Helheim Glacier is a glacier in the Sermersooq municipality, Eastern Greenland .
108-674: This glacier's name is derived from "Helheim", a modern term for a world of the dead in Old Norse religion : Hel . The Helheim Glacier is located on the eastern side of the Greenland ice sheet . It is one of Greenland's largest outlet glaciers . It flows roughly in an ESE direction and feeds the waters of the Helheim Fjord , a branch at the northern end of the Sermilik ( Danish : Egede og Rothes Fjord ) system, where there are
216-613: A definite article ("the"), a demonstrative adjective ("that"), and demonstrative pronoun . Other demonstratives are þēs ("this"), and ġeon ("that over there"). These words inflect for case, gender, and number. Adjectives have both strong and weak sets of endings, weak ones being used when a definite or possessive determiner is also present. Verbs conjugate for three persons : first, second, and third; two numbers: singular, plural; two tenses : present, and past; three moods : indicative , subjunctive , and imperative ; and are strong (exhibiting ablaut) or weak (exhibiting
324-694: A version of the Latin alphabet . Englisċ , from which the word English is derived, means 'pertaining to the Angles '. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes who settled in many parts of Britain in the 5th century. By the 9th century, all speakers of Old English, including those who claimed Saxon or Jutish ancestry, could be referred to as Englisċ . This name probably either derives from Proto-Germanic *anguz , which referred to narrowness, constriction or anxiety, perhaps referring to shallow waters near
432-398: A back vowel ( /ɑ/ , /o/ , /u/ ) at the time of palatalization, as illustrated by the contrast between fisċ /fiʃ/ ('fish') and its plural fiscas /ˈfis.kɑs/ . But due to changes over time, a knowledge of the history of the word in question is needed to predict the pronunciation with certainty (for details, see palatalization ). In word-final position, the pronunciation of sċ
540-443: A cycle, although it is never explicitly stated to occur more than once. Old Norse sources describe burial mounds acting as places of religious activity, often with the aim of bringing or maintaining the fertility of the land. In some sources such as Saga Ólafs ens Helga , they are referred to as Old Norse : blothaugar (sacrificial howes ). In some accounts the recipient of worship are deceased rulers such as King Guðmund in
648-406: A dental suffix). Verbs have two infinitive forms: bare and bound; and two participles : present and past. The subjunctive has past and present forms. Finite verbs agree with subjects in person and number. The future tense , passive voice , and other aspects are formed with compounds. Adpositions are mostly before but are often after their object. If the object of an adposition is marked in
756-517: A following ⟨m⟩ or ⟨n⟩ . Modern editions of Old English manuscripts generally introduce some additional conventions. The modern forms of Latin letters are used, including ⟨g⟩ instead of insular G , ⟨s⟩ instead of insular S and long S , and others which may differ considerably from the insular script, notably ⟨e⟩ , ⟨f⟩ and ⟨r⟩ . Macrons are used to indicate long vowels, where usually no distinction
864-467: A friction that led to the erosion of the complicated inflectional word endings. Simeon Potter notes: No less far-reaching was the influence of Scandinavian upon the inflexional endings of English in hastening that wearing away and leveling of grammatical forms which gradually spread from north to south. It was, after all, a salutary influence. The gain was greater than the loss. There was a gain in directness, in clarity, and in strength. The strength of
972-494: A hall, decorated with gold and a lavish feasting table ready for the celebration of Baldr 's arrival to the realm after his coming death. Still, it was probably less desired than Valhalla to some individuals, with sagas telling of warriors who cut themselves with spears before dying in order to trick Hel into thinking that they had died heroic deaths in battle. In the story of Hadingus , in Gesta Danorum , Saxo describes
1080-437: A land of the dead that may be Hel. In this account, Hadding is led by an old woman through a sunny land that could grow herbs even in winter, with a great wall that Hadding couldn't pass. The woman then cut the head of a cockerel and threw it over the wall, whereupon it came back to life and could be heard crowing on the other side. Valhalla is an afterlife where those who die in battle gather as einherjar , in preparation for
1188-689: A number of other glaciers calving and discharging at rapid rates such as the Fenris and the Midgard Glacier . Helheim Glacier accelerated from 8 km (5.0 mi) per year in 2000 to 11 km (6.8 mi) per year in 2005. Like many of Greenland's outlet glaciers, it is a common site where glacial earthquakes are monitored. This Greenland location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Death in Norse paganism#Afterlives and rebirth Death in Norse paganism
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#17327981568271296-530: A period of 700 years, from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the Norman invasion . While indicating that the establishment of dates is an arbitrary process, Albert Baugh dates Old English from 450 to 1150, a period of full inflections, a synthetic language . Perhaps around 85% of Old English words are no longer in use, but those that survived are
1404-522: A pit. In Gautrek's Saga members of a household believe they will go to Valhalla after sacrificing themselves to Odin by jumping off a precipice named Ætternisstapa (Family Cliff). The accuracy of this as a historic practice has been questioned; however, it is also referenced in Kristni saga , and Bede describes a similar or shared tradition in England. Grímnismál describes how Valhalla's roof
