SDMB Dead Languages Society

[Maeglin]

(Magelin, it’s perfectly OK to talk about Scandinavian sagas, as sagas were written in and about Norway, the Shetland and the Orkney Islands as
well as Iceland)

That’s not what they told me when I interviewed for the program in Icelandic Literature and Philology at the University of Iceland, but I will take your word for it.
They preferred calling them Nordic Sagas, specifically not Scandinavian.

She can read the sagas in the original Old Norse quite well, and read Njall’s Saga (impress your friends and pronounce it the Old Norse way–“NJOW-t’lls
SA-ga”)

Now that is definitely Icelandic.

The Laxdaela is an excellent call. I haven’t read it in years.

iampunha

Hey, Maeglin. I meant to come in here earlier but didn’t have the time . . . other threads to tend to and all that

Well now that you will be reading some Vergil, it’s time to put the other threads on hold. Glad to see you here, too.

oldscratch

I’d love to throw in some sanskrit. That’d be peachy.

If you can help me figure out what the hell the Upanishads are about, then I’ll be your best friend for life. And don’t just tell me they’re about immortality, 'coz I know that already.

fierra

I love Catullus! Great double meanings…passer anyone?

Yeah, some Catullus selections next would be great. We can do a mix: some nice poems, some passer poems, and some poems in which he tells people he doesn’t like to brush their teeth in piss.

Medea’s Child

Maeglin, oh wonder on high, is your site supposed to be up yet? I still can’t get in.

<sigh> I know…like I dreaded, the work piled on my desk yesterday afternoon. But come hell or high water, I will do it today. It’s won’t be pretty yet, but it will have the goods.

MR

[LazarusLong42]

Well, I have no training in Classics, and my knowledge of actual Latin and Greek is generally limited to English roots co-opted from them… but what the hell. I could use some intellectual stimulation.

LL

[Maeglin]

Ok, folks, the moment you’ve all been waiting for.

http://www.columbia.edu/~mir13/classics

It’s up. It’s running. It’s ready for your loving perusal. There’s a little biographical information, a summary, and some suggested texts in English and in Latin. Everything you need to know right know.

So let’s see how far we get this weekend. I have a few discussion ideas that might we worth starting on Monday.

Sound ok?

MR

[Athena]

Link doesn’t work for me. Does it work for anyone else?

[tisiphone]

Not I , either.

The error I get is:

The server could not deliver the file you requested:
/~mir13/classics

cannot read directory for multi: /c/u/1/m/mir13/public_html/

Just so’s you know.

Tisiphone

[Maeglin]

Martinus asinus est.

In my zeal, I forgot the file extension. All of you smart folks should have guessed.

http://www.columbia.edu/~mir13/classics.html

MR

[pluto]

I only have a smattering of Latin and even less Greek (pretty dismal for a Roman god, eh?) but I did get a copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas in Latin for Christmas. From Borders.

[Maeglin]

All right, folks, I’m back for the weekend and I survived the Dopefest. The discussion shall start on a new thread.

MR

[dropzone]

As I would not presume to start the new thread, which honor rightfully belongs to our esteemed collegue, I will toss in a slight comment based on my beginning the reading assignment.

“Headlong rush to war?” So, all cliches cannot be traced back to Shakespeare, Pope, and the King James Version? Some go back to Dryden?

[Maeglin]

I suppose so. Are you sure that Dryden is the first to use the phrase?

[dropzone]

*Originally posted by Maeglin *
**Are you sure that Dryden is the first to use the phrase? **

As far as I’ve found in a whole two minutes of searching, limiting the search to what Google can dig up, yes. Of course, he quite possibly was NOT the first, but he was a good enough poet to produce the occasional nice turn of phrase or evocative image.

[Cogitoergosum]

Oooh Oooh, I wanna join. I just know Latin and a li’l Greek though.

[Maeglin]

Welcome then! You’ve read the thread, you know the drill.

[tshirts]

General Questions > Are books still being written in the “dead language” Gothic ?

*Originally posted by Jomo Mojo *
**Bagme Bloma **
(a poem in the ancient Gothic language by J. R. R. Tolkien).

Brunaim bairiþ bairka bogum
laubans liubans liudandei,
gilwagroni, glitmunjandei,
bagme bloma, blauandei,
fagrafahsa, liþulinþi,
fraujinondei fairguni.

Wopjand windos, wagjand lindos,
lutiþ limam laikandei;
slaihta, raihta, hweitarinda,
razda rodeiþ reirandei,
bandwa bairhta, runa goda,
þiuda meina þiuþjandei.

Andanahti milhmam neipiþ,
liuhteiþ liuhmam lauhmuni;
laubos liubai fliugand lausai,
tulgus, triggwa, standandei.
Bairka baza beidiþ blaika
fraujinondei fairguni.
Flower of the Trees

The birch bears fine leaves on shining boughs, it grows pale green and glittering, the flower of the trees in bloom, fair-haired and supple-limbed, the ruler of the mountain.

The winds call, they shake gently, she bends her boughs low in sport; smooth, straight and white-barked, trembling she speaks a language, a bright token, a good mystery, blessing my people.

Evening grows dark with clouds, the lightning flashes, the fine leaves fly free, but firm and faithful the white birch stands bare and waits, ruling the mountain.

Note: the old Germanic runic letter thorn (þ) is pronounced like the th in thin.
The letter h in Gothic is pronounced as a velar spirant kh.
J is pronounced like English y.
The Gothic digraph ei is pronounced like the ee in green. The other vowels are as in Italian.

Originally published in 1936 in Songs for the Philologists. Reprinted, with this English translation, in The Road to Middle-Earth by T. A. Shippey (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1982).