Not a religiously motivated question.
In the norse legends Thor possesses a hammer named mjolnir. How does one pronounce this?
I think the nir part sounds like near, but am unsure what the mjol bit sounds like. Any scandinavian/icelandic dopers (or anyone else) out there that can help?
Non-authoritative : I have always pronounced it Mee-OL-nihr.
Sorry, just realized, with my pseudo phonetics, it should be OHL.
As in rhyming with Coal or Bowl.
I’ve always pronounced it m[sup]y[/sup]ole-near. The first two sounds run together–it’s like the Russian pronunciation of Tatiana.
As long as we’re discussing old Norse pronunciations, what about Ljusalfheim? I can’t figure out what to do with the “lj”.
I’m under the impression that an “lj” would be pronounced just like an “ly”. As in: “ly-oos-ahl-hime”. Though I may be wrong.
You might find these two Wikipedia articles interesting, take a look at the “alternate spellings” section on the second one, that might help you research how to pronounce it better. I also foundthis, and this as well.
When I read about Thor in Avengers comics as a kid, I always called it "muh-JOAL (like “bowl”)-nur.
Ultrafilter’s got it pretty much right –
Giving it to you in I.P.A. is kind of useless, because it comes out exactly the same as the actual spelling – [mjolnir]
The “J” is a glide similar to “y” in English
“O” and “I” are pure vowels. Think about how they are pronounced in Spanish or Italian.
Muhjolner is dead wrong.
In Danish it’s Mjøl-ner. (http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mj�lner) ”ø” is a vowel you don’t have in English. It’s usually transcribed as “oe” but sounds nothing like either “o” or “e”.
From wikipedia: “Ø is particularly difficult for English-speakers. It is pronounced by rounding the lips as in “oh”, while producing the “e” in “met”. It is the same sound as the German umlaut ‘ö’ or ‘Ö’ and almost the same as the vowel in French ‘feu’.”
Basically, you’re fucked.
ultrafilter, you deal with “lj” the same way you deal with “mj.”
I asked this very question of a native Norwegian friend. She said, “Myol-neer”. The “myol” is all one syllable.
“mj” is on trial in California, but I suspect that’s not what you meant.
I also asked this question of a native Norweigan, ultra-Nationalist, lingual purist, Norse Mythology buff friend of mine, about 10 years ago. He said it’s myool-nuh.
I’ll trust him until someone proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that he’s wrong.
Heh, one time I was driving around with my wife and a friend and we saw some random store with an ö in the name. Someone asked how it was pronounced, and I uttered what I like to think was a reasonable approximation, but they made fun of me. It sounds silly to us native English speakers.
I’d say that ø is pronounced like the u in “fucked”, but with more emphasis. Then again, it might be that I pronounce “fucked” wrong 
Well, if you pronounce “fucked” with the first syllable like the French word “feu” or “je” (think of “je t’aime”) you are pronouncing it incorrectly. The correct pronounciation for “ø” is indeed just like the German umlaut “ö”, which sounds like the vowel in the french words “je” or “feu”. In other words, your pronounciation of “fucked” may be seriously “feucked up”! 
Thanks for all the answers, I think that clears up my question.