1512-586: A shepherd-man of Thorstein's fared after his sheep north of Holyfell; there he saw how the fell was opened on the north side, and in the fell he saw mighty fires, and heard huge clamour therein, and the clank of drinking-horns; and when he hearkened if perchance he might hear any words clear of others, he heard that there was welcomed Thorstein Codbiter and his crew, and he was bidden to sit in the high-seat over against his father. Landnámabók supports this, stating that Þórólfr's kinsmen believed they would enter into
1620-471: Is a hall woven with the spines of snakes, a description which has been noted to show significant linguistic similarity with an Old English kenning for the Christian Hell , wyrmsele (snake hall). Hel's realm is separated from the world of the living by the river Gjöll , spanned by the bridge Gjallarbrú . The gates are heavy, and close behind those who pass it, preventing them from returning to
1728-552: Is also sparse early Northumbrian evidence of a sixth case: the locative . The evidence comes from Northumbrian Runic texts (e.g., ᚩᚾ ᚱᚩᛞᛁ on rodi "on the Cross"). Adjectives agree with nouns in case, gender, and number, and can be either strong or weak. Pronouns and sometimes participles agree in case, gender, and number. First-person and second- person personal pronouns occasionally distinguish dual-number forms. The definite article sē and its inflections serve as
1836-635: Is an otherworldly encounter connected with a male figure sitting on a howe, who is commonly a herdsman, such as the jötnar , as with Eggþér , Þrymr . Þorleifs þáttr jarlaskálds , from Flateyjarbók , describes how the shepherd Hallbjörn remembered a verse told to him in a dream by the dead skald Þorleifr as he slept on his howe, and was thereafter a great poet. The similarity has been further noted between this image and Gunnar Hámundarson singing from within his own howe in Njal's saga . Similarities have been noted with other Northern European cultures, such as
1944-422: Is as follows. The sounds enclosed in parentheses in the chart above are not considered to be phonemes : The above system is largely similar to that of Modern English , except that [ç, x, ɣ, l̥, n̥, r̥] (and [ʍ] for most speakers ) have generally been lost, while the voiced affricate and fricatives (now also including /ʒ/ ) have become independent phonemes, as has /ŋ/ . The open back rounded vowel [ɒ]
2052-461: Is described as catching the drowned in her net. Nonetheless, Rán's halls are not the sole afterlife for those who die at sea, such as in Eyrbyggja saga when Þorsteinn Þorskabítr and his crew die on a fishing trip but are seen entering into Helgafell. Ejybyggja saga also describes Þorod and his men being killed when their ship is driven ashore, whereupon their bodies are lost. At the funeral feast,
2160-621: Is evidenced by the continued variation between their successors in Middle and Modern English. In fact, what would become the standard forms of Middle English and of Modern English are descended from Mercian rather than West Saxon, while Scots developed from the Northumbrian dialect. It was once claimed that, owing to its position at the heart of the Kingdom of Wessex, the relics of Anglo-Saxon accent, idiom and vocabulary were best preserved in
2268-613: Is followed by Middle English (1150 to 1500), Early Modern English (1500 to 1650) and finally Modern English (after 1650), and in Scotland Early Scots (before 1450), Middle Scots ( c. 1450 to 1700) and Modern Scots (after 1700). Just as Modern English is not monolithic, Old English varied according to place. Despite the diversity of language of the Germanic-speaking migrants who established Old English in England and southeastern Scotland, it
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#17327981568272376-516: Is invoked by a girl who opposes the religious practice involving an embalmed phallus. Surviving texts indicate that there was a belief in rebirth in Germanic paganism . In Helgakviða Hundingsbana II and Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar in the Poetic Edda describe the rebirth of the lovers Helgi Hundingsbane and Sváva , and Helgi and Sigrún respectively. Rebirth is also suggested in some sagas such as of Starkaðr and Olaf Geirstad-Alf ,
2484-464: Is located in the third heaven, Víðbláinn , separate from Andlàngr and Asgard . Along with Gimlé, two more halls are listed by Snorri that are named Brimir and Sindri ; however, some translators such as Caroline Larrington read these names as belonging to the owners of the halls. Snorri's additions are believed by scholars to have been heavily influenced by Christian teaching, based on the levels of heavens and also that Snorri interpreted Ragnarök as
2592-400: Is made of spears and shields, similar to the hall of the howe-dweller Geirröðr in Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns . It has been proposed that Valhalla developed and gained importance around 500 CE, when Odin gained prominence relative to female gods associated with death, amid other changes in religious practice, such as a shift in focus from bodies of water to halls and cult buildings, and
2700-417: Is possible that death required an extra portion of fertility and eroticism, but also that the living received life force from the dead. The thought might have been that life and death have the same origin, and if an individual died, the fertility and the future life of the ætt would be ensured. Ibn Fadlan 's eyewitness account of a Rus' funeral describes a slave girl who volunteered to be sacrificed. When
2808-864: Is possible to reconstruct proto-Old English as a fairly unitary language. For the most part, the differences between the attested regional dialects of Old English developed within England and southeastern Scotland, rather than on the Mainland of Europe. Although from the tenth century Old English writing from all regions tended to conform to a written standard based on Late West Saxon, in speech Old English continued to exhibit much local and regional variation, which remained in Middle English and to some extent Modern English dialects . The four main dialectal forms of Old English were Mercian , Northumbrian , Kentish , and West Saxon . Mercian and Northumbrian are together referred to as Anglian . In terms of geography
