The first I heard of fimbulvinter was relative to the climate catastrophe that started in 536 AD, in the northern hemisphere, after extreme volcanic eruptions.
I am thinking of all the homesteads that were just abandoned. I know of at least one in which sand covered it and archaeologists found the still furrowed fields and the wagon tracks left in situ.
In the north of Scandinavia it is thought that from 536 CE durig a period of about 10 years over 50% of the population died off, most likely due to starvation. For example before this period the burial mounds of the middle north of Sweden rivaled those in old Uppsala. After around 550CE no homesteads/burials with elite status has been found util the Viking age some 250-300 years later. It took time to recover...
There was also a global drop in temperatures, almost as bad as the 536 event, dating to the early 700's. It could indeed be the event that caused the Viking emergence and expansion, due to crop failures and bad winters.
The 536 AD event and the subsequent famine have been proposed as an explanation for the deposit of gold treasures by Scandinavian elites at the end of the migration period. The gold was possibly a sacrifice to appease the gods and bring back the sunlight. The legend of the Fimbulwinter, the mythical winter which in pre-Christian times was expected to precede Ragnarök, and which is mentioned in the Poetic Edda may have its origin in this climate anomaly.
I do think it’s possible that Ragnarok wasn’t told of at the time of the eddas as part of pre christian tradition in the same way we know it. Maybe as a traditional end times myth, but i think most of it might be inspired by a real disaster which then we used as justification for why the old gos were dead. I think there was a pre existing idea of what the end of the world might be, then christianity arrives, a natural disaster happens, and then this specific volcanic eruption and volcanic winter is used as the setting of ragnarok as an explanation on why christianity was now the only valid religion
Much to reflect on. As a great lakes lady.. this is definitely slightly closer to home. 3 years ... zoinks. The poles are shifting and the weather is getting crazy. El Nino is known to dump loads of snow. Great pick for reading from!!
Fun setup for the hat and jacket. I think that the origin word I would be curious about in PIE would be a word for "sacred". We have a fairly narrow view of 'fool', but ancient cultures also had a touched-by-the-gods sort of 'sacred fool'. This could include poets (especially of the wilder sort) and seers - more along the lines of Bacchus/Dionysus. The meaning could have been narrowing during the Viking Age, with the comments from native Icelandic speakers indicating that the present meaning of ie fiflin being limited to a foolish knave. Signing off (whipcrack and snazzy music),
Hej from northern Sweden, currently under two foot of snow in my area. Looking at the state of the world today, I sometimes wonder if this, here and now, if our Fimbulvetr.
I first saw the use of fimbulvinter in the game Age of Mythology where the whole map turns into a blizzard and wolves attack all other troops on the map. Seems close enough, also devastating 😅🍻
I don't think *fimbulaz/fimfulaz can continue pre-Germanic *pimp-. Such a form is phonotactically problematic for a PIE root (we'd require either a root *pemp- or *peyp-/pyep- and like most languages, PIE doesn't seem to have been especially tolerant of two identical consonants so close together in a root, with a small number of exceptions for ideophones or recent reanalyses) I also think a borrowing can be discounted due to the apparent Verner alternation, which would presumably only apply to a thoroughly nativised (and hence like very early) borrowing, that would probably also appear in other branches However its similarity to *fimf "five" raises an interesting possibility - that it instead continues pre-Germanic *pinkw- with an irregular *kw > *p shift (as paralleled in an almost identical environment in *fimf < *pénkʷe) A derivation from *pénkʷe itself seems implausible, so we can probably discount a pre-Germanic *penkw-, and isntead limit ourselves to *pinkw-. As the i is syllabic here rather than the n this must be a nasal-infix, and so we are instead looking for a root *peyK- (with either a labiovelar, or plain/palatovelar followed by a w) There appears to be just such a root with pretty much perfect semantics (albeit some irregular correspondences): *peyk-/peyḱ- "hostile, enemy" (either distinct or becoming distinct in some branches from *peyḱ- "to cut out"), the source of *faihaz "hostile" per Kroonen, with cognates in Baltic seemingly reflecting *peyk- and possibly in Indo-Iranian reflecting *peyḱ- So, if we take the nasal-present stem of this verb *pink- and form a double deverbal adjective in -wós from it we have *pinḱwós > *pinkwós > *fimbaz, with the *-ulaz being a secondary derivation from this form. It would then follow *fimfulaz would be a parallel form from the substantivised form *pínḱwos The irregular *kw > *p, and the use of *-ulaz on an adjectival (rather than verbal) form are the main issues I can see from such a derivation, but the semantics and phonology seem pretty solid
"brute winter," "brute songs," describing someone as a brute to both suggest a somewhat simple but violent mind and a potent physicality... I think it might work
I wouldn't mind a propper cold, snowy, frosty winter for a change. The last couple of winters has been mostly gray, wet, dark and depressing. ...for some reason.
