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Category Archives: words
Don’t Put an Otch in My Nadder!
Apparently English notch arises from a word-division error due to the English movable n: it wasn’t originally a notch, it was an otch (cf. French oche “a notch”). So says the AHD and the tyrant OED. This is analogous to … Continue reading
Posted in art, books, fantasy, fantasy art, sff, sword-and-sorcery, words
Tagged E.R. Eddison, Keith Henderson, The Worm Ouroboros
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Viking-Era Marriage
A pleasingly domestic line in the saga I’m currently reading (which is mostly about war and killing). Ráðahagr Áka stendr með miklum blóma.—Jómsvíkinga Saga 17“Áka stands marriage with great bloom.” That’s the kind of marriage to have. I hope Þórgunn … Continue reading
Posted in books, language, Myth & Legend, words
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Joans Against the Moon Men
I misread a student’s handwriting and thought they had written “Prester Joan” (instead of “Prester John”). Now I can’t stop thinking of Prester Joan teaming up with Pope Joan to, I don’t know, conquer the moon or something. [edited to … Continue reading
Posted in academia, art, fantasy, fantasy art, history, Myth & Legend, sword-and-sorcery, words
Tagged Norvell Page
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Gormless Gomes on the Ground
This afternoon I was reading up on Danish King Gorm (a.k.a Gorm the Old, a.k.a. Gorm the Lazy, a.k.a. my new role model), and idly wondered if it was the same root as the gorm in English gormless “clueless”. It … Continue reading
What Counts and What Doesn’t
In certi momenti, non sono le parole scritte che contano. Una voce, una carezza, un gesto di tenerezza, saranno sempre più forti e risolutivi di un miliardo di parole scritte dal più grande poeta di tutti i secoli. Noi viviamo … Continue reading
A Ganelon By Any Other Name…
Typo of the day (which I discovered in an old slideshow from earlier this year): Gabolen. I’d intended to write Ganelon (the sinister traitor-knight in Charlemagne’s court). But Gabolen sounds like a pretty convincing name; maybe he/she/it will appear in … Continue reading
Posted in books, Morlock, Myth & Legend, Typo of the Day, words, writing
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The Hood, the Bad, and the Bitey
I was looking up something else in Cleasby & Vigfusson’s Old Norse dictionary when my eye fell on gríma, meaning “a kind of hood or cowl”; by extension “the night”. A lot of badasses, starting with Óðin, are called Grímr … Continue reading
Posted in art, fantasy, fantasy art, Myth & Legend, words
Tagged J.R.R. Tolkien, Old Norse
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Further, Deponent Sayeth Not
The joke, such as it is, doesn’t really come off in English. But the Latin means something like “‘I am Spoke/I have spoke<n>,’ spoke Spoke.” Live long and prosper, Spoke.
Posted in fantasy art, language, sff, television, words
Tagged EverythingIsBetterWithLatin!™, EverythingIsStarTrek
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Fífling Around
I fell into the dictionary again today and learned that Old Norse fífl (“fool”) also meant “monster” (cf Old English fifal “monster”), hence the fíflmegir (“monster men”) who rowed the hellship from Muspellheim that Loki steered on the way to Ragnarǫk. I wondered if the … Continue reading
Posted in books, Myth & Legend, words
Tagged Hamlet, Old English, Old Norse
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Words on the Wing
I was reading the Eddas today, which is what Tolkien would probably be doing on Re(re)ading Tolkien Day, and I was struck by a pair of birdy lines: Ǫrn mun hlakka, slítr nái niðfǫlr. —Vǫluspá (quoted in Snorri, Gylfaginning 50) … Continue reading
Posted in Myth & Legend, words
Tagged Elder Edda, Latin, Old Norse, Snorri, Vǫluspá
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