2916-434: Is replaced by ⟨þ⟩ ). In contrast with Modern English orthography , Old English spelling was reasonably regular , with a mostly predictable correspondence between letters and phonemes . There were not usually any silent letters —in the word cniht , for example, both the ⟨c⟩ and ⟨h⟩ were pronounced ( /knixt ~ kniçt/ ) unlike the ⟨k⟩ and ⟨gh⟩ in
3024-435: Is the ninth, there Freyia directs the sittings in the hall. She half the fallen chooses each day, but Odin th' other half. In Egil's saga , Þorgerðr Egilsdóttir after the death of her brother proclaims that she will not eat again until she dines with Freyja. In this section, Fólkvangr is not explicitly mentioned and the precise afterlife in which she believes she will meet Freyja is unclear. In Old Norse sources,
3132-521: Is typically identified as Odin), taunts Thor by saying that the earls who die in battle go to Odin, while Thor receives the thralls . Some who die in battle are described as going to Hel rather than Valhalla. Valhalla is also not exclusively reserved for those who die in battle, such as in Krákumál where Ragnar Loðbrok describes that he will soon be in Valhalla, despite being killed by snakes in
3240-472: Is very different from Modern English and Modern Scots, and largely incomprehensible for Modern English or Modern Scots speakers without study. Within Old English grammar nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms, and word order is much freer. The oldest Old English inscriptions were written using a runic system , but from about the 8th century this was replaced by
3348-526: The Angles , Saxons and Jutes . As the Germanic settlers became dominant in England, their language replaced the languages of Roman Britain : Common Brittonic , a Celtic language ; and Latin , brought to Britain by the Roman conquest . Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon kingdoms : Kentish , Mercian , Northumbrian , and West Saxon . It was West Saxon that formed
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3456-597: The Hauksbók manuscript version of Hervarar saga ok Heidreks . Hálfdanar saga Svarta , in Heimskringla , describes that harvests were better under the rule of Halfdan the Black than with previous kings. When he died, his body was divided in four, and each piece was buried in a howe to ensure the continuation of the good harvests in each area. The Flateyjarbók account further adds that many people performed blóts at
3564-512: The Judgement Day for one's actions. Belief in these afterlives thus do not likely represent a pre-Christian worldview. The ásynja Gefjun is attended by women who die unmarried according to Gylfaginning . This is not attested elsewhere and may be an invention by Snorri although it has been noted that the association between the god and chastity is also seen in Völsa þáttr , when she
3672-652: The Latin alphabet was introduced and adapted for the writing of Old English , replacing the earlier runic system. Nonetheless, the largest transfer of Latin-based (mainly Old French ) words into English occurred after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and thus in the Middle English rather than the Old English period. Another source of loanwords was Old Norse , which came into contact with Old English via
3780-606: The Migration Period . It has been proposed that these served as platforms for public ceremonies. The howe sat upon is often said to be of a direct relative of the king such as of his wife, as in Hjálmðérs saga ok Ölvérs and Göngu-Hrólfs saga , or his father, as in Friðþjófs saga . Sitting on a dead ruler's howe is further recorded as a way to assert one's claim to the throne, as is described in Ólafs saga helga when
3888-676: The Welsh and Irish , in which howes are also a place to encounter and receive knowledge from the otherworld. Sitting on a howe is also associated with rulership. In literary sources, sitting on mounds is linked to holding power and accordingly, King Hrollaugr descends from his seat upon a howe when he is vassalised by Harald Fairhair in Haralds saga hárfagra . Things were often held at sites with howes. In Sweden, some of these mounds have flattened tops, such as Injald's howe in Husby which dates to
3996-603: The dialect of Somerset . For details of the sound differences between the dialects, see Phonological history of Old English § Dialects . The language of the Anglo-Saxon settlers appears not to have been significantly affected by the native British Celtic languages which it largely displaced . The number of Celtic loanwords introduced into the language is very small, although dialect and toponymic terms are more often retained in western language contact zones (Cumbria, Devon, Welsh Marches and Borders and so on) than in
4104-609: The kingdom of Northumbria . Other parts of the island continued to use Celtic languages ( Gaelic – and perhaps some Pictish – in most of Scotland, Medieval Cornish all over Cornwall and in adjacent parts of Devon , Cumbric perhaps to the 12th century in parts of Cumbria , and Welsh in Wales and possibly also on the English side of the Anglo-Welsh border ); except in the areas of Scandinavian settlements, where Old Norse
4212-422: The 8th century, the runic system came to be supplanted by a (minuscule) half-uncial script of the Latin alphabet introduced by Irish Christian missionaries. This was replaced by Insular script , a cursive and pointed version of the half-uncial script. This was used until the end of the 12th century when continental Carolingian minuscule (also known as Caroline ) replaced the insular. The Latin alphabet of
4320-406: The English language; some of them, such as Pope Gregory I 's treatise Pastoral Care , appear to have been translated by Alfred himself. In Old English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, but Alfred chiefly inspired the growth of prose. A later literary standard, dating from the late 10th century, arose under the influence of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester , and
