Quote:
Originally Posted by Freeshadow
@ea
the germans might have less trouble with ø because of their ö and ü
I'd even dare to assume that cultural connections between norse and celtic culture are older than what you named. (altough the facts you presented astonished me)
as far as this goes it would be quite interesting to compare irish and icelandic understanding and definition of elves.
btw. irish is one of the languages, where i dare not to make any guesses on the spelling based on the transcription  |
No, it' wasn't the wovels - the French can pronounce 'ø' well, too. It was more that Germans seem to get the "tone" of the language right. Of all, they seem to be able to manage the "
stød" and can learn Danish in a manner where it's really difficult to distinguish them from native speakers.
I agree that cultural connections in the North Atlantic area are older than the viking age - that was just a big expansion in a short time period. The Angles and Saxons for example are from from the current southern Scandinavia and northern Germany**. And earlier on they must have travelled some, as well, but the Scandinavians didn't travel far and wide until the Viking age, because they didn't have the proper ships. In our time we do tend to think in ages and delineations, when at that time they were just people and cultural exchange would have happened naturally.
With regards to the Icelandic definition of elves, to me, I tend to see Iceland as having been somewhat culturally isolated and thus they've preserved beliefs that's been watered out and replaced further south in Scandinavia. Just like their language. How can I put it? To me, the Icelandic understanding of elves, is just a (purer) expression of beliefs in the supernatural than the rest of Scandinavia, but it's a pan-scandinavian belief overall. As, I guess, we could talk of a northern celtic culture, etc. - but of course Christianity appeared earlier in Britain and less knowledge of the older cultures are left.
What facts astonished you BTW - just curious
**and I kinda think it's a fun fact that the Normans were descendants of Swedish and Danish viking settlers in France. They were fully "French" at the time of course, but still
