Congrats to nkuvu!

Sorry, nkuvu, I suddenly got a million things to do yesterday, but I'll explain about Edda now. :)

It exists two Edda; The Elder Edda and the Younger Edda. The youngest is also called Snorre-Edda, and it got it's name because it's a lot like the Elder Edda.
As you probably know Snorre Sturlason was anc Icelandic author, who lived from 1179 to 1241. When he lived, he was looked upon as a chief and not an author. And Snorre is the author of Edda.

One could write a million pages about Norse litterature, but I have shortened it down to Håvamål/Hávamál. Hávamál is a long poem about how human should live. It's actually old moral, but it's very useful, even today.

An example (verse 10 of Hávalmál) in various languages:

Icelandic
(some letters may not be possible to view)
Byri betri
ber-at maur brautu a
en sé manvit miki.
Aui betra
<thorn>ykir <thorn>a í ókunnum sta;
slíkt er volas vera.

Old Norwegian
Betre byrdi
du ber kje i bakken
enn mannevit mykje.
D`er betre enn gull
i framand gard;
vit er vesalmanns trøyst.

English
Better gear than good sense
A traveller cannot carry,
Better than riches for a wretched man,
Far from his own home,

Old English
Better burden bearest thou nowise
than shrewd head on they shoulders;
in good stead will it stand amongst stranger folk,
and shield when unsheltered thou art.


The Younger Edda was written at the end of year 1200, and was found on Iceland in 1643. It does not only consist of Hávamál, but also other "God-poems", "Hero-poems" (not a good name, I just didn't know what to call it) and so on. The most famous one is, I'd say, Hávamál, Voluspå and Trymskvida.

I hope it was at least a bit clearer now. :)


Kris
 
This thread was congrats, but it ended in a whole different subject. :p

Not to say that it ended...
 
xoot - you just don't get it do you. congrats threads have never been about post counts!! or about patting each other on the back!! They are about people and talking and having some fun that isn't technical - sorta like the B&G only generally with a smaller, more focused group of people. and they don't end until the person being congrated decides they no longer care to converse.

i'm sorry, but i just wish you had something to contribute that was something more than commentary about the site and how postings are going. Surely there must be a mind in that head of yours that thinks real thoughts and ponders deep questions. or observes little things and goes "hmmm" or at least absorbs some of what goes on around it. Try sharing those things with us instead of worrying about how a thread is going or how many posts you managed to get out today.

ok nkuvu - another semi-random quote from the ElderEdda -

from Sayings of the High One

Better no prayers than too many presents,
gift ever looks for gift;
rather be forgotten than fed too much
Thus wrote Odin before the world began,
when he rose up when he returned.

I know spells no king's wife can say
and no man has mastered;
one is called "Help" because it can comfort
the sick and careworn, relieve all sorrows.

or this from the same poem which seem like words xoot should hear

Cattle die, kinsmen die,
one day you die yourself;
but the words of praise will not perish
when a man wins fair fame.
 
I live!

OK, so no one probably noticed, but my roommate turned off the phone service at our old place today, and I didn't get phone access until now at our new place.

But I'll be offline for the next few days while we scramble to get everything moved. I'll be sure to let everyone know once I'm back.

Have fun, relax, and all that good stuff. I'll be back before you know it. But rest assured that I'll be counting the seconds until I can get back online... :(
 
Well, I think that SDAFNdksn ank ldsajo lodsa937u205 njEJ: LEFHJ K SK :GVJO:J OG

Sorry, xaqintosh's avatar made me have a seizure!

-the valruanvoramda fnsand nk lfwenkn sfdl';l'sadk l;'dsapf[
 
OH NO, MY AVATAR IS SPREADING HAVOC AND CHAOS!! It's like a rabid pokémon on a furied rampage!:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Ok, should I change it? I think I like it...
 
Originally posted by Ed Spruiell
[...] They are about people and talking and having some fun that isn't technical - sorta like the B&G only generally with a smaller, more focused group of people. and they don't end until the person being congrated decides they no longer care to converse.
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Well said Ed! :)

Have you read a lot of the Elder Edda, Ed? Read some from Hávamál, or the Younger Edda in general? (I must admitt I have read way too little of both, especially the Elder.) Do you know if Norse litterature a part of the American curriculum?


Kris
 
Kris - i have read large parts of both the Eldar and Younger (poetry and prose) Eddas as part of a class at Ohio State University called Norse Mythology. I dual majored in psyhology and religious studies. It was a very popular class but was only taught every few quarters at the time i was there.

Norse mytholgy is not a part of our general curriculum. In fact finding good norse mythology books that aren't purely academic is pretty hard. but there are lots of books on the modern 'popularized' forms of norse paganism and there are plenty of clans of those who are "tru" to the old ways. While i am not a member of such a group, i have known many who are and include norse religion in my own hodgepodge invention of personal paganism. I even have 2 cats named Thor and Freja.:)

so what do you think - has ragnorak taken place already or are we still waiting for it?
 
no xoot, i mean the event that is the battle of the Gods in which the old Gods and the world are destroyed and the new ones begin everything anew. Mankind would not know anything had happened because the new Gods restore everything on earth just as it was. Literally it means "Twilight of the Gods". You can find more about it in "The Deluding of Gylfi" in the prose Edda or "Sybil's vision" in the poetic Edda. The prose includes much of the poetic and is more explanitive.
 