4428-501: The Germanic peoples in folk belief . The concept of the self in pre-Christian Nordic religion was diverse and is not presented as rigid or consistent in surviving Old Norse texts, nor is there a strict dualism of body and soul as in Christianity . Despite this, components have been identified that could together comprise the individual: It has been proposed that when the body had been broken down, through decay or immolation,
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4536-608: The Great . From that time on, the West Saxon dialect (then in the form now known as Early West Saxon) became standardised as the language of government, and as the basis for the many works of literature and religious materials produced or translated from Latin in that period. The later literary standard known as Late West Saxon (see History , above), although centred in the same region of the country, appears not to have been directly descended from Alfred's Early West Saxon. For example,
4644-410: The Northumbrian dialect retained /i(ː)o̯/ , which had merged with /e(ː)o̯/ in West Saxon. For more on dialectal differences, see Phonological history of Old English (dialects) . Some of the principal sound changes occurring in the pre-history and history of Old English were the following: For more details of these processes, see the main article, linked above. For sound changes before and after
4752-880: The Northumbrian region lay north of the Humber River; the Mercian lay north of the Thames and south of the Humber River; West Saxon lay south and southwest of the Thames; and the smallest, Kentish region lay southeast of the Thames, a small corner of England. The Kentish region, settled by the Jutes from Jutland, has the scantest literary remains. The term West Saxon actually is represented by two different dialects: Early West Saxon and Late West Saxon. Hogg has suggested that these two dialects would be more appropriately named Alfredian Saxon and Æthelwoldian Saxon, respectively, so that
4860-467: The Old English period is also often attributed to Norse influence. The influence of Old Norse certainly helped move English from a synthetic language along the continuum to a more analytic word order , and Old Norse most likely made a greater impact on the English language than any other language. The eagerness of Vikings in the Danelaw to communicate with their Anglo-Saxon neighbours produced
4968-478: The Old English period, see Phonological history of English . Nouns decline for five cases : nominative , accusative , genitive , dative , instrumental ; three genders : masculine, feminine, neuter; and two numbers : singular, and plural; and are strong or weak. The instrumental is vestigial and only used with the masculine and neuter singular and often replaced by the dative . Only pronouns and strong adjectives retain separate instrumental forms. There
5076-526: The Scandinavian rulers and settlers in the Danelaw from the late 9th century, and during the rule of Cnut and other Danish kings in the early 11th century. Many place names in eastern and northern England are of Scandinavian origin. Norse borrowings are relatively rare in Old English literature, being mostly terms relating to government and administration. The literary standard, however,
5184-606: The Viking influence on Old English appears from the fact that the indispensable elements of the language – pronouns , modals , comparatives , pronominal adverbs (like hence and together ), conjunctions and prepositions – show the most marked Danish influence; the best evidence of Scandinavian influence appears in the extensive word borrowings because, as Jespersen indicates, no texts exist in either Scandinavia or Northern England from this time to give certain evidence of an influence on syntax. The effect of Old Norse on Old English
5292-662: The afterlife, most famously in Valhalla when the einherjar train for the coming conflict at Ragnarök . It is also seen in the journey of Hading to the land of the dead in Gesta Danorum between those who died in battle, and in the story of Thorstein Uxafotr from the Flateyjarbók , where the fight takes place in the grave. In the telling of Hjaðningavíg in Skáldskaparmál , Hildr brings back to life each night
5400-506: The basic elements of Modern English vocabulary. Old English is a West Germanic language , and developed out of Ingvaeonic (also known as North Sea Germanic) dialects from the 5th century. It came to be spoken over most of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which became the Kingdom of England . This included most of present-day England, as well as part of what is now southeastern Scotland , which for several centuries belonged to
5508-577: The basis for the literary standard of the later Old English period, although the dominant forms of Middle and Modern English would develop mainly from Mercian, and Scots from Northumbrian. The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule and settlement beginning in the 9th century. Old English is one of the West Germanic languages , and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon . Like other old Germanic languages, it
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#17327981568275616-559: The beginnings of the compound tenses of Modern English . Old English verbs include strong verbs , which form the past tense by altering the root vowel, and weak verbs , which use a suffix such as -de . As in Modern English, and peculiar to the Germanic languages, the verbs formed two great classes: weak (regular), and strong (irregular). Like today, Old English had fewer strong verbs, and many of these have over time decayed into weak forms. Then, as now, dental suffixes indicated
5724-591: The body is exhumed and burned, or decapitated – practices continued after the conversion to Christianity. Due to the dangers posed by the ash, it is typically buried away from the settlement. In Eyrbyggja saga , the ash is licked by a cow which gives birth to a calf that later kills the man who burnt the body. Individuals who become harmful howe-dweller are often cruel or unsociable in life, such as Glamr in Grettis saga and Þórólfr bægifótr in Eyrbyggja saga . Aptrgǫngur are not always monstrous, however, as in
