Apologies for the lack of updates.  First, I was waiting until after an event to post a new cool project I did for an award.  Then, Life occurred and has distracted me from writing.  But it's good Life things.  I am married and there's a little viking on the way.  ^___^  I find out next Wednesday the gender of our youngling.

I will try to update one my translation projects soon -- they were very fun to do and perform.

A man's wit shows in his words, stupidity is silent.

Here is a small collection of links.  I expect I shall continue to add to it.  I am also collecting quite a few on my sidebar.

General and Social:

Nordic Archaeological Abstracts
Essays in Medieval Studies Online
Stone Age Skills
Penile Puns: Personal Name and Phallic Symbols in Skaldic Poetry
Transvestite Vikings

Etymology:
Bare or Bear, or, the Story of Berserk

Travel:
Thule did not scare Vikings out of Newfoundland

Fiber arts:
The Color Blue in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature
What do we mean by "coloured clothing"?

Nature and Environment:
European history in cod bones
Ocean life in olden times
Study unlocks history of the seas

Geeks being silly:
If Star Wars was an Old Norse saga...

Re-enacting:

Living History Podcast

Flames from one log leap to another, fire kindles fire

There's two links I would like to share.  (Well, there's more -- I've collected some links in the past that I really should post here for resources, but we'll start with two right now)  The first is a really cool metal work method found at Birka that my friend Eithni pointed out to me.  This site has some lovely examples based on those finds: Silberknoten's posaments.  I think I shall have to learn how to do this at some point.

The second link is something I came across today: the Skaldic Project Homepage.  It's a searchable database of skaldic works, and includes lists of kennings and other cool things.


The title for today's post comes from verse 57 from Hávamál:


"Flames from one log leap to another,
fire kindles fire;
a man's wit shows in his words,
stupidity is silent."

The Ingvarr of the bellowing, did show his gum-mountains when he etched the rune

On a different sort of note, Ingus, y'know that guy I've mentioned a few times (1 & 2), has asked me to be his student.

And out of the fluidity of the moment, I helped translate the now-named Household into Norse.  Gellisheim.  'Cause, y'know, Ingus (and his apprentices) are not the quietest bunch in the land.  I think this means that Ingus also has a new byname.  >.>

The eye-cliffs, well sculpted, in wonder raise: word-smiths would know well this woman

Quite awhile ago now, I teamed up once again with Ingus to create something cool in Norse.  He was working on an Award of Arms scroll for Katerinka Lvovicha, a dual resident of the East Kingdom (totem is the tiger) and Northshield (totem is the griffin), and asked that I translate his words into Old Norse.  As an added bonus, I decided to then arrange the words into the Málaháttr style of poetry.

Here were the words of Ingus I was given:

Lion-born, Tiger's child 

walks the Western plains.

Word smith, song maiden

Call we now you to us.

Vigilant, Valiant

First to rise to help’s call

Ring giver, Road Traveller

Serves her king most gladly

Katerinka Lvovicha

Hear this now and know well

Two Kings see, Two Kings smile

Griffin and Tiger share this joy.

And here is the Old Norse:	And the literal translation:
Ljóni borin þú ert tígrisdýrs barn -- Orðsmiðr, söngmeyja -- gekkt á Vestvöllinu. Vit kallið þik nú. Gætin ok úgæf, Þú ert fyrst -- örlátr ferðamaðr -- at standa undir herann holliga. Katrín Ljovizta, herðu ok kannðu: tveir konnungar sjá ok tveir brosa þeir: Tígrisdýr miðla, ok it Gríffin, gleðina öllu.	to (the) lion born, you are tiger's child -- wordsmith, song-maiden -- (you) walk upon the western fields. We(dual) call you now. Heedful and not-meek, you are first -- generous traveler -- to be subject to the lord faithfully. Katerinka Lvovicha, hear and know: two kings see and they two smile: Tiger shares, and the Griffin, all the joy.

Lvov is Russian for 'lion' -- hence why she is lion-born.


Translation finished April 2009.

Award presented July 4, 2009 at Northern Region War Camp.

The lame man rides a horse...

I am not in fact dead.  I've just been completely busy with Life.  Interviewing and landing a Second Job, the holidays, hurting my back, and trying to find enough time to sleep and eat between the two jobs has been sucking up my juices and my brain.  I will hopefully be returning with more articles sometime soon.  Oh, let's make that a Resolution shall we?  I shall have a content post by the end of the month.

The title for today's post is taken from the Hávamál, from the first line of stanza 71.  Here it is in full (in translation, obviously):

The lame man rides a horse, the handless man drives herds, the deaf man fights and succeeds; to be blind is better than to be burnt: a corpse is of no use to anyone.