Straight from the Norse's Mouth: English Etymologies Taken from Old Norse
So, I've been on a bit of a kick. Since my last article, I'd been thinking I would do at least one more entry about the Vikings. Originally I had been planning on doing an entry about old Norse slander laws, or the Viking's concepts of witchcraft and Ergi. However,it would take a while to read, process and paraphrase all that info-provided I could find a credible source, and I'm not trying to write a history paper.
Anyway, as I was settling myself in for a slog through other people's history papers, I found something a bit more interesting. After scrolling past a few links clearly aimed more toward tattoo artists than language students, a link caught my eye. Clicking it took me to a familiar blog site, one I've come across many times in my searches for random tidbits of knowledge.
Ancient Origins is a blog as fascinating as it is diverse (which is very.)Even after running across it so many times, I still don't know exactly what its focus is. This time, I ended up on an article about English words whose etymologies derive almost directly from their ancient Norse counterparts. Words you wouldn't even think of as anything but English, like cake,knife, happy, and wrong (or, rather, kaka, knifr, happ and rangr.)
The list isn't very long, but what is there is pretty interesting if you have any kind of interest in where words actually come from, be it from a historical or linguistic perspective. I'm sure there's at least one similar out there-there may even be more comprehensive articles on the subject, who knows? This list is a great place to start if you want to look in to that, or if you simply have a passing curiosity. The Ancient Origins site in general is pretty cool, especially if you have an interest in...whatever. Take a look around, even if this particular article didn't tickle your fancy, something else just might catch your interest
Lastly, I want to share this link I found while searching for images. While it may not exactly be relevant to the above topic, and doesn't really go into a great deal of detail about the venue in question, what it does offer is enough to peak my curiosity, just from a visual aesthetics standpoint. I'm a sucker for beautiful and immersive exhibits.
Anyway, as I was settling myself in for a slog through other people's history papers, I found something a bit more interesting. After scrolling past a few links clearly aimed more toward tattoo artists than language students, a link caught my eye. Clicking it took me to a familiar blog site, one I've come across many times in my searches for random tidbits of knowledge.
Ancient Origins is a blog as fascinating as it is diverse (which is very.)Even after running across it so many times, I still don't know exactly what its focus is. This time, I ended up on an article about English words whose etymologies derive almost directly from their ancient Norse counterparts. Words you wouldn't even think of as anything but English, like cake,knife, happy, and wrong (or, rather, kaka, knifr, happ and rangr.)
The list isn't very long, but what is there is pretty interesting if you have any kind of interest in where words actually come from, be it from a historical or linguistic perspective. I'm sure there's at least one similar out there-there may even be more comprehensive articles on the subject, who knows? This list is a great place to start if you want to look in to that, or if you simply have a passing curiosity. The Ancient Origins site in general is pretty cool, especially if you have an interest in...whatever. Take a look around, even if this particular article didn't tickle your fancy, something else just might catch your interest
Lastly, I want to share this link I found while searching for images. While it may not exactly be relevant to the above topic, and doesn't really go into a great deal of detail about the venue in question, what it does offer is enough to peak my curiosity, just from a visual aesthetics standpoint. I'm a sucker for beautiful and immersive exhibits.
I love that I learned a little history. I find the Vikings pretty cool and from reading the article, it's nice to see they were just as sophisticated as they were fearsome. If you ever do end up writing on the slander laws, or their concept of witchcraft, I would definitely love to have a read.
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