Originally posted by Ed Spruiell
Norse mytholgy is not a part of our general curriculum. In fact finding good norse mythology books that aren't purely academic is pretty hard.
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Honestly; This makes me really sad. Norse litterature is part of the history to every european, - and therefore an important part of the American history too. (How can you now who you are, if you don't now your history?) Here where I live, the Norse litterature is something one have to know to take the final exams at school. And some knowledge of the Younger Edda is concidered general knowledge. What is concidered general knowledge of the American history, in the US?


so what do you think - has ragnorak taken place already or are we still waiting for it?
Click to expand...
(Don't you call it Ragnarok, by the way) I don't know, but I don't think so really. Ragnarok is a really good picture, though. Someting bad will happen. Some day, but we just don't know when.


Kris
 
uh yea, Ragnarok - excuse my dislesic spelling (and poor spelling in general:D - hey, i don't rag on you for your not quite perfect English - i can figure out what you mean easy enough ;) )

yea, i also believe that it is yet to happen. which is why i worship the old Gods and not the new.

the fact that the Norse were the last european peoples to be Christianized is probably why their history is not considered important here. what can i say, average xtians tend to ignore the real world from which they come if it isn't in the bible or based upon it. at least in america. I once dropped a university class on xtianity because the professor refused to accept my assertion that a relief in a n. german church was Odin and not Jesus just because the text book said so. Frankly, i doubt Jesus has ever been portrayed with such a large phallus as the one in the pic. yes, sad but true.

general american history knowledge - well, we have the advantage of being such a new country that we have a lot less to be concerned about. While we certainly study the history of the world on a superficial level, i think the emphasis has been on reducing differences based upon cultural backgrounds rather than celebrating them. About the only mythology we are held accountable for is some greek and roman.

as far as our own history, we are normally expected to know about Columbus (despite the fact that the Vikings really discovered the place) and the revolutionary war, and well... all our wars, and things like the constitution and Bill of Rights and state capitols. Mostly we are taught the kinds of things you tend to forget after awhile of not thinking about them:rolleyes:

so, just where in n. europe are you?
 
The reason for my question, was not to rag on your spelling. :p I suddenly started to wonder if it was written that way in English.

the fact that the Norse were the last european peoples to be Christianized is probably why their history is not considered important here.
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Oooh! :) That's an interesting topic, actually. - What would have happend to the Norse contries if the Christianity hadn't come? (Though it was just a matter of time..)

Where I come from...? Northern Europe. :)


Kris
 
:p well kris, certainly don't take my spelling as cause for questioning a word, especially a foriegn word. Even americans aren't so crass as to respell a specific word with such important meaning.

gee, i would never have guessed you were from northern europe.:rolleyes: do you have a country or a city or are you just living on a barge and traveling from city to city? It hardly seems like too much to ask for your country. i can't imagine anyone would attack you for that. N. europe includes quite a few different cultures.

as for christianity - i don't think there are any parts of the world where the propaganda hasn't been spread by now. I think the interesting thing is how quickly the norse adopted it once exposed to it. Of course, already having a God name Jezu (or various spellings like that which are close to Jesus) was probably a big part of it. Yet, they clung to the old ways at the same time. In fact, i believe the whole decision to convert was because of a shamanic ritual that was performed and the seer came out with the vision that they should do it.
 
Originally posted by Ed Spruiell
gee, i would never have guessed you were from northern europe.:rolleyes: do you have a country or a city or are you just living on a barge and traveling from city to city?
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I'd prefer not to say.. :p
In fact, i believe the whole decision to convert was because of a shamanic ritual that was performed and the seer came out with the vision that they should do it.
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The main-reason for the converting was compulsion. Churches were build on old sacred places, and you could be killed if you didn't follow the new rules. In the begining the Christianity was mixed with the old religion, and the fact the church had saints at that time, probably made it a lot easier to accept the new religion. Another important reason is the fact that the churches were maintained by the people. They also payed the priests. That way the new religion were close, and not distant. The Christianity also "connected" the Norse contries more to the rest of Europe, with i.e the Latin alphabet.


Kris
 
I think it's pretty ironic that Christianity, which preaches tolerance and compassion, uses force to convert others to the faith. I've heard of this happening before, so it's not a surprise.

Thought I'd toss that in there to try to pretend to be on topic. But it's really just a digression.

I hurt. We moved almost our entire house full of stuff on Saturday. There were three other people who were going to help us move, but two (a married couple) decided to go to Phoenix to look at a truck that they were thinking of buying. One thought that there would be too many people (like there are ever too many people to move) and so didn't show up. So it was just me and my roommate, and we're both about to die.

It didn't help that last weekend was apparently the busiest moving weekend of the year. I didn't think to reserve a rental truck (our car is way too small for a lot of our stuff). I spent two hours trying to find a truck to rent in Tucson. At first I was driving around, then decided (wisely) to start calling instead. Keep in mind that each phone call was about thirty seconds long. It still took me about two hours. There are a lot of truck rental places in Tucson, and none of them had a truck available for rent. I agreed to have my name put on a waiting list, thinking that I'd never get the truck. At 1:00pm I got a call -- the truck was available, but only until 5:00. So my roommate and I got the truck, packed the stuff (we were really unprepared for this move), loaded the truck, drove over and unloaded the truck, cleaned the truck, and returned the truck by a little after 4:00pm. Three hours to move our entire place. And all in 95º weather.

The nice thing is that we have almost everything moved over here. I still have Nkuvu (the tortoise) over at the old place, because I need to find a way to get her new house over here. And we still have the goldfish over there, too. But that's all a long story, which I don't feel up to right now. Just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't perished...

I'm tired, so I'm off to bed. Peace and pleasant dreams.
 
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