I lifted a rotted tree trunk on Instagram and uncovered a swarm of pallid maggots and creepy-crawlies: white supremacists hiding behind Norse myth … and aliens. I reported specific posts and accounts to IG, but you know they don't care about that stuff.
But I thought it was time I installed an anti-fascist statement on Gýgratrú, along with some page revisions. I'm fucking disgusted with extremists corrupting #OldNorse.
https://gygratru.neocities.org/position
This is an experiment. I wanted to see what ChatGPT is capable of, so I greeted it in #OldNorse … and it responded in kind.
The pronunciation is almost entirely correct. I'm guessing they're using an Icelandic speaker. I ran the text through a rune translator to set it in Younger #Futhark, then cleaned it up according to what few grammatical rules I know.
I'll probably take this down today. I'm a little blown away by this.
from the album Ragnarök
A brief encounter told in #OldNorse. This is my best attempt at reconstructed pronunciation.
Maðr - the TH is vocalized, so it sounds like "mother." Same with við and niðr.
Gýgju/gýgjar - the ý is pronounced like the German Ü, OO at the lips and EE over the tongue.
Hjá - the á is pronounced like the Minnesotan OA sound.
Tracking words in #OldNorse that are familiar to me for one reason or another.
– Lesa (read), German lesen
– Salt, unchanged in English
– Sundr (asunder)
– Mat (food), unchanged from Norwegian
– Kveld (evening), unchanged from Norwegian
– Ek heiti (my name is), German ich heiße
I've deleted my Vivaldi Mastodon account, wasn't getting any engagement there from my editing community or anyone. I posted about my cat's death and no one responded. For a month.
I started a Mastodon Social account for greater search results (I don't know why my reach on my instance is so limited!), and there are no active #OldNorse or #ScandiMyth accounts I'm missing! It's just me, I dominate these hashtags. So that's a solo path and I can't expect it to be anything else.
Here are some ideas for meeting Vikings and shield-maidens in #OldNorse
The /ei/ sound in "heil" starts with "heh" and curls quickly up to "eel," as close as you can get to one syllable.
The V at the start is still pronounced like /v/ (AmE), not like a W.
The difference between "fundinn" and "fundin" is subtle: hold the double-N a little longer.
In "hvat," the /h/ is aspirated and the V becomes /w/, inside the word.
The Þ is an aspirated /th/ like in "think" and "thistle."
Rúnskrá