In my very academic opinion, fimbul is clearly predicting the British childrens tv show Fimbles. Fimble winter is the coming of the fimbles, in which they perform their fimble songs causing everyone to get the fimbling feeling.
I really wish you could review the band Heilung, they’re a band that is based on early medieval Northern European folk music especially about the runes. They speak in Proto-Norse, Old High German, and old English (I believe). I recommend norupo which talks on the runes more mystical which I know you don’t go into that much I hope historically and academically you can listen!
It's not based on folk music. If they based their work on folk music they would be playing the same melodies found in hymns song in church in northern Europe. That is the best source for medieval folk music as the clergy used folk tunes from oral tradition and was the first to write a lot of those down, making the melodies easier to date. The second best source is the actual folk music tradition, still alive and well today. Unfortunately folk musicians didn't write down melodies before the 1800s, they only passed it on through oral tradition making it hard to date
@@thePyiott their experimental folk band that is based on folk music of Northern Europe. Heilung focus on the pre-Christian era and use what best they can to create a animalistic side. Such as drums, no drums were found across Northern Europe yet but every culture had one so they included drums in their music. They also had poems, runestones, and other written down sources that were found granted not a lot and usually the band creates their own music. It’s a mixture of historical and originality of their music.
@@cursecuelebre5485 as far as I know, none of the members are traditional folk musicians. Their text are based on runic inscriptions, but we have no indication that those inscriptions were used in music. Their melodies have little to no relation to medieval folk music. Its a reimagining of history, thats the nice way to put it. Really it's just as much fantasy as Tolkiens universe.
@@thePyiott Those were poems and chants, used in rituals and songs put to music sometimes Wardruna also use this method of putting poems to music it’s a common thing. One of the band members is a shaman and they all rely on archaeological evidence even if they have to put a more modern way to express these inscriptions it’s a way to reconstruct the meanings of these verses. They focus more on the Iron Age time period (early) as well. I wouldn’t say it’s fantasy like Tolkien that’s a bit far fetched but yes I can see why it’s not historically accurate but is it bad to adapt them into a modern music style, to me I don’t see a problem.
@@cursecuelebre5485 its not bad to adapt to a modern style, but it shouldn't be taken as authentic representation of history. Shamanism, whatever you mean by it, was not an idea in iron age Europe. The had religious professions but their religious professions was intertwined with social and political positions and duties. At least for the viking era it doesn't seem like the religious sides of these professions was more important than the political and social sides. There's no reconstruction of meaning, only reimagining it. It's cool music, but that's it.
it sounds like fimbul is sort of like aav "ignant." somebody using aav might say somebody is "ignant"/ignorant to express that they are mindlessly dangerous and have a complete disregard for laws and moral codes
Maybe I'm drawing connections where there aren't any, but there is a word in modern Swedish, called "fiffel" or "att fiffla" (the latter being the verb counterpart), and it means to trick, cheat or otherwise not do something 'by the books', so to speak; and I'm curious if this might also be a cognate with this word?
I could see how that would make sense, but wiktionary says it comes from High German 'pfeifen' (piping or whistling) by way of 'Pfiff' and then Swedish 'fiffig', which both have a sense of cleverness that dominates the foolishness.
Yes, Old Norse f after a vowel regularly becomes v in Swedish (although it was still spelled with an f until 1906!), so if fifl had a descendant in Swedish it would be *fivel.
The first I heard of fimbulvinter was relative to the climate catastrophe that started in 536 AD, in the northern hemisphere, after extreme volcanic eruptions.
I am thinking of all the homesteads that were just abandoned. I know of at least one in which sand covered it and archaeologists found the still furrowed fields and the wagon tracks left in situ.
In the north of Scandinavia it is thought that from 536 CE durig a period of about 10 years over 50% of the population died off, most likely due to starvation. For example before this period the burial mounds of the middle north of Sweden rivaled those in old Uppsala. After around 550CE no homesteads/burials with elite status has been found util the Viking age some 250-300 years later. It took time to recover...
There was also a global drop in temperatures, almost as bad as the 536 event, dating to the early 700's. It could indeed be the event that caused the Viking emergence and expansion, due to crop failures and bad winters.
when did we get indiana jones intro music AND a whip crack?
Nice!
As an archaeologist, when I heard the Indiana Jones theme, I died.
Love the Indiana Jones references. Happy Halloween week!
The 536 AD event and the subsequent famine have been proposed as an explanation for the deposit of gold treasures by Scandinavian elites at the end of the migration period. The gold was possibly a sacrifice to appease the gods and bring back the sunlight. The legend of the Fimbulwinter, the mythical winter which in pre-Christian times was expected to precede Ragnarök, and which is mentioned in the Poetic Edda may have its origin in this climate anomaly.
