NORN KJOKL

On my blog I have been experimenting with writing skaldic poetry in Old Norse, English, and Norwegian for a while. Recently I tried writing skaldic poems in Norn and this is what I came up with:



Knag hever gert mjer krågan,
kornsens stole mjer skorner -
eg skyggde ‘na i skugga,
skal eg sveltingen melta?
In min eru u menen,
mageren, sin ek giv ragon -
u an domen eg døme,
dømer mog: ikke gløme.

(English: “The crow has caused me trouble, it’s stolen little bits of grain from me. I startled it in its hiding place – shall I kill the starving thing? But mine also are the pains, the discomfort, which I give to the unfortunate; and that judgment with which I judge, will judge me: let me not forget.”)



Eg vuna at di folk vinlig
vara tage wå dat: drage
rebet kring hwåls mitt u renge -
rånga ska eg ner eg hånge!
For frinjdar, eg vet at fjanjdi
fonana nu for mog monar:
in kome di vit hannj kramar
kirkfolket trångt vat illjvirknon!

(English: “I hope you friendly folks take heed: draw the rope tight around my neck and give it a good tug, I’m going to scream when I hang! For friends, I know that the devil fans the fires for me right now: but when you come, keep in mind that he packs the churchfolk pretty close to the sinners!”)

Any comments or criticisms are welcome. As you can see, I depart from the orthography used on the Nynorn site in a few ways:

1. I reject the use of the letter ð in writing Norn. Instead of the Faroese-looking kallaði/kallaðu, I would rather write the past tense of ōn-verbs (like kalla) as just e.g. kalla (identical with the infinitive) for both singular and plural like in Nynorsk, since I suspect this was the ending in Norn also (compare stanza 34 of The Ballad of Hildina). This also means that an extra syllable doesn't get written where there probably wasn't one (a big concern if writing syllable-counting poetry). This ending for the past tense of these verbs has been explicitly rejected by the Nynorn Project on the grounds of its resemblance to the present plural, but it’s really not that confusing in context (also this class of verbs works this way in at least the Hallingdal dialect of Norwegian; e.g. e kalla “I call,” me kalla “we call,” but also e kalla “I called,” me kalla “we called”). Similarly I reject the silent -ð in past participles of strong verbs and write stole ”stolen” (like in Nynorsk) instead of stolið. I’ve also just written the unstressed front vowel as e rather than vacillate between i and e.

2. I do write the silent letter "-t" in the neuter singular definite article ("kirkfolket," for instance) mostly just for the sake of consistency with Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish.

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I teach Old Norse, Norwegian, and classes about medieval Scandinavia at a university in California.

I blog about Old Norse and other related subjects at http://tattuinardoelasaga.wordpress.com/

Thank you very much for your comments! Actually I think that you make an excellent argument for the use of ð in Norn. You're absolutely right that the silent -t of Norwegian had weakened to an "-ð" before going silent (so that e.g. skipet "the ship" must have gone through a stage skipið/skipeð like Icelandic before the -ð went silent; the -t was introduced into Modern Norwegian writing on the analogy of Danish and Swedish writing), but there's no reason not to be consistent in Norn and write it -ð if there's going to be silent letters anyway. I have just analogized Nynorn so much to my mental grammar of Nynorsk that my natural inclination has been to do things like in Nynorsk unless I could see a reason otherwise. So I concede the point to you.

One other question about your orthography: How did you decide when to write -i- for the unstressed high front vowel and when -e-? I stuck with just -e- in my writing, though I'm aware of some Old Icelandic manuscripts that vacillate between them (sometimes with -e- in open syllables and -i- in closed syllables: fallinn "fallen" but hane "rooster").

I'm also very interested in where I've mixed Mainland Shetland with Foula/Westside forms; I have tried to keep the two separate in my mind and write Mainland Shetland, despite the longest text I've read (The Ballad of Hildina) being in Foula/Westside Norn. Maybe I should have started with that.

Here's a word-by-word breakdown of my stanzas, with the orthography changed to reflect ð:

Knag hever gert mjer krågan,
trouble(acc.) has done to-me the-crow

kornsens stoleð mjer skorner -
of-the-corn has-stolen from-me little-bits(acc.) (I analogized the cases to Norwegian rather than ON, although maybe "skorner" should be dat.)

eg skyggde ‘na i skugga,
I startled her in hiding-place(dat.)

skal eg sveltingen melta?
shall I the-hungering(acc.) kill

In min eru u menen,
but mine are also the-pains

mageren, sin ek giv ragon -
the-suffering which I give to-the-wretched

u an domen eg døme,
and that(acc.) judgment(acc.) I judge

dømer mog: ikke gløme.
judges me: not forget(subjunc.)

--
Eg vuna at di folk vinlig
I hope that y'all folk friendly

vara tage wå dað: drageð
notice take(subjunc.) of it: draw(imperat.)

rebeð kring hwåls mitt u rengeð -
the-rope around neck(acc.) my(acc.) and tug(imperat.)

rånga skal eg ner eg hånge!
scream shall I when I hang

For frinjdar, eg vet að fjanjdi
for friends, I know that devil

fonana nu for mog monar:
flames-the(acc.) now for me prepares

in kome di vit hannj kramar
but come(subjunc.) y'all know(imperat.) he crams

kirkfolkeð trångt vað illjvirknon!
the-churchfolk narrowly by ill-workers(dat.)

_________________
I teach Old Norse, Norwegian, and classes about medieval Scandinavia at a university in California.

I blog about Old Norse and other related subjects at http://tattuinardoelasaga.wordpress.com/