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Hello everyone

I don’t know anything about the Vikings, I’ve never been too interested in the subject, but I’m currently working on a logo representing precisely a viking

The real problem is that my client wants me to put 2 sentences in the logo; as he says "in the language of the Vikings" but as I said I know absolutely nothing and the translators on the internet seems to me not very precise.

The sentences are:

• We don't run from anyone.
• Valhalla awaits us.

And I specify that he asked for it in rune, so i'm even mlre lost...

Please help me

I'd like a visualization of the site- anyone know of an artists rendering, or even good photos of the site today? Not finding much online so far.

The Old Norse aggettive mikill, meaning “great”, takes the weak form mikli when it accompanies a noun in the definite form, when it is a person’s nickname, or when it is in compound place names.

This form, in cases other than the nominative becomes mikla, from which you get the accusative Miklagarð (direct object), the dative Miklagarði (indirect object) and the genitive Miklagarðs (possessive and other complements).

The basic form of the name is Mikligarðr, as garðr is a masculine noun and cannot possibly or ever be accompanied by an -i adjective in its basic (nominative form). It is reported with the -i in the most authoritative dictionaries and databases, quite obviously, such as the ONP.

The form *Miklagarðr is the result of decades of scholarship and amateurish writing by people lacking grammatical case-awareness and encountering forms with -a in phrases like “til Miklagarðs”, “hann kom að Miklagarði”, “hann sá Miklagarð”, thereby extending the inflected form -a by analogy to the nominative case “Mikligarður”.

We should know better. The English Wikipedia gets this right, the German one incorrectly states that the Mikli- form is modern and the Mikla- is old (no: it would have been wrong in Old Norse just as it is in modern Icelandic).

Even respectable scholars get this wrong. Let us try and rectify this.

Hi Community, could anyone here help me out with some valuable hints on literature and sources about Viking Age childhood?

Basically the title I’m taking a 400 level course on Vikings and my classmates seem very focused on pointing out every similarity between Christianity and Norse beliefs. For example I’ve heard Hell = hel, Adam and Eve = Ash and Elm, Ragnarok = revelation and so on. I find it much more useful to think of these as genuine beliefs, and frankly I shy away from the term belief because Asgard and Odin were as real as the ocean or trees to these people. Anyway what do you all think, is it worth a discussion or is it a case of seeing what you want to see?

I have a question about certain norse symbols. While I'm not really old/mature enough for a tattoo(not 18 just yet) I got curious about tattoo ideas for myself and wanted something norse since I have a bit of family heritage from Iceland(if I remember right my great great grandparents were from there), and that makes norse/viking related things feel special to me.

But while looking into tattoo ideas, I came across some unfortunate news that nazis have pretty much twisted and stolen some symbols. So I was hoping to find out which ones those were, if any, so I could avoid them. One I really like I believe is called the Vegvisir so I hope that's not one of them (EDIT: thank you for telling me that the vegvisir isn't actually related to this stuff)

I had no idea nazis did this to these symbols and don't want to be affiliated with them in any way, but I still want a norse tattoo. If anyone knows which symbols those are, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

I've always been quite interested in mythology and I've recently started wanting to learn more about it if anyone could recommend any videos, books or anything that retells them it'd be greatly appreciated.(for things that directly involve reading I'd prefer it they were simpler and easy to read)

#What is this thread?

Please ask questions regarding translations of Old Norse, runes, tattoos of runes etc. here. Or do you have a really simple question that you didn't want to create an entire thread for it? Or did you want to ask something, but were afraid to do it because it seemed silly to you? This is the thread for you!

Did you know?

We have a large collection of free resources on language, runes, history and religion here.

Posts regarding translations outside of this thread will be removed.

Hello, guys. Thats my first post here. I have been researching about it, but didnt find very much.

Well, im going to have a tattoo tomorrow that represents the sacrifice of Odin at Yggdrassil, were he hang himself, etc. I know that there is a discussion of if the "runes" he discovered were actually runes (elder futhark) or just "secrets". Or even the ability of reading/writing.