5832-494: The borrowing of individual Latin words based on which patterns of sound change they have undergone. Some Latin words had already been borrowed into the Germanic languages before the ancestral Angles and Saxons left continental Europe for Britain. More entered the language when the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity and Latin-speaking priests became influential. It was also through Irish Christian missionaries that
5940-470: The cairn, and none of them threw a shadow. They saw that Gunnar was merry, and he wore a joyful face. He sang a song, and so loud, that it might have been heard though they had been farther off. Fires in inhabited howes are also seen in Grettis saga during the encounter with the draug Karr the Old and Hervarar saga ok Heidreks when Hervor goes to her father Angantyr 's mound to obtain the sword Tyrfing , in
6048-439: The case of Gunnar Hámundarson in Njal's saga : Now those two, Skarphedinn and Hogni, were out of doors one evening by Gunnar's cairn on the south side. The moon and stars were shining clear and bright, but every now and then the clouds drove over them. Then all at once they thought they saw the cairn standing open, and lo! Gunnar had turned himself in the cairn and looked at the moon. They thought they saw four lights burning in
6156-405: The chieftain had been put in the ship, she went from tent to tent where she had sex with one man each time, who said to her to tell their deceased lord that they did it out of love for him. Lastly, she entered a tent that had been raised on the ship, and in it, six men had intercourse with her before she was strangled and stabbed. The sexual rites with the slave girl have led to the proposal that she
6264-499: The child Björn sits on the mound of his father to challenge the kingship of his uncle. The connection is also seen with producing a rightful heir in Völsunga saga in which it is upon a howe that King Rerir receives an apple from one of Frigg 's maids in the form of a crow that allowed his wife to conceive Völsung . Again, these practices show similarities with those of Medieval Welsh culture. In Hávamál , Odin when speaking of
6372-499: The cluster ending in the palatal affricate is sometimes written ⟨nċġ⟩ (or ⟨nġċ⟩ ) by modern editors. Between vowels in the middle of a word, the pronunciation can be either a palatalized geminate /ʃː/ , as in fisċere /ˈfiʃ.ʃe.re/ ('fisherman') and wȳsċan , /ˈwyːʃ.ʃɑn 'to wish'), or an unpalatalized consonant sequence /sk/ , as in āscian /ˈɑːs.ki.ɑn/ ('to ask'). The pronunciation /sk/ occurs when ⟨sc⟩ had been followed by
6480-461: The coast, or else it may derive from a related word *angô which could refer to curve or hook shapes including fishing hooks. Concerning the second option, it has been hypothesised that the Angles acquired their name either because they lived on a curved promontory of land shaped like a fishhook , or else because they were fishermen (anglers). Old English was not static, and its usage covered
6588-500: The curse of a dead Christian woman, similar to the waking of Sigrdrífa in Sigrdrífumál In Hrolfs saga kraka , the half- elf daughter of King Helgi , Skuld defeats Hrólf Kraki in battle by reanimating those who fall on her side as draugs , who are stronger than they were in life. In some cases, both sides of the conflict are continuously revived, leading to a nearly everlasting battle. This can take place in
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#17327981568276696-421: The dative case, an adposition may conceivably be located anywhere in the sentence. Remnants of the Old English case system in Modern English are in the forms of a few pronouns (such as I/me/mine , she/her , who/whom/whose ) and in the possessive ending -'s , which derives from the masculine and neuter genitive ending -es . The modern English plural ending -(e)s derives from the Old English -as , but
6804-745: The dead into hills is described in Eyrbyggja saga where the worshipper of Thor , Þórólfr Mostrarskegg holds Helgafell ("Holyfell"), a hill or mountain near his home, sacred. Þórólfr's son Þorsteinn Þorskabítr later dies, along with his crew, on a fishing expedition: Þat var eitt kveld um haustit, at sauðamaðr Þorsteins fór at fé fyrir norðan Helgafell. Hann sá, at fjallit laukst upp norðan. Hann sá inn í fjallit elda stóra ok heyrði þangat mikinn glaum ok hornaskvöl, ok er hann hlýddi, ef hann næmi orðaskil, heyði hann, at þar var heilsat Þorsteini þorskabít ok förunautum hans ok mælt, at hann skal sitja í öndvegi gegnt feðr sínum. That same harvest Thorstein fared out to Hoskuldsey to fish; but on an evening of harvest
6912-432: The dead man and a lady who represents the afterlife. This lady was often Hel , but it could also be Rán who received those who died at sea. Rán's nine daughters are also depicted as erotic partners in death. There is good reason to believe that such erotic elements are not just skaldic playfulness, but authentic pagan notions, since they appear in the oldest known skaldic poems . In the 9th century poem Ynglingatal ,
7020-467: The dead using a galdr in Baldrs draumar when he commands a völva to reveal why his son Baldr is having bad dreams, and so finds out that the god will soon die. In Grógaldr , Svipdag goes to the howe of his dead mother and wakes her, whereupon she describes herself as having lain in the mould after leaving the world of the living. She then teaches him galdrar to protect him from danger, including
7128-422: The dead, show scenes alluding to death and eroticism. The stones have richly decorated surfaces and they often in the upper field depict a welcoming scene in the realm of the dead between a man and a lady. The lady offers a drinking horn to the man who arrives on Sleipnir . It is the man's phallic shape, among other things, which has led scholars to connect the images to the literary sources. The scene could depict
7236-499: The deceased can become animate after burial as a draug (also known as Old Norse : aptrgangr (after-walker) or Old Norse : haugbúi (howe-dweller)). Draugs are frequently hostile, especially when the person was unpleasant in life, becoming inhumanly strong and large, and causing destruction and killing in the local area; they commonly damage roofs by riding on them and in Flóamanna saga cause plague. This typically lasts until
