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As a descendant of the Norse, speaking a descendant of their language, I have to politely disagree with your last point. The skald would often use different names for the same thing or person. Norse poetry was alliterative, and one of the functions of kennings (and heiti, one-word alternate names) was to not break the alliteration. The art showed itself in knowing and choosing a kenning that fit both the needs of the poem and the mood of the situation being described. That said, unless your audience is Nordic, they may not know this.
The old norse of 1000 years ago was an oral culture. They did not write things down, other tthan a few very short runic inscriptions. So originally you just had to memorize poems, they were not written down until much later.
As a convert to the ways of the Allfather this was a new thing to learn for a skald as i, but to be honest, if i am to use this, i would relegat it to the word composing within my conlanging, on the outside anyone translating from that conlang to any other language inuniverse, they either translate or use their own making, for example, let's present a case: Petra rolled the paper and put it away in her valise:" Honty call their warlocks Sukla'makatu... sand dreamers... he's one of them, my father saved his life when he was captured by the iron folk, in return of his life, he became my mentor, to teach me their rather effective ways for dealing with the likes of Hafna." But her explanation did little to comfort Tifias. His eyes still bulging with distress he kept his voice down:" your grace, are you aware from whom they learned... sand dreaming? Rahmil khalimi... is what a Jinn warlock is called, a sand dreamer, the Honty use Idenu magic, there is no greater risk for a red blood, than to mingle with the ones of black..." That'll be the way i would use it, otherwise, in a world already complicated to hell and back by its own world building poor readers can be spared the trouble i presume...
This is brilliant. These are the "small" details that turn out to be huge in a story. These are the things that we remember in the end and that become iconic within a story, and of course, being choosy of what would benefit from it and what wouldn't. Another brilliant lesson to enrich my writing, thank you!
Thank you for the kind words - I'm always trying to improve the quality and practical value of the videos. Just trying to share my experience and mistakes to help others tell their stories :-)
This is great 😊 Not only great - I think you’re the first UA-camr brining up this (not everyone actually succeeds in creating uniqueness). It’s the type of subtitle difference that can truly lift a story.
This was actually helpful I have seen this many times but have never noticed it as a technique with a structure behind it. I always tried to use it unconsciously in my stories.
I will gladly do so, can you make a video about tenses? Mostly on how to use each and if it is okay to swutch between them in the story in some scenes, like the story is in past tense but switching to present tense in the fights.
Using kennings in a conversation between a skáld and his apprentice was one of my favorites experiences as a writer (and a fantastic way to develop creativity). Thankfully it wasn't hard to understand for beta readers 🤣
A very nice post. One additional element. Tolkien liked them too, but besides using different languages, he also changed the spelling sometimes, like Gandalf is clearly Grand Elf. Forcing the reader to solve the mystery makes the name more interesting. Like calling an axe rock-cleaver makes you wonder what this guy does in his free time.
Gandalf was never "Grand Elf", the name was taken from Norse mythology and the imaginative figure was inspired by a souvenir depicting a sort of mountain spirit from the Swiss Alps, were Tolkien almost lost his life. There's also some influence from the Kalevala's main figure, but the "Grand Elf" thing is merely a RoP tool to gaslight people.
@@IamTheWulfen Thanks for the background; I never got that far into Old English and Scandinavian. To go a bit further, Tolkien derived the name Gandalf from Gandálfr, a dwarf in the Völuspá's Dvergatal, a list of dwarf-names. In Old Norse, the name means staff-elf. This is reflected in his name Tharkûn, which is "said to mean 'Staff-man'" in Khuzdul, the language Tolkien invented for his Dwarves. The thing is, what you gave is the actual history. And it is a very real part of Tolkien, no question there. But a good writer also uses the suggested meaning. All the wizards carried staffs; it was connected with their order as shown by the breaking of Saruman's staff. Thus, I would guess that Tolkien also saw the Grand Elf undercurrent and so picked this name for the eventual leader. I think he also saw the bomb in Bombur.
