Old Norse had also influenced the development of the Norman language, as many of the Norse settlements that founded Normandy were either mostly Dane or Norwegians.
There are a number of other languages, which are not closely related, but have been heavily influenced by Old Norse, such as: the Norman dialects, Scottish Gaelic, Waterford Irish, Russian, Belarrusian, Lithuanian, Finnish, German, all the Scandinavian languages, and Estonian as a few examples. An Area that covers the Northern Half of Europe in general. Most of these languages have a number of Old Norse loanwords like English does.
The Icelandic language is the closest to original Old Norse spoken by the Vikings. In fact, because modern written Icelandic comes from the Old Norse phonemic writing system, Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, as it only varies slightly in spelling, semantics, and word order. However, this is only written Icelandic, as in verbal Icelandic pronunciation the vowel phonemes have changed as much as in the other Northern Germanic languages.
Written Norse is called the Futhark, which is more commonly known as the Runic Alphabet. The Norse Runic Alphabet is said by the Ancient Norse to have been given to them by god Odin himself. Odin had learned it after hanging himself upside down from the Yggsdrasil tree and then pierced himself with a spear. He peered below into the shadowy depths below for nine days at the edge between life and death until the Runes reveal themselves to him. It is said, they not only showed him their forms but their secret meanings. Odin was a seeker of knowledge and wisdom, whom even sacrificed one of his eyes for wisdom.
The Elder Futhark (Runic Alphabet) is named after the initial phoneme of the first six ru...
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...e expansion of the Norse. With the language becoming more complex and writing more in common use, the Runic Alphabet evolved into the Medieval Runes (Futhork) Alphabet during the end of the Viking age in the 11th century and becoming fully formed by the 13th century.
Medieval Runes
Most probably, the Medieval Runes had evolved with the competition of the Latin Alphabet which was fast expanding with the Christianization of Europe and Scandinavia. The Latin Alphabet could be copied into Norse easier with this expanded Medieval Rune (Futhork) alphabet.
By the 13th Century, the Runic Alphabet had mostly fallen out of use in favor the Latin alphabet, except still being used by artisans, farmers, and traders whom continued to use it to communicate and mark items. Eventually, it was rarely used and a few hundred years later became almost extinct and nearly forgotten.
There are runes and magic in the narratives of the poem Beowulf and The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki, an Iceland saga representing 1000 years of oral traditions prior to the 1300’s when it was written.
Regarding the runes on the sword hilt, G. Stephens in his Handbook of Runic Monuments maintains that the only Anglo-Saxon runic inscription on a sword hilt is on the Gilton sword, and that it is unintelligible (Cramp 128).
In the Old English poem Beowulf and in the Icelandic The Saga of the Volsungs, a saga representing oral traditions dating back to the fourth and fifth centuries, we see the mention of runes, which were used with connotations of magic or charms.
In the Old English poem Beowulf we see the mention of runes, which were used with connotations of magic or charms. Examining evidence from historic times, we find that early Englishmen were fully conversant with the Germanic runic alphabet and that runes did have special connotations.
Through raiding, some Vikings settled in foreign lands, where they farmed, raised cattle and in time, contributed to the community like the natives.
Leif Erikson’s grandfather, Thorvald Asvaldsson slaughtered a man in Jæren, Norway in 960 CE. This was the age of the Vikings, but Thorvald was still banished from the land (Mandia, n.d.). So he brought his ten year old son Erik, later to be named as Erik the Red because of his scarlet hair, to Drangar in northwestern Iceland on a farm with rather appalling soil (Where is Vinland?, n.d.).
The beginning of the ninth century AD to the eleventh was known as the “Viking age”; during this time Iceland was settled by Scandinavians and CeltsCeltics. Some of the settlers were Christian while most were Pagan; together they created a culture
Odin was the god of wisdom, magic and runes (“The Pagan Library”). The runes were the alphabet of the Vikings. Rune stones is the only documented writing from the Vikings during their existence, so a lot of the history during the ...
In the earliest years of the Vikings, there was little history recorded due to the polytheistic views that they followed. After the Vikings converted to Christianity, there were eventually written documents created pertaining to their existence. In Viking Warfare, I.P. Stephenson states that the Vikings “first described attack took place in AD 789”(11). The Vikings were also known as Norsemen. They were great storytellers, and that is perhaps how society knows so much about them today. The stories that the Norsemen told were called Sagas. Today, Vikings are often depicted as murderous savages, but while they were not pillaging villages they were actually quite a peaceful civilization. There were three countries that Vikings evolved from; Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Although it may seem that all Vikings were on the same side, they quarreled with each other as well. Despite the fact that Viking battles were bloody and gruesome they were also known to be the most hygienic out of many of the earlier civilizations. There was not a huge percentage of Vikings that went out and raided but when they did they made a huge impact on what Vikings are now known for. The success of Viking warfare and raids relied primarily on the uses of armor, weapons, long ships, and battle tactics.
The official language of Norway has two forms. Bokmål, or “book language” is used in most written works and is spoken by more than 80 percent of the people, especially those living in urban areas. English is taught in the schools beginning at age 11, and is widely spoken as a second language. Communication is very similar to that of the United States. Although technology is probably more advanced, things like Internet, and cellular communication are very widely used with an average of 2 cell phones per person in Norway.
The same can be said about the approximate beginning of the Viking Age as well. Although it's officially marked by most scholars as beginning in 793 AD with the raid on the Lindisfarne Monastery, however it wasn't a new concept to go “vikingr' (raid). Viking raids were already occurring in a vast range of other areas, including France.
In the middle of the 19th century when Norway, needed to have a new written language of it’s own, after being under Danish rule. The process of getting this new Norwegian written language, was not straightforward, as not one way of doing was agreed on. There were two rivaling ways of getting the new Norwegian written language. One was to adopt a newly created language based upon the older dialects, that reassembled old norse the most. This approach was founded by Ivar Aasen. The other approach was to use the dano-norwegian that a lot of people already used, and standardize it a gradually changing the danish words into Norwegian. This idea was founded by Knud knudsen, and is what lead to bokmål. These two different approaches battled in what later was known as the language conflict of Norway.
While studying the history behind the Latin and the Scandinavian influence on the Old English language, I wondered the following:
The Vikings have garnered attention over the years not only for their raiding and trading, but also for the Paganist gods and religion. Similar to many other ancient civilizations, the Vikings leave behind many myths containing tales of their gods and their beliefs. Marvel’s 2011 film Thor serves as an introduction to Norse gods and mythology, but it does fall flat in term of accuracy and detail in certain areas. Despite various large and small-scale changes to its overall plot and characters, Thor has been well-adapted to portray Norse myths as best as possible within an existing Marvel franchise.
The beginnings of English can be found in the occupation of England from the 5th century by north and west German ethnic groups who brought their 'indigenous dialects' (Seargeant, P. 2012, p. 1). The Oxford English Dictionary defines English as 'Of or related to the West Germanic language spoken in England and used in many varieties throughout the world' (Seargeant, P. 2012, p. 7). Invasion in the 9th century by Scandinavians, who settled in the north of England and the establishment of Danelaw in 886 AD defining the area governed by the Danes in the north and east, had a marked effect on the language spoken there (Beal, J. 2012, p. 59). These periods are known as Early and Later Old English (Beal, J. 2012, p. 50).