7344-515: The deceased into the sea on a ship is also attested in literary sources, such as of Scyld in Beowulf and Baldr in the Prose Edda . Hel , according to Snorri , is an underground realm ruled by Loki 's daughter Hel that is the afterlife for most individuals. Within or near Hel is Náströnd , a place of darkness and horror reserved for oath-breakers, murderers and adulterers. On Náströnd
7452-565: The deceased who is united with Hel or with Rán. It is primarily kings and chieftains who are portrayed with an erotic death, but also the death of a hero can be portrayed in the same way. The connection between death and eroticism is probably ancient in Scandinavia, and to this testify numerous "white stones", great phallic stones that were raised on the barrows. The tradition goes back to the 5th century, and in total 40 such stones have been discovered, mostly on Norway's southwestern coast. It
7560-496: The development of an aristocratic warrior elite in southern Scandinavia seeking territorial expansion. Fólkvangr is an afterlife field ruled over by Freyja , who chooses half of those who die in battle to reside with her there, attested solely in the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál : Fólkvangr er inn níundi, en þar Freyja ræðr sessa kostum í sal; halfan val hon kýss hverjan dag, en halfan Óðinn á. Fôlkvang
7668-431: The east. However, various suggestions have been made concerning possible influence that Celtic may have had on developments in English syntax in the post–Old English period, such as the regular progressive construction and analytic word order , as well as the eventual development of the periphrastic auxiliary verb do . These ideas have generally not received widespread support from linguists, particularly as many of
7776-574: The fell when they died. Njáls saga also gives an account of Svanr, a wizard, who was welcomed into the mountain Kaldbak after he drowned at sea. The belief in entering into hills, such as Þorisbjorg and Melifell, upon death is referenced elsewhere in Landnámabók. A similar belief among Sámi continued into the modern period. It has been suggested that belief in the dead living in howes and mountains are connected, with both being presented as halls on
7884-738: The fiery barrier that separates the realms of the gods and jötnar in Skírnismál . In addition to the ambiguity between Hel and the grave, the deceased can also return to their howe from Valhalla, as in Helgakviða Hundingsbana II , where the hero Helgi physically travels from there by night to his open burial mound where he lies with wife Sigrún . Here, Helgi is described as being bloody, with ice-cold hands and frost in his hair, and tells her that her weeping over him causes him pain, similar to in Laxdæla saga . The entry of
7992-476: The fighting armies on Hoy of her father and lover, while in the account in Sörla þáttr , Freyja is responsible for raising the dead. Many of these accounts show incorporation of Christian narrative elements to overcome this magic, such as intervention from Saint Olaf . Early sources have an additional complex of beliefs which is connected with the afterlife: death could be described as an erotic embrace between
8100-645: The former diphthong /iy/ tended to become monophthongised to /i/ in EWS, but to /y/ in LWS. Due to the centralisation of power and the destruction wrought by Viking invasions, there is relatively little written record of the non-West Saxon dialects after Alfred's unification. Some Mercian texts continued to be written, however, and the influence of Mercian is apparent in some of the translations produced under Alfred's programme, many of which were produced by Mercian scholars. Other dialects certainly continued to be spoken, as
8208-531: The futhorc. A few letter pairs were used as digraphs , representing a single sound. Also used was the Tironian note ⟨⁊⟩ (a character similar to the digit 7) for the conjunction and . A common scribal abbreviation was a thorn with a stroke ⟨ꝥ⟩ , which was used for the pronoun þæt ( that ). Macrons over vowels were originally used not to mark long vowels (as in modern editions), but to indicate stress, or as abbreviations for
8316-603: The inscriptions on the Franks Casket ) date to the early 8th century. The Old English Latin alphabet was introduced around the 8th century. With the unification of several of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (outside the Danelaw ) by Alfred the Great in the later 9th century, the language of government and literature became standardised around the West Saxon dialect (Early West Saxon). Alfred advocated education in English alongside Latin, and had many works translated into
8424-468: The inside. It has been noted that those who are associated with this belief in saga literature and Landnámabók are related to one another. This had led to the proposal that the belief was part of a local, or family practice that was brought to Iceland early in the 10th century. Rán , the wife of Ægir , is a god who receives into her halls those who drown at sea, as described in sources such as Friðþjófs saga and Sonatorrek . In Skáldskaparmál , she
8532-436: The kings are said in several stanzas to be in "Hel's embrace". Several skaldic poems and sagas describe death in battle or on the sea with erotic terminology. The skald praises the brave sea warrior who fights in vain against the natural forces, but who finally has to give up, and then he enters Rán's bed or is embraced by her nine daughters. Several of Gotland 's 2 to 3 m tall phallic image stones , raised in remembrance of
8640-523: The landscape. These afterlives show blurred boundaries and exist alongside a number of minor afterlives that may have been significant in Nordic paganism. The dead were also seen as being able to bestow land fertility, often in return for votive offerings , and knowledge, either willingly or after coercion. Many of these beliefs and practices continued in altered forms after the Christianisation of