According to a destroyed family tree rune stone remembrance monument my last known surviving viking name is Thorstein what is called thunder stone in new English, some say it means my name is Thor and the name stein is a nickname that means stone anvil or altar bless those icelanders who stated this to say i am not a annonymous stone adopted by Thor as some cruel mind slavers like Mimir the all knowing state to give me mass hysteria, stein seems to be a reference to Thor's association with the stone of his mother Jord the earth mother who is the deity of stone and earth and mountains where Valhalla was placed and Jord being the mother of earth spirits makes me think Thor is a stone spirit, the stone of Jord seems to be about the strong skull of Thor's goats and his goat hammer head witcher wand hammer Mjolnir. Some lovely beings say that the cruel christians like Mimir the all knowing in spirit distort my destroyed sacred ancestral name Thorstein to state my mind is not from Thor but nothing at all except for a famished homeless poorly educated foolish envious pirate lost at sea on a ship of fools, such cruel invaders stole my sacred supernatural realm which has been destroyed and built over by the few cruel christian mind slavers, my own were mistaken as the one and only leader of my sacred tribe we stated that we bow to no king and neither does any of our brethren in their court because our sacred tribe is comprised of many sacred chieftains who are leaders of the freedom fighting thunder goats and we heralded our surviving Mjolnir against the cross and whip of powerful invading royal mind slavers, my family of goat lords refused to die as slaved submissive lambs sent to the slaughter for the laughter of tyrants that sought to destroy our Mjolnir to turn it into a cross. To the pleasure of the royal mind slaving tyrants my own mixed with their peaceful expendable lambs but we are still freedom fighting goats.
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As a descendant of the Norse, speaking a descendant of their language, I have to politely disagree with your last point. The skald would often use different names for the same thing or person. Norse poetry was alliterative, and one of the functions of kennings (and heiti, one-word alternate names) was to not break the alliteration. The art showed itself in knowing and choosing a kenning that fit both the needs of the poem and the mood of the situation being described. That said, unless your audience is Nordic, they may not know this.
Swede here, totally agree.
Now they know... Allfather be praised, life of this skald became much better this day onward.
I love Norse Writing, and this is the kind of writing I what to make if I ever get that far.
The old norse of 1000 years ago was an oral culture. They did not write things down, other tthan a few very short runic inscriptions. So originally you just had to memorize poems, they were not written down until much later.
As a convert to the ways of the Allfather this was a new thing to learn for a skald as i, but to be honest, if i am to use this, i would relegat it to the word composing within my conlanging, on the outside anyone translating from that conlang to any other language inuniverse, they either translate or use their own making, for example, let's present a case:
Petra rolled the paper and put it away in her valise:" Honty call their warlocks Sukla'makatu... sand dreamers... he's one of them, my father saved his life when he was captured by the iron folk, in return of his life, he became my mentor, to teach me their rather effective ways for dealing with the likes of Hafna." But her explanation did little to comfort Tifias. His eyes still bulging with distress he kept his voice down:" your grace, are you aware from whom they learned... sand dreaming? Rahmil khalimi... is what a Jinn warlock is called, a sand dreamer, the Honty use Idenu magic, there is no greater risk for a red blood, than to mingle with the ones of black..."
That'll be the way i would use it, otherwise, in a world already complicated to hell and back by its own world building poor readers can be spared the trouble i presume...
This is brilliant. These are the "small" details that turn out to be huge in a story. These are the things that we remember in the end and that become iconic within a story, and of course, being choosy of what would benefit from it and what wouldn't. Another brilliant lesson to enrich my writing, thank you!
I really appreciate this positive feedback, thank you very much. It's encouraging to hear that others find such specific things interesting too :-)
I really appreciate how straight forward, simple yet so profoundly helpful your videos are. Thank you so much thank you.
Thank you for the kind words - I'm always trying to improve the quality and practical value of the videos. Just trying to share my experience and mistakes to help others tell their stories :-)
This is great 😊
Not only great - I think you’re the first UA-camr brining up this (not everyone actually succeeds in creating uniqueness). It’s the type of subtitle difference that can truly lift a story.
