This is language from c.300CE. The post about Gothic was fun and I thought Id do a variant. This should be a bit closer to Icelandic, and the text is pretty famous so a lot of people will probably understand it from that. Interested to know if anyone unfamiliar with the text will understand it all.
Nope, it doesn’t resemble modern Icelandic in the least.
There are no words that are 1 to 1 or even similar, the closest would be “þata” “þetta” and “dauðano” “dauðin” and that’s just a guess.
You’d have to go at least around 1000 AC for these old texts to be readable by an average Icelander, and even then a lot of it sounds like gibberish and difficult to find any meaning in.
Deyr fé, deyja frændur, deyr sjálfur ið sama. En orðstír deyr aldregi hveim er sér góðan getur.
Deyr fé, deyja frændur, deyr sjálfur ið sama. En orðstír deyr aldregi hveim er sér góðan getur.
if you sound out the words you get something that’s closer to Icelandic than the actual text. Like others here have noted that’s a rather famous part of Hávamál so I kinda got it from there but I’d never say that I actual could read it as such.
The only words that I can say I could “read” are Daujið, Fehu, Frāndiz, Aldraigin and Haihwanmaþl and of those I can only say that I recognised Daujiþ before I realised what passage of Háfamál it is
p.s. I did recognise Wöðanaz as one of Odins names and that with the Daujiþ made things click
Deyr fé,
deyja frændur,
deyr sjálfur ið sama.
Eg veit einn
að aldrei deyr:
dómur um dauðan hvern.
This looks a lot more like Proto-Germanic to me rather than Proto-Norse. For Proto-Norse or even Northwest Germanic, we would expect rhotacism in the endings, for example.
Prior to reading other’s interpretation, and without correcting grammar and such, I read this as:
Deyjið fé,
dauðn frændur,
dauðið self-ið sömuleiðis.
Ég veit annann,
það né alfrei dauðir:
dómar um dauðann hverjans.
Vöðans, Hávamál
So, based on what others concluded, I’d say we can certainly read this with some accuracy, if we put our minds to it.
I’d polish the grammar, spelling and poeticism a bit in a second pass:
Deyr fé,
deyja frændur,
deyr sjálfið sömuleiðis.
Ég veit um annað,
það er aldrei deyr;
dómurinn um dauða hvers manns.
Völvan, Hávamál
My memory of this quote is pretty dusty, so I don’t know if it is actually from Hávamál, although I would think it is likely.
Deriving “Völvan” from “Wöðanaz” was also pretty far fetched. Maybe that was supposed to be Völvuspá, Óðinn, or something else. I don’t recall.
I can extract some meaning from it but it’s also like reading a drunk foreigner trying to write Icelandic after a week of learning it.
At first glance, absolutely not.
However, if you sound it out it’ll be closer to icelandic than it looks.
Probably just because we know the context as this is a familiar verse of Hávamál.
can’t say I do, but I recognize some words for sure.
If I were to make a wild guess, just to give you an idea;
Death —
Death family
Dead seldom/self —
Don’t want —-
This or never death
dream about death here and now
​
I’m aware this is wildly off but that would be my best guess if you put a gun to my head 🙂
No
My attempt to translate this without google or looking at the comments:
>Dauðinn finnur,
>Dauðan frænda,
>Dauðanum er sama.
>Ekki bíða eilífðarnóns,
>Þannig er aldrei dauðinn:
>Dómur dauðans er umbun hvers manns.
>-Hávamál
In English:
>Death finds,
>a dead friend/nephew,
>death does not care.
>Don’t wait forever,
>that’s never how death is/works:
>The judgement of death is a gift to every man.
>-Hávamál
Edit: ahhh not quite right. Should have at least known the words “fehu” (fé) and “eka wait” (ég veit)
14 comments
This is language from c.300CE. The post about Gothic was fun and I thought Id do a variant. This should be a bit closer to Icelandic, and the text is pretty famous so a lot of people will probably understand it from that. Interested to know if anyone unfamiliar with the text will understand it all.
Nope, it doesn’t resemble modern Icelandic in the least.
There are no words that are 1 to 1 or even similar, the closest would be “þata” “þetta” and “dauðano” “dauðin” and that’s just a guess.
You’d have to go at least around 1000 AC for these old texts to be readable by an average Icelander, and even then a lot of it sounds like gibberish and difficult to find any meaning in.
Deyr fé, deyja frændur, deyr sjálfur ið sama. En orðstír deyr aldregi hveim er sér góðan getur.
Deyr fé, deyja frændur, deyr sjálfur ið sama. En orðstír deyr aldregi hveim er sér góðan getur.
if you sound out the words you get something that’s closer to Icelandic than the actual text. Like others here have noted that’s a rather famous part of Hávamál so I kinda got it from there but I’d never say that I actual could read it as such.
The only words that I can say I could “read” are Daujið, Fehu, Frāndiz, Aldraigin and Haihwanmaþl and of those I can only say that I recognised Daujiþ before I realised what passage of Háfamál it is
p.s. I did recognise Wöðanaz as one of Odins names and that with the Daujiþ made things click
Deyr fé,
deyja frændur,
deyr sjálfur ið sama.
Eg veit einn
að aldrei deyr:
dómur um dauðan hvern.
This looks a lot more like Proto-Germanic to me rather than Proto-Norse. For Proto-Norse or even Northwest Germanic, we would expect rhotacism in the endings, for example.
Prior to reading other’s interpretation, and without correcting grammar and such, I read this as:
Deyjið fé,
dauðn frændur,
dauðið self-ið sömuleiðis.
Ég veit annann,
það né alfrei dauðir:
dómar um dauðann hverjans.
Vöðans, Hávamál
So, based on what others concluded, I’d say we can certainly read this with some accuracy, if we put our minds to it.
I’d polish the grammar, spelling and poeticism a bit in a second pass:
Deyr fé,
deyja frændur,
deyr sjálfið sömuleiðis.
Ég veit um annað,
það er aldrei deyr;
dómurinn um dauða hvers manns.
Völvan, Hávamál
My memory of this quote is pretty dusty, so I don’t know if it is actually from Hávamál, although I would think it is likely.
Deriving “Völvan” from “Wöðanaz” was also pretty far fetched. Maybe that was supposed to be Völvuspá, Óðinn, or something else. I don’t recall.
I can extract some meaning from it but it’s also like reading a drunk foreigner trying to write Icelandic after a week of learning it.
At first glance, absolutely not.
However, if you sound it out it’ll be closer to icelandic than it looks.
Probably just because we know the context as this is a familiar verse of Hávamál.
can’t say I do, but I recognize some words for sure.
If I were to make a wild guess, just to give you an idea;
Death —
Death family
Dead seldom/self —
Don’t want —-
This or never death
dream about death here and now
​
I’m aware this is wildly off but that would be my best guess if you put a gun to my head 🙂
No
My attempt to translate this without google or looking at the comments:
>Dauðinn finnur,
>Dauðan frænda,
>Dauðanum er sama.
>Ekki bíða eilífðarnóns,
>Þannig er aldrei dauðinn:
>Dómur dauðans er umbun hvers manns.
>-Hávamál
In English:
>Death finds,
>a dead friend/nephew,
>death does not care.
>Don’t wait forever,
>that’s never how death is/works:
>The judgement of death is a gift to every man.
>-Hávamál
Edit: ahhh not quite right. Should have at least known the words “fehu” (fé) and “eka wait” (ég veit)