You could imagine that something from Christianity, for example, would have replaced those names through the years.

To be more specific: When Viking/Norse societies began to convert to Christianity (in Norway under the reign of Olaf Tryggvason at the end of the 10th century and in Iceland and Greenland in the 11th century), who among the early Norse-speaking converts would have likely been literate and in what languages? For example, in the Saga of the Greenlanders Leif Erikson is baptized by king Olaf Tryggvason, charged with converting the Greenlanders, and given a priest to take back to Greenland. Assuming there’s some truth to this account (I understand the Sagas were written down centuries after the events they recount and are not strictly speaking histories), how would the spread of Christianity in a place like 11th century Greenland likely have taken place? Were the heads of wealthy households (Leif Erikson’s father Erik the Red, for example) likely to have been literate in runic Norse or Latin?

I know most of norse history was lost and we only know the little of what was preserved but I wonder about the language of that time which we call 'Old Norse'. I know it is part of the germanic family of languages and I read that the language had been fragmented into a few different languages. My question is that is the original way the 'Old Norse' language was spoken still practiced today by any communities? or has it been lost to the wind?

The God characters sometimes change from speaking Norwegian to speak old Norse when they speak to each other or don't want civilians to understand what they are saying. As a Norwegian that is obvious to me, but does that detail translate to non-Norwegian audiences? Like, does the subtitles indicate they are speaking old Norse?

Hey does anyone now where I can learn old Norse language without buying a book?

if yes can someone share with me the alphabet and some verbs,thanks

Ive had a weird obsession in norse mythology and history for a little while, and recently I was hit with the idea of the norse language and wanted to teach myself the language. Originally i planned on old Norse but i didnt think it would be very useful in modern day. I never got any straight answer from google so i came here.

Couple of great resources for learning early medieval languages, including Old Norse, including free online resources.

https://www.anoxfordhistorian.com/post/early-medieval-language-learning-dictionaries-and-books

Overview

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken throughout Scandinavia and in Scandinavian settlements from around the 8th to 13th centuries AD, and used as a written language until the 15th century. It is perhaps most well known as the language of the Vikings and Icelandic sagas.

Old Norse is the ancestor of most modern Scandinavian languages, including Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Faroese and Elfdalian. It is unintelligible when spoken with all modern descendants, though Icelandic speakers can usually understand it when written.

Old Norse is split into many dialects, for the purpose of simplicity I will be focusing this LOTW on the Old Icelandic dialect, which is the most attested and studied dialect.

History

Old Norse evolved from Proto Norse, a language spoken in southern Scandinavia between the 2nd and 8th centuries AD. Old Norse quickly spread outside of Scandinavia due to Viking expansion, when Norsemen set sail en mass to colonise new lands and conquer rival kingdoms in search of better land and greater power.

The Norsemen were excellent seafarers, and managed to establish Norse influence across much of Northern Britain as well as Iceland, Greenland and even modern day Russia. By the 10th century Old Norse was the dominant language in Iceland, eastern Ireland and the Scottish isles as well as mainland scandinavia. In the 11th century, Old Norse was considered Europe’s most widely spoken Language.

In the 9th century different dialects began to become distinguished, and Old Norse was split into three main dialects: Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Guntish. This split would pave way for the phonological differences we see in the modern Scandinavian languages today, for example between Norwegian (West Norse).and Swedish (East Norse).

Despite these changes, the dialects were still considered the same language by the Norsemen of the time until the 12th century. They referred to their language as Dǫnsk Tunga, which means: “Danish Tongue”.

Whilst the Scandinavian languages had mainly split up in the 14th century, Old Norse continued to be written in Iceland until the 15th century, albeit with some grammatical changes. Modern Icelandic is the most similar living language to Old Norse, but Faroese and Elfdalian are also very similar in grammar. Many places, such as Northern England, retain Norse vocabulary in their dialects.

Today Old Norse is still an important language amongst historians and archaeologists

Hi guys! First time posting here. So today I found out that York in the UK was a Viking settlement. I didn’t know that the word York came from old Norse (Viking) language. So what does that make Yorkshire Terriers? Viking dogs? Lol. I’m asking cuz I love these Yorkshire dogs.

I don't know if it was discussed here before, but I would like to ask as I have only heard him called in english. I am interested in something like Ragnar Lothbrokk, but for Eivor. Thank you

Ragnar Lothbrok- Ragnarr Loðbrók (ON)

Lagertha-Hlaðgerðr (ON)

Rollo-Hrólfr(ON)

Siggy small name for-Sigríðr (ON)

Floki-Flóki (ON)

Earl Haraldson-Jarl Haraldsson (ON)

*Athelstan-*Æþelstan (OE)

King Horik-Konungr Horik (ON)

Aslaug-Ásslaug (ON)

King Ecbert- Cyning Ecgbehrt (OE)

Bjorn Ironside-Björn Járnsíða (ON)

Ivar the Boneless-Ívarr hinn Beinlausi (ON)

Hvitserk-Hvítserk (ON)

Sigurd snake in the eye-Sigurðr ormr í auga (ON)

Ubbe-Ubba (ON)

Harbard-Hárbarðr (ON)

King Harald Finehair(fairhair)-Haraldr inn hárfagri (ON)

Halfdan the Black-Halfdanr Svarti (ON)

AEthelwulf-Æþelwulf (OE)

Heahmund-i dont know cant find it

Erik the red-Erik Thorvaldsson (real name) cant find "the red" in old norse

Torvi-Þórví (ON)

Gunnhild-Gunnhildr (ON)

Thorunn-Þórunn (ON)