Glad to hear this was a topic that some people find interesting :-)
This was actually helpful I have seen this many times but have never noticed it as a technique with a structure behind it. I always tried to use it unconsciously in my stories.
Glad to hear that I was able to share something useful here - have fun playing around with it yourself :-)
I will gladly do so, can you make a video about tenses? Mostly on how to use each and if it is okay to swutch between them in the story in some scenes, like the story is in past tense but switching to present tense in the fights.
@@behradart-bang855 I cannot promise anything but I'll definitely try to find an angle that I could use for a video, absolutely 🙂
Relevant and Supportive Comment to feed the Algorangim
Using kennings in a conversation between a skáld and his apprentice was one of my favorites experiences as a writer (and a fantastic way to develop creativity). Thankfully it wasn't hard to understand for beta readers 🤣
you can thank tolkien for the excessive descrillption
😎👍
A very nice post. One additional element. Tolkien liked them too, but besides using different languages, he also changed the spelling sometimes, like Gandalf is clearly Grand Elf. Forcing the reader to solve the mystery makes the name more interesting. Like calling an axe rock-cleaver makes you wonder what this guy does in his free time.
Does he have a pebble-spitter as well? (Pebbles are more likely to fly away from a strike instead of crack.)
Gandalf was never "Grand Elf", the name was taken from Norse mythology and the imaginative figure was inspired by a souvenir depicting a sort of mountain spirit from the Swiss Alps, were Tolkien almost lost his life. There's also some influence from the Kalevala's main figure, but the "Grand Elf" thing is merely a RoP tool to gaslight people.
@@IamTheWulfen Thanks for the background; I never got that far into Old English and Scandinavian. To go a bit further, Tolkien derived the name Gandalf from Gandálfr, a dwarf in the Völuspá's Dvergatal, a list of dwarf-names. In Old Norse, the name means staff-elf. This is reflected in his name Tharkûn, which is "said to mean 'Staff-man'" in Khuzdul, the language Tolkien invented for his Dwarves.
The thing is, what you gave is the actual history. And it is a very real part of Tolkien, no question there. But a good writer also uses the suggested meaning. All the wizards carried staffs; it was connected with their order as shown by the breaking of Saruman's staff. Thus, I would guess that Tolkien also saw the Grand Elf undercurrent and so picked this name for the eventual leader.
I think he also saw the bomb in Bombur.
According to a destroyed family tree rune stone remembrance monument my last known surviving viking name is Thorstein what is called thunder stone in new English, some say it means my name is Thor and the name stein is a nickname that means stone anvil or altar bless those icelanders who stated this to say i am not a annonymous stone adopted by Thor as some cruel mind slavers like Mimir the all knowing state to give me mass hysteria, stein seems to be a reference to Thor's association with the stone of his mother Jord the earth mother who is the deity of stone and earth and mountains where Valhalla was placed and Jord being the mother of earth spirits makes me think Thor is a stone spirit, the stone of Jord seems to be about the strong skull of Thor's goats and his goat hammer head witcher wand hammer Mjolnir. Some lovely beings say that the cruel christians like Mimir the all knowing in spirit distort my destroyed sacred ancestral name Thorstein to state my mind is not from Thor but nothing at all except for a famished homeless poorly educated foolish envious pirate lost at sea on a ship of fools, such cruel invaders stole my sacred supernatural realm which has been destroyed and built over by the few cruel christian mind slavers, my own were mistaken as the one and only leader of my sacred tribe we stated that we bow to no king and neither does any of our brethren in their court because our sacred tribe is comprised of many sacred chieftains who are leaders of the freedom fighting thunder goats and we heralded our surviving Mjolnir against the cross and whip of powerful invading royal mind slavers, my family of goat lords refused to die as slaved submissive lambs sent to the slaughter for the laughter of tyrants that sought to destroy our Mjolnir to turn it into a cross. To the pleasure of the royal mind slaving tyrants my own mixed with their peaceful expendable lambs but we are still freedom fighting goats.