I thought of a tattoo where, from the wound of the spear, runes would be coming out of the wound, representing 'his obtaining of the runes.' I thought that, even if 'runes' here only refer to knowledge, secrets, or even writing, still, drawing the runes coming out of the wound in this way would represent just a symbol of this gain. And of course, the runes would be from the Elder Futhark. Does this make sense to you? I've had some tattoos with historical mistakes (which I plan to write a post about), and I was a bit worried about having another one like that, hehe.

Thank you to those who can respond! And sorry for any mistakes in English, it's not my first language. lol

Working on putting rawhide around the edge - I’ll be attaching it with twine after trimming it up and drilling the holes.

This was originally a customer’s commission work, but he went completely dark right before the last lap, and I eventually decided to repaint and finish it, and wear it around at renaissance festivals and the like to draw business if anyone notices and asks about it.

Finally done part 1 of my project to have an accurate norse kit at my towns medieval fair this summer. Only parts now are clothing and extra training (sterotypical things like throwing axes and stuff aswell as studying theoretical behaviour and a few lines in the language) Any recommendations for a broke highschool student to make the costume? How to diy or websites selling them

Anyways heres the spear and shield, size accurate and i consulted a norse mythology discord im in for the shield

I've read that there is a name of Odin called Seydman but I'm not sure, it doesn't give any source. I've searched about that name on internet and found nothing

There's a book called Jakten på Odin written by Thor Heyerdahl which presents the true origin of Odin and Æsir. I want to buy it and I've been looking for it but there are only Norwegian versions and I don't know Norwegian. I couldn't find any English copies. Do you know where I can find one?

I was wondering why does Norse Mythology attribute Human creation with trees, I came to theorize the possible meaning of the symbolism behind it (I'm not sure if that's correct but it makes a bit of sense to me).

Okay first, what does a tree symbolize? It symbolizes the intersection between the Heavens and earth, why? Because well it starts from the earthly and reaches to the Heavenly. The whole idea of the human's association with the tree is that the human is made in the image of the gods meaning that the human is half earthly half Heavenly. And the tree is literally the embodiment of this intersection between the Heavenly and earthly thus the reason why the human's creation is associated with the tree.

Philosophically , this can be seen as well in parallel with Greek Philosophy (more specifically Aristotle). The human being the "Rational animal" and the animal being the embodiment of the "irrational". Thus the human is like "Rational irrational" in the sense that the human is not free from fates yet the human already knows and acknowledges his fates. The human is aware of the inevitable fate of his irrational and that awareness of his is the "Rational" part of the human .

A very tall old tree? A tower? A temple? A pillar? A totem?

What are your guesses?

I've found a few very thorough and helpful examples of travel between Scandinavia and Constantinople and the most practical way seems to be traveling along the Dnieper through the lands of the Rus. (Is that correct?) But if a Dane needed to get home from mainland Greece, rather than Constantinople, would traveling east and joining a group traveling up that river be the most likely path? Would it make more sense to try to find someone sailing west, like a group trading in Al Andalus? Or might it simply be best to try to find a horse and journey solo over land in a straighter path? Looking at travel time estimates, it seems like any of these options could take between 1-2 months.

I have another long-form piece today for those who are interested!

A pretty frequent point of discussion in Norse mythology forums centers around the alleged moral ambiguity of the gods. The cultural separation between ourselves as modern people and our friends from 1,000 years ago can already make mythological interpretations tricky. But when we add in the barrage of popular media making the gods out to be the bad guys, keeping a level head when thinking about real Norse mythology can be even harder.

So I wrote this post: The Gods Were the Good Guys All Along. (Please feel free to just click past the popup asking you to subscribe.)

Hopefully it helps put the cosmological roles of gods, jotuns, and humans into perspective, and is informative with regard to who the ancient Norse were worshipping, who they weren't, and why.

I am looking to learn to read/write Elder Futhark and to speak Proto-Norse(after I learn those I plan on learning younger Futhark and old Norse) but I don’t know where/how to start. Any recommendations?

Hello guys, I'm currently working on a depiction of a warrior from Hedeby and I've come across an interesting problem: I am unsure of which spear head would be most accurate.

So far I've personally only come across two finds for spear heads from Hedeby online.

