ancient langue for me, & it is sung not spoken!, was Odin in disguise with a double PhD in old norse history & language & philosophy, with a masters in 'comparative religion' thrown in. he taught at Reed & St. Johns & best yet was my cousin. in this incarnation. most people saw him as strange old man who resembled 'Gandolf' (they thought) & did 'rune magic'. they didn't recognize Odin. & he didn't sing the old tongue for just anyone. too scary! people ran away.

[claudichameleon]

having known a wonderful old norse rune wizard who 'sang' the eddas & sigils in authentic old norse.... this is a pale version of a language like no other! it really chills you to the bone, make your hackles rise, your heart hammer & you blood boil to hear the real thing! it booms like ice sheets and glaciers, moans and shrieks like north winter winds, creaks and croaks like cold trees filled with ravens, sings like warrior angels, and whispers and sighs like time slipping by....

[crtrburke]

Why is he pronouncing thorn as a "d"?

[Thrym865]

@crtrburke The Thurs rune (TH) also represents the DH sound, just like the Týr rune (T) represents both the T and D sounds. The younger Futhark is full of double sounds like these. K and G (even NG) are also represented by the Kaun rune (K).

[BirkaViking]

Its a very nice song and at the same time very sad.

Cheers from Sweden

[Gwynnfevar]

@BirkaViking yeah, quite sad....

[0m12]

I think the pronounciation is meant to reflect an older, perhaps more authentic (to the time of the lyrics) Norse dialect, as opposed to a more recent Icelandic, but not entirely sure on that point.

[RavenofDenmark]

@0m12 Well yeah, he tries to use the reconstructed pronounciation for old norse, and that is a good thing. However, he fails at doing so XD I cant list all his erros, but two of thems he says "heggvinn" instead of "hoggvinn", and he says "sjónama" instead of "sjónum" and "herder" instead of "herðr" and so on XD

[0m12]

@RavenofDenmark Ah ok haha, fair enough! I've only just begun learning Old Norse so I wouldn't really know, especially about pronunciation! I suppose there's always some debate over what reconstructed pronunciation is used, but it sounds like the mistakes he's made are plenty

[kitedh]

@RavenofDenmark XD XD XD XD XD...what is wrong with you?

[shakama2]

such a sad yet beautiful song :(

[acousticstyle100]

I can understand everything, cause I'm Icelandic and he says my name at 0:22 (Brynja)

[beini321]

the pronunciation is not good sounds best when a Icelander reads old Norse

[yurismir1]

@beini321 How would you know? You weren't alive then.

[hXc232]

@beini321 old Norse and Icelandic are very different things

[rageone70]

Hell yeah! I wanna be a viking when I grow up!

Thank you :)

[Fyremael]

Very nicely done! I very much enjoyed this video!

[MaleneHellraizer]

beautiful! <3

[Henrik334]

Can you actually learn old nordic?

[beini321]

@Henrik334 yes its called icelandic now :)

[anibaljv]

wwwwwwoooooooowwwwwww i¨m from south America but the viking culture is very very interiesting my friend!! thanks a lot for share it!!

[captainbadd]

Scandinavian languages are interesting to me, especially as they relate to German and English. Thanks for uploading this.

[lichtbroeder]

@captainbadd I've read that centuries ago, the Angl-Saxons, Germanic peoples, and Scandinavians could somewhat understand each other because their languages hadn't diverged to the point where they do today.

[theawesomesausage]

á = long norwegian å

[sigudian]

When I read the translation to English, I can recognize a lot of Old Norse words, and how similar they are to their modern counterparts.

But even so, without the translation, its all gibberish except for a distinct few words that has not changed.

[TheGeneralBurn]

u got sum stuff wrong, for example brandrinn/brandr =sword, and rings is baugr

[labanp]

@TheGeneralBurn thanks for the info.

[TheGeneralBurn]

u got sum stuff wrong, for example brandrinn/brandr =sword

[Bloodragea]

Sir, where did you learn Old norse language?

[TROOPERofUSA]

@Bloodragea From the Norse.