8748-483: The language of the upper classes. This is regarded as marking the end of the Old English era, since during the subsequent period the English language was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman, developing into what is now known as Middle English in England and Early Scots in Scotland. Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or Ingvaeonic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as
8856-530: The last great battle during Ragnarök . In opposition to Hel's realm, which was a subterranean realm of the dead, it appears that Valhalla was located somewhere in the heavens. Valhalla is presented primarily as an abode for deceased men, with the principal female figures being the valkyries who gather the fallen warriors on the battlefield and bring them to Odin's hall, where they pour mead for them. In Gisla saga , 'hel-shoes' are put on men's feet to allow them to walk to Valhalla. In Hárbarðsljóð , Hárbarðr (who
8964-449: The latter applied only to "strong" masculine nouns in the nominative and accusative cases; different plural endings were used in other instances. Old English nouns had grammatical gender , while modern English has only natural gender. Pronoun usage could reflect either natural or grammatical gender when those conflicted, as in the case of ƿīf , a neuter noun referring to a female person. In Old English's verbal compound constructions are
9072-563: The latter case of which is directly associated with entry into the deceased's burial mound. Scholars have also explored the potential association with the naming newborns after the dead, often through the family line. Scholars have proposed that cyclic time was the original format for the mythology. Most notably, the destruction of the world in Ragnarök and its subsequent rebirth, as described in Völuspá and Gylfaginning , could be seen as
9180-468: The latter of which it is termed ( Old Norse : haugaeldrinn ). Once awake, the dead Angantyr refers to the entrance to his grave as "Hel's gate" ( Old Norse : helgrind ), suggesting there is no clear distinction between the realm and the physical place the individual inhabits after death. In the episode in Hervarar saga ok Heidreks, the fire acts as a boundary between the living and the dead, akin to
9288-460: The men enter dripping wet and are welcomed because of the belief that attending one's own funeral after drowning was a sign that one was well received by Rán. Gimlé is a golden hall attested in Völuspá that will be the residence of mankind after Ragnarök . Snorri Sturluson adds to this description in Gylfaginning , stating that it is reserved for those who acted virtuously in life and
9396-456: The modern knight ( /naɪt/ ). The following table lists the Old English letters and digraphs together with the phonemes they represent, using the same notation as in the Phonology section above. After /n/ , /j/ was realized as [dʒ] and /ɣ/ was realized as [ɡ] . The spellings ⟨ncg⟩ , ⟨ngc⟩ and even ⟨ncgg⟩ were occasionally used instead of
9504-458: The mounds until it was outlawed. In Þáttr Ólafs Geirstaða Alfs , Hálfdan's brother Olaf is buried in a howe upon death and during a famine, the people began performing blóts to bring plenty, and calling him Olaf Geirstad- Elf ( Old Norse : Ólaf Geirstaða Álfr ). Similar accounts in Ynglinga saga and Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar give a euhemeristic description of Freyr as a king of Sweden who
9612-505: The naive reader would not assume that they are chronologically related. Each of these four dialects was associated with an independent kingdom on the islands. Of these, Northumbria south of the Tyne , and most of Mercia , were overrun by the Vikings during the 9th century. The portion of Mercia that was successfully defended, and all of Kent , were then integrated into Wessex under Alfred
9720-640: The non-physical component of the individual could start the journey to a realm of the dead; however, other sources emphasise physical life after death as draugs . Prior to Christianisation, the North Germanic peoples practiced a variety of burial customs, such as cremation and inhumation , that varied in popularity over time. Remains were buried, such as in howes , and were typically accompanied by grave goods. Germanic ship burials are well attested, both in archeology, such as at Oseberg and Sutton Hoo and in writing, such as Gisla Saga ; sending out
9828-512: The past tense of the weak verbs, as in work and worked . Old English syntax is similar to that of modern English . Some differences are consequences of the greater level of nominal and verbal inflection, allowing freer word order . Old English was first written in runes , using the futhorc —a rune set derived from the Germanic 24-character elder futhark , extended by five more runes used to represent Anglo-Saxon vowel sounds and sometimes by several more additional characters. From around
9936-475: The realm of the living. Scholars believe that these ideas of Hel are influenced by Early Medieval Christianity, which taught of a realm of punishment in contrast to paradise . The word Helviti , which still is the name of Hell in modern North Germanic languages , means "Hel's punishment". Hel was not necessarily conceived of as dark and dreary to heathen Scandinavians ; the poem Baldrs draumar describes in Hel
10044-443: The spells he knows states: Þat kann ek it tolfta: ef ek sé á tré uppi váfa virgilná, svá ek ríst ok í rúnum fák, at sá gengr gumi ok mælir við mik. I know a twelfth, if I see in a tree a hanged corpse dangle; I cut and colour certain runes , so that man walks and talks with me. This skill is used after the death of Mimir when Odin preserves his head and uses him as a source of hidden knowledge. He also raises
10152-409: The theorized Brittonicisms do not become widespread until the late Middle English and Early Modern English periods, in addition to the fact that similar forms exist in other modern Germanic languages. Old English contained a certain number of loanwords from Latin , which was the scholarly and diplomatic lingua franca of Western Europe. It is sometimes possible to give approximate dates for