Fimbulwinter video. Just in time to welcome the end of the year.
"We named the dog Indiana!!!"
I do think it’s possible that Ragnarok wasn’t told of at the time of the eddas as part of pre christian tradition in the same way we know it. Maybe as a traditional end times myth, but i think most of it might be inspired by a real disaster which then we used as justification for why the old gos were dead. I think there was a pre existing idea of what the end of the world might be, then christianity arrives, a natural disaster happens, and then this specific volcanic eruption and volcanic winter is used as the setting of ragnarok as an explanation on why christianity was now the only valid religion
Much to reflect on. As a great lakes lady.. this is definitely slightly closer to home. 3 years ... zoinks. The poles are shifting and the weather is getting crazy. El Nino is known to dump loads of snow.
Great pick for reading from!!
Fun setup for the hat and jacket.
I think that the origin word I would be curious about in PIE would be a word for "sacred". We have a fairly narrow view of 'fool', but ancient cultures also had a touched-by-the-gods sort of 'sacred fool'. This could include poets (especially of the wilder sort) and seers - more along the lines of Bacchus/Dionysus.
The meaning could have been narrowing during the Viking Age, with the comments from native Icelandic speakers indicating that the present meaning of ie fiflin being limited to a foolish knave.
Signing off (whipcrack and snazzy music),
Finally embracing the Indy role I see 🤣🤣🤣
Hej from northern Sweden, currently under two foot of snow in my area. Looking at the state of the world today, I sometimes wonder if this, here and now, if our Fimbulvetr.
The Indiana Jones look works haha
I first saw the use of fimbulvinter in the game Age of Mythology where the whole map turns into a blizzard and wolves attack all other troops on the map. Seems close enough, also devastating 😅🍻
I don't think *fimbulaz/fimfulaz can continue pre-Germanic *pimp-. Such a form is phonotactically problematic for a PIE root (we'd require either a root *pemp- or *peyp-/pyep- and like most languages, PIE doesn't seem to have been especially tolerant of two identical consonants so close together in a root, with a small number of exceptions for ideophones or recent reanalyses)
I also think a borrowing can be discounted due to the apparent Verner alternation, which would presumably only apply to a thoroughly nativised (and hence like very early) borrowing, that would probably also appear in other branches
However its similarity to *fimf "five" raises an interesting possibility - that it instead continues pre-Germanic *pinkw- with an irregular *kw > *p shift (as paralleled in an almost identical environment in *fimf < *pénkʷe)
A derivation from *pénkʷe itself seems implausible, so we can probably discount a pre-Germanic *penkw-, and isntead limit ourselves to *pinkw-. As the i is syllabic here rather than the n this must be a nasal-infix, and so we are instead looking for a root *peyK- (with either a labiovelar, or plain/palatovelar followed by a w)
There appears to be just such a root with pretty much perfect semantics (albeit some irregular correspondences): *peyk-/peyḱ- "hostile, enemy" (either distinct or becoming distinct in some branches from *peyḱ- "to cut out"), the source of *faihaz "hostile" per Kroonen, with cognates in Baltic seemingly reflecting *peyk- and possibly in Indo-Iranian reflecting *peyḱ-
So, if we take the nasal-present stem of this verb *pink- and form a double deverbal adjective in -wós from it we have *pinḱwós > *pinkwós > *fimbaz, with the *-ulaz being a secondary derivation from this form. It would then follow *fimfulaz would be a parallel form from the substantivised form *pínḱwos
The irregular *kw > *p, and the use of *-ulaz on an adjectival (rather than verbal) form are the main issues I can see from such a derivation, but the semantics and phonology seem pretty solid
Could a translation for "fimbul" be "brute?" Or perhaps "simple" in the "they've gone blood simple" sense of the word.
"brute winter," "brute songs," describing someone as a brute to both suggest a somewhat simple but violent mind and a potent physicality... I think it might work
Fimbulween !
I wouldn't mind a propper cold, snowy, frosty winter for a change.
The last couple of winters has been mostly gray, wet, dark and depressing. ...for some reason.
Fimbulvetr is skeery, we also need a word for Southwest summers that don't end ☀🌡☀ extremes increasing everywhere.
0:48 JACKSON NO YOUR AD REVENUE
Reminds me of the word "fumble," which kind of carries similar meanings. Perhaps a related word?
I love this new linguistics series.
In my very academic opinion, fimbul is clearly predicting the British childrens tv show Fimbles. Fimble winter is the coming of the fimbles, in which they perform their fimble songs causing everyone to get the fimbling feeling.
Can this be related to the Swedish word "Fiffla" aswell or is that completely unrelated?
I was thinking the exact same thing.