Guthrum-Guðrum (ON)

Ingrid-Ingríðr (ON)

Prince Igor-Ingvar Røriksen (ON)

Olaf-Óláfr (ON)

Jarl Borg-JarlBorg (ON)

Erlendur- erlendr / ørlendr (ON)

Jarl Kalf-Jarl Kalf (ON)

prince Oleg- old east slavic-Ѡлегъ old norse-Helgi (OS,ON)

Prince Dir-cant find it

Kwenthrith-Cwenthryth (OE)

Alfred- Ælfrēd, Ælfrǣd (OE)

Æthelred-Æþelræd (OE)

If im missing someone please let me know :) ! I'd appreciate an upvote cuz it took me some time lol

I'm guessing cause of the Roman thing they are going for but it would be cool if knights spoke German or French considering those were the languages of most of the crusaders(especially french) What do y'all think? Do you like the latin knights or would you prefer something else?

One of the reasons i think i might start with icelandic is that i then have access to online resources like memrise which can help me learn and give me some structure. I don't have a lot of success with foreign languages historically, but the last time I tried it was mandatory and i was REALLY fuckin busy so i didn't really give it much of a chance (it was 4 semesters of german for lang credits in college, and I was a straight C language student. Ich vergeissen viele vokabln.)

I don't really have any specific interest in icelandic itself, it's more of a stepping stone to old norse, which is why im wondering if I should just skip it. I just worry that without a living language, i'll struggle to find audio and pronunciation help.

Hey all. I'm struggling with Alaric's magic sheet.

Trying to figure out the cases of Old Norse. Sadly most i find and understand are in English which is not my first language thus I feel I need to learn English grammar first to begin diving into Norse grammar. Now that comes particularly difficult for me as my native language uses 14 cases. The only other languages I speak are Russian and Finnish and there aren't much around in these languages.

What is causing me a struggle is the lack of English counterparts on Alaric's sheet. With that said, is it possible to explain the cases for a complete idiot, in a very simplistic way?

Insert random "I have no time, but really I'm just lazy" excuse here.

While on the subject, any other dictionaries out there except for Faulkes Glossary?

I do thank you!

I'm looking into potentially studying in Iceland for a grad program and wanted a bit of advice from any of you willing to put in your 2 cents. Would it be smarter to start learning modern Icelandic since the program will emphasize Old Norse, or should I just start studying Old Norse to get a leg up on studying primary sources? But I also imagine that getting a start on the modern language will make it easier to navigate the country and read scholarly literature. I don't know if I'll end up going, but assuming that I am, what would you all pick?

Or is the extent to which the Anglo-Normans maintained their status as a people apart exaggerated?

Which runes would be a better representation of Old Norse? Let's say I want to take a word from English, translate it into Old Norse and then write it in runes. While I know I could probably use Elder and Younger Futhark, which one would be more correct to use?

Also, just wanting to be sure, most runestones were written in Younger Futhark, so if I'd like to learn to read them it's probably better to learn Younger Futhark then? I find Elder Futhark more visually appeasing, which is why I instinctively went to learn it first.

Also last question: will learning Elder Futhark make learning Younger Futhark easier in the future?

Appears to be a promising resource for students of the language.
https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/norol

So there's a conworld I've been working on with my brother. The premise is that it's an alternate, fantasy version of Earth... essentially, it's a classic fantasy world, but with some historical figures, nations, and cultures in it (modified suitably to fit the setting). In this world, in around 1000 AD, Norsemen colonised eastern Canada, and were subsequently cut off from Europe. They intermingled with the locals, forming a whole new culture--and a new language--by the time Europe re-established contact hundreds of years later.

It wouldn't be a creole, but rather a mixed language in the mold of Michif--if you don't know what that is, it's a language that combines French and Cree. It's fascinating since Romance and Algonquin languages have such drastically different grammars, but Michif seems to have made little attempt to unify them. Words seem to mostly retain the grammar of the language they originated from, giving Michif the odd feeling of having French and Cree being spoken simultaneously.

It seems to me something similar might happen if I were to mix Old Norse with Wendat and Mi'kmaq. The phonology could be more or less a combination of the three parent languages, like Michif does with its parents, while the grammar might end up being something of a two- or three-way split, with individual words utilising their original grammar.

Another problem would be the interaction of grammatical categories. Old Norse has masculine, feminine, and neuter, while Mi'kmaq has animate and inanimate. I don't know what Wendat's categories are, if it has any. The trouble comes in if an Old Norse noun were to get used with a Mi'kmaw verb. I think Old Norse only marks gender on their nouns, but in Mi'kmaq, the verb's animacy has to agree with the noun.

It's an intriguing idea, but I'm not exactly committed to even doing it yet. Still, I was wondering if anyone here has any thoughts on such a concept or knows of any resources to make the job more doable. Specifically, the Internet seems to be lacking in information on the grammar of Wendat and Mi'kmaq, and in translators or dictionaries that i could use to translate words and phrases.

PhD students from the University of York have helped bring back the ancient viking language of Old Norse for the Jorvik Centre in York. Listen to the students perform Höfuðlausn, a viking poem from the 10th century.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OKxzSKzJe0

Hey does anyone know where I can start to learn old Norse language?

I’m learning Norwegian (Bokmål) and I would like to know if it is intelligible with other old Norse languages like danish or Swedish. Are they?

Or if not at 1000 AD then when were they the most similar, after Proto Germanic?

I'll take Ivar for example. When he stood his ground against the English, face covered in blood and was screaming at them, what language was he speaking? Was it accurate, in your opinion?