This one https://www.vikingage.org/wiki/images/5/59/Hedeby_Spear_C.JPG

And this one https://www.google.com/search?q=hedeby+spear&oq=hede&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgAEEUYJxg7MggIABBFGCcYOzIGCAEQRRg7MggIAhBFGCcYOzIGCAMQRRg5MgYIBBBFGDwyBggFEEUYOzISCAYQABhDGIMBGLEDGIAEGIoFMg0IBxAAGIMBGLEDGIAEMgwICBAAGEMYgAQYigUyDAgJEAAYQxiABBiKBTIKCAoQABixAxiABDIKCAsQABixAxiABDIKCAwQLhixAxiABDIHCA0QABiABDIGCA4QRRg80gEIMjY3OGowajeoAhSwAgE&client=ms-android-tmobile-de&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#vhid=2BxS0NAhcLkrVM&vssid=_tk2XZ7KFA_Sti-gPremu0AQ_33

According to the Petersen typology the first one seems to be of the C or D1 type and thus would be dated to the second half of the 9th century.

The second one is a bit more difficult for me to judge but seems to be of either F or K/M type. That means it would either be dated to around 900AD or 1000AD.

For my purposes the second find would serve me better since most of the textile fragments found at Hedeby are also dated around 1000AD so all of my depiction would match up. But my problem is I could not back this find up elsewhere. There is only this one image I could find of the guy who recreated his own spear, but of course I have doubts towards the credibility of this article and the picture included. I do not want to depend on someone else's (guess)work. The first find is actually exhibited at the Hedeby viking museum and so it is academically foolproof to use for a depiction, but it would have been out of use by the time the warrior I want to reenact would have lived.

So first and foremost I'd like to ask wether some of you guys maybe have better access to the source material and can confirm wether a type F or K/M has actually been found at Hedeby. If not, what would you do? Just go with the surer C/D1 spear head although it would be anachronistic? Or do you know about any other types of spear heads that were found at Hedeby?

Thanks in advance! :)

Hey guys!

My brother always gets really nice gifts for me for christmas and my birthday and stuff, but I've never really had the budget to get anything nice for him. He really likes Norse things and everything like that. He currently already has a version of the Poetic Edda and the Havamal, so those ideas are out the window. I've been trying to do some research on what to get him but I'm not coming up with much.

I found this watch on etsy, but my brother really hates it when runes are wrong, or when something isn't really accurate, so I was wondering if you guys could let me know if it's a good idea? Thank you in advance!

https://preview.redd.it/c7sqiyxufefe1.png?width=580&format=png&auto=webp&s=7fbd1fd43f7670986d16e805e94233eed0c7103d

https://preview.redd.it/zdhl4z8vfefe1.png?width=471&format=png&auto=webp&s=1cb26aaa0f04eea527ff3ab9a59c6f05c7647580

How much of the Nordic Germanic religion has Christian influence?

The Fóstbræðralag ritual generally involves forming an arch of turf with both ends still connected to the ground. This was generally as tall as a spear, and the oath-swearers would walk through it.

[They] now go out onto the spit of land at Eyrarhválsoddi and cut up a strip of turf from the ground, leaving the two ends fixed in the earth, and prop it up with an ornamented spear long enough for a man to just reach up to the nails that fastened the blade. It was intended that the four of them should go under it

I was wondering how this is possible. Since from any two point, an arch is going to be longer than the original flat turf was? Unless the ground was sunken the same amount, of course.

I didn't see turf as something elastic enough, so I'm not sure how this works.

They followed the custom of illustrious men who set up a rule between themselves of the one who lived longer avenging the other, that they should walk under three strips of earth and this was their pledge. This practice of theirs took the form of cutting three long turfs from the ground; their ends should all be fixed in the group and the loops pulled upwards so that men could walk underneath.

Do you just need to cut a long enough strip that it can stretch to the height of the spear? Did they just take a longer strip of turf and replant the ends of it, so there's enough length for an arch and it's still considered 'leaving it fixed to the earth'?

Hey guys, looking for some neat Old Norse words to use as a callsign for an Apache Helicoptor Pilot. Would love some help. Current callsign is warlock 2-1. Someone said Vængr, but I feel a fixed winged pilot should have that one.