"Han fiflade med bokföringen"
"He tried to fool the accounting"
I really wish you could review the band Heilung, they’re a band that is based on early medieval Northern European folk music especially about the runes. They speak in Proto-Norse, Old High German, and old English (I believe). I recommend norupo which talks on the runes more mystical which I know you don’t go into that much I hope historically and academically you can listen!
It's not based on folk music. If they based their work on folk music they would be playing the same melodies found in hymns song in church in northern Europe. That is the best source for medieval folk music as the clergy used folk tunes from oral tradition and was the first to write a lot of those down, making the melodies easier to date. The second best source is the actual folk music tradition, still alive and well today. Unfortunately folk musicians didn't write down melodies before the 1800s, they only passed it on through oral tradition making it hard to date
@@thePyiott their experimental folk band that is based on folk music of Northern Europe. Heilung focus on the pre-Christian era and use what best they can to create a animalistic side. Such as drums, no drums were found across Northern Europe yet but every culture had one so they included drums in their music. They also had poems, runestones, and other written down sources that were found granted not a lot and usually the band creates their own music. It’s a mixture of historical and originality of their music.
@@cursecuelebre5485 as far as I know, none of the members are traditional folk musicians. Their text are based on runic inscriptions, but we have no indication that those inscriptions were used in music. Their melodies have little to no relation to medieval folk music. Its a reimagining of history, thats the nice way to put it. Really it's just as much fantasy as Tolkiens universe.
@@thePyiott Those were poems and chants, used in rituals and songs put to music sometimes Wardruna also use this method of putting poems to music it’s a common thing. One of the band members is a shaman and they all rely on archaeological evidence even if they have to put a more modern way to express these inscriptions it’s a way to reconstruct the meanings of these verses. They focus more on the Iron Age time period (early) as well. I wouldn’t say it’s fantasy like Tolkien that’s a bit far fetched but yes I can see why it’s not historically accurate but is it bad to adapt them into a modern music style, to me I don’t see a problem.
@@cursecuelebre5485 its not bad to adapt to a modern style, but it shouldn't be taken as authentic representation of history. Shamanism, whatever you mean by it, was not an idea in iron age Europe. The had religious professions but their religious professions was intertwined with social and political positions and duties. At least for the viking era it doesn't seem like the religious sides of these professions was more important than the political and social sides.
There's no reconstruction of meaning, only reimagining it. It's cool music, but that's it.
Love the hat. That's a great hat 😃
First off…where is Dr. Crawford? I tune in and the first thing I see is “Indiana” Crawford.
likely 530s AD
Would this have been added to the story before or after the Maunder Minimum?
That's Fimbulwinter fer ya - Brok
Would demonstrative be a good word for fimbul?
Fool - Without Sense -Some irrationally destructive force perhaps?
Feeding the algorithm
lol to the intro music
Comment for the algorithm
I love the Indiana Jones music!
Jackson : Not a linguistics question: What is the animal that runs from left to right in the background starting at about 1:44? Any idea?
It is a huldufólk chariot, it moves without a horse.
@@Overcrook65😂
Sounds like it is cognate to Vorpal :)
You pronunciation though presumably correct sounds different in this video. Is it because of the cold? Sounds like a stereotypical Viking. I like it!
Why did it have to be ormar?!
Can anybody help me figure out the pronunciation of Lífþrasir
Dakota Jackson :D
Will fimbulvetr fix global warming.
😂 probably
it sounds like fimbul is sort of like aav "ignant." somebody using aav might say somebody is "ignant"/ignorant to express that they are mindlessly dangerous and have a complete disregard for laws and moral codes
Maybe I'm drawing connections where there aren't any, but there is a word in modern Swedish, called "fiffel" or "att fiffla" (the latter being the verb counterpart), and it means to trick, cheat or otherwise not do something 'by the books', so to speak; and I'm curious if this might also be a cognate with this word?
I could see how that would make sense, but wiktionary says it comes from High German 'pfeifen' (piping or whistling) by way of 'Pfiff' and then Swedish 'fiffig', which both have a sense of cleverness that dominates the foolishness.
Yes, Old Norse f after a vowel regularly becomes v in Swedish (although it was still spelled with an f until 1906!), so if fifl had a descendant in Swedish it would be *fivel.
Should it not be translated to weather rather than winter?
No. "Vetur" is the word for winter in modern Icelandic. "Veður", or weather is much softer.
@@Darwinist That is how it is in modern Icelandic. How was it before that?
If this is related to volcanic ash, it would now be called volcanic winter, not volcanic weather.
Almost exactly the same. Modern Icelandic is by far the closest Scandinavian language to Old Norse. @@bautaballe6016
@@bautaballe6016it was Vetur. Veður is and has been about weather in general.
Nice content - not nice sound. Colorado may look nice, but the audio is garbage...
First?