[labanp]

I still can't get enough of this song!!

would you happen to have some more of the artist singer or at least similar genre?

I'm dying for some more old norse :)



[McLeod54]

Thank you, that was interesting!

[NorseRonin]

this is great! I can see the difference between this and modern Icelandic. Very touching song, I really enjoyed it (I put it in my favorites for future listening). Anyway, thanks a lot for posting this, really :)

[RNAsinn]

Virkilega flott :-)

[labanp]

why is one time dóttir and then another time dóttur?

and do you know the name of the singer? any other songs from him?

[RavenofDenmark]

@labanp

words in old norse change form, it is a matter about grammar.

The artist is Larvans Reimer-Moller

and he made the CD Runeskaldr

[labanp]

@RavenofDenmark Thanks, eller takk :)

This is super weird though, I can't seem to find anything on the singer nor his CD on the net, even google seems buffled - any idea?

[RavenofDenmark]

@labanp no :/

[labanp]

@RavenofDenmark well, thanks anywise :)

[Fodn1]

@labanp Góðan dagin Hrafn. Ert tú dani, ella hvørs tjóð ert tú? Eg síggi at tú talar forna norrøna málið. Hvar hevur tú lært tað?

Virðingarfyllst Eiriksson frá Føroyum

[iceviking92]

@RavenofDenmark it remains so still in the Icelandic example Hún er dóttir föður þíns (She is the daughter of your father) Sjáðu dóttur föður þíns (see your father's daughter)

Since they are no different from that language i understood everthyng that whent on there

[Rovarin]

@labanp in faroese, don't know about icelandic, the form of daughter in nominative is: Dóttir, but changes in accusative to: Dóttur. But this has probably no significance when discussing Norse, because back then they didn't really use grammar... but if it was spelled dóttir and dóttur it probably would have been said differently in each individual case... but I'm just speculating, so I might be wrong

[funyjoyappel]

Vel gert :)

[RavenofDenmark]

@funyjoyappel

jeg takker :b

[Vinterulf]

Hmmm... considering the gentleman provides the translation with the CD....

...i happen to know him personally. It would be nice to credit Larvans Reimer-Moller who lives in the U.S.. Yes, the pronunciation may be off, but it is a beautiful work...and I might add still unfinished. This is based on a sampler CD he provides when you go to his presentations at various heathen events.

[Vinterulf]

@Vinterulf also, Lavrans actually studied and constructed all the instruments based on archeological information, himself. Literally made them from hunks of wood, bone, etc.

[RavenofDenmark]

@Vinterulf Great! =)

He shall have credits

I just didn't know anything about who he is XD

what is the name of the CD?

[Vinterulf]

@RavenofDenmark The working title so far is "Runeskaldr"

[RavenofDenmark]

@Vinterulf

Every translation is an interpretation, modern languages is not like the old once, people thought differently back then. I tried to stay as loyal to the original text as possible, that means it can seem wierd.

Others like to just get he main point right, and sacrefice the rest for that.

I have never seen Larvans translation, so i cant tell how he has done it.

[MrPureAggression]

this is epic thank you so much

[CZeyn]

Love this song =D

I'm gonna try learn in >: D XD

[Solmyrkva]

hehe, agree with you on the weird pronunciation. I have only studied old norse for one or two years, but still I hear that he forgets the pronunciation of some words and doesn't really speak it fluently. I base this on the way my teacher pronounces old norse, it was a bit more fluent than this...Anyway I still like the text and the music and pictures :)

[valhoundmom]

That was wonderful! Thank you so much for posting.

Beautiful, great translation

[RangerThompson]

Absolutely amazing, sir. Your interpretation of the song was masterful.

[RavenofDenmark]

@RangerThompson

Thanks =)

[MiaMountainLover]

I like it, good translation and cool slideshow!

[RavenofDenmark]

@MiaMountainLover

good to know, I could not make the slideshow as i first wanted to :b

so i am glad it turned out good

[tobruus]

Godt jobba, Hrafn.

[RavenofDenmark]

@tobruus

Takk fyrir :D

[tobruus]

Godt jobba, Hrafn.