10260-564: The time still lacked the letters ⟨j⟩ and ⟨w⟩ , and there was no ⟨v⟩ as distinct from ⟨u⟩ ; moreover native Old English spellings did not use ⟨k⟩ , ⟨q⟩ or ⟨z⟩ . The remaining 20 Latin letters were supplemented by four more: ⟨ æ ⟩ ( æsc , modern ash ) and ⟨ð⟩ ( ðæt , now called eth or edh), which were modified Latin letters, and thorn ⟨þ⟩ and wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ , which are borrowings from
10368-404: The usual ⟨ng⟩ . The addition of ⟨c⟩ to ⟨g⟩ in spellings such as ⟨cynincg⟩ and ⟨cyningc⟩ for ⟨cyning⟩ may have been a means of showing that the word was pronounced with a stop rather than a fricative; spellings with just ⟨nc⟩ such as ⟨cyninc⟩ are also found. To disambiguate,
10476-423: The word was so nearly the same in the two languages that only the endings would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. In the mixed population which existed in the Danelaw, these endings must have led to much confusion, tending gradually to become obscured and finally lost. This blending of peoples and languages resulted in "simplifying English grammar". The inventory of Early West Saxon surface phones
10584-443: Was an allophone of short /ɑ/ which occurred in stressed syllables before nasal consonants (/m/ and /n/). It was variously spelled either ⟨a⟩ or ⟨o⟩. The Anglian dialects also had the mid front rounded vowel /ø(ː)/ , spelled ⟨œ⟩, which had emerged from i-umlaut of /o(ː)/ . In West Saxon and Kentish, it had already merged with /e(ː)/ before the first written prose. Other dialects had different systems of diphthongs. For example,
10692-420: Was associated with diverse customs and beliefs that varied with time, location and social group, and did not form a structured, uniform system. After the funeral , the individual could go to a range of afterlives including Valhalla (a hall ruled by Odin for the warrior elite who die in battle), Fólkvangr (ruled over by Freyja ), Hel (a realm for those who die of natural causes), and living on physically in
10800-439: Was based on the West Saxon dialect , away from the main area of Scandinavian influence; the impact of Norse may have been greater in the eastern and northern dialects. Certainly in Middle English texts, which are more often based on eastern dialects, a strong Norse influence becomes apparent. Modern English contains many, often everyday, words that were borrowed from Old Norse, and the grammatical simplification that occurred after
10908-545: Was buried in a howe when he died and was subsequently worshipped and called a god. The tradition of putting out gifts such as food and beer on mounds has survived into modern times throughout Northern Europe such as to the Orcadian hogboon or hog-boy, which derives its name from Old Norse : haugbui (howe-dweller), at Wayland's Smithy in England, and to elves in Sweden. A recurring motif in Old Norse literature
11016-619: Was considered to be a vessel for the transmission of life force to the deceased chieftain. However, the choice to be sacrificed was offered to both males and females, and that single-sex, joint burials occur, such as with the Oseberg ship burial , suggesting that companionship was their main function; assumptions regarding gender roles complicate these interpretations where the rationale for the rites are not explicitly described. Old English Old English ( Englisċ or Ænglisc , pronounced [ˈeŋɡliʃ] ), or Anglo-Saxon ,
11124-481: Was either /ʃ/ or possibly /ʃː/ when the preceding vowel was short. Doubled consonants are geminated ; the geminate fricatives ⟨ff⟩ , ⟨ss⟩ and ⟨ðð⟩ / ⟨þþ⟩ / ⟨ðþ⟩ / ⟨þð⟩ are always voiceless [ff] , [ss] , [θθ] . The corpus of Old English literature is small but still significant, with some 400 surviving manuscripts. The pagan and Christian streams mingle in Old English, one of
11232-616: Was followed by such writers as the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham ("the Grammarian"). This form of the language is known as the " Winchester standard", or more commonly as Late West Saxon. It is considered to represent the "classical" form of Old English. It retained its position of prestige until the time of the Norman Conquest, after which English ceased for a time to be of importance as a literary language. The history of Old English can be subdivided into: The Old English period
11340-562: Was made between long and short vowels in the originals. (In some older editions an acute accent mark was used for consistency with Old Norse conventions.) Additionally, modern editions often distinguish between velar and palatal ⟨c⟩ and ⟨g⟩ by placing dots above the palatals: ⟨ċ⟩ , ⟨ġ⟩ . The letter wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ is usually replaced with ⟨w⟩ , but ⟨æ⟩ , ⟨ð⟩ and ⟨þ⟩ are normally retained (except when ⟨ð⟩
11448-411: Was spoken and Danish law applied. Old English literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century. The oldest surviving work of Old English literature is Cædmon's Hymn , which was composed between 658 and 680 but not written down until the early 8th century. There is a limited corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries, but the oldest coherent runic texts (notably
11556-425: Was substantive, pervasive, and of a democratic character. Old Norse and Old English resembled each other closely like cousins, and with some words in common, speakers roughly understood each other; in time the inflections melted away and the analytic pattern emerged. It is most important to recognize that in many words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of
11664-556: Was the earliest recorded form of the English language , spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages . It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th century, and the first Old English literary works date from the mid-7th century. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, English was replaced for several centuries by Anglo-Norman (a type of French ) as
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