Elfdalian

Elfdalian is unique among Nordic languages, expressing itself with different tones and sounds. Even the grammar and vocabulary are unlike Swedish. So while speakers of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are able to have simple conversations and understand each other, not so with Elfdalian.

The ancient Viking language of Elfdalian has been almost entirely wiped out, with only 3,000 people in a tiny forest community in Sweden currently keeping it alive.

The language originated in the forested region of Älvdalen, Sweden, and remained robust for centuries. Elfdalian served the people of Älvdalen as trade and economic networks were mostly local, and no other languages were necessary.

“Speakers of the language were stigmatized, and children were actively discouraged to use it at school. As a result, speakers of Elfdalian shifted to Swedish in droves, especially in the past couple of decades. At present, only half of the inhabitants of Älvdalen speak it,” Dr. Kroonen writes.

Elfdalian - Wikipedia
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a reply to: tikbalang

Real elf or Alf, well I knew that JRR tolkien was a Nordic and Saxon scholar with great interest in the ancient myth's which he essentially re-invented for his novel's (middle earth was the Saxon name for England in fact) but I had no idea there was a real Elf language, I wonder if these people are the descendant's of the real Alfheim and if it was a real place right there in Sweden.

Now not speaking Swedish her voice sounded very swedish to my ear's but maybe a little more musical though that could have been down to what she was reading and how she was reading it.

Sad that another ancient European language is dying though but maybe there is a chance it will revive just as Welsh and Gaelic Scot's has down here in Britain, both once persecuted just like this Elfdalian was, Welsh for instance survived mainly in isolated valley community's but children were punished in the Victorian period if they spoke it in school.

I wonder just how old this Branch of the Nordic language really is, maybe it is, maybe very old.

a reply to: LABTECH767

So you mean it sounds like this?

a reply to: tikbalang

Well with the American accent behind his voice he actually sound's more French than swedish to my ear's (Sorry France).

Love it, I have'nt seen the muppet's with the exception of a recent trip down memory lane looking at "Pig's In Space" for age's though sadly I have to admit I have a lot more in common with the grouch than kermit (not sure if that is a good thing or not).

originally posted by: LABTECH767
a reply to: tikbalang

Real elf or Alf, well I knew that JRR tolkien was a Nordic and Saxon scholar with great interest in the ancient myth's which he essentially re-invented for his novel's (middle earth was the Saxon name for England in fact) but I had no idea there was a real Elf language

He was also a Professor of English Language and Literature and the word Elf is Old English for "sprite, fairy, goblin, or incubus,"
He wasn't a Nordic scholar, he didn't even like the word Nordic because of its association with Hitlers masturbatory fantasies about race.

a reply to: Marduk

I.1.

Midgard
1
=> Middle Earth:
According to the Norse Mythology Midgard is one of three worlds that compose the Universe. Midgard isthe Middle World, wherein Men, Dwarves, Dark Elves and Giants live. This world is a place of swift passing time and the battleground of good and evil.The first record of a translation of the Norse ‘Midgard’ to Middle Earth is found in the Lay of Eärendel themariner. Eärendel was one of the first characters of Tolkiens Mythology and he was inspired by a part of an Old English Poem (Crist of Cynewulf):
Eálá Earendel engla beorhtast Ofer middangeard monnum sended (Hail Eärendel, brightest Angel above Middle Earth, sent to men.)
In Tolkiens adaption of this character, Eärendel (later Eärendil) is a mariner that becomes an evening-starand shines thereafter above Middle Earth.Middle Earth became an important part in the work of Tolkien thereafter.
I.2.

Asgard => Valinor:
The second adaption Tolkien made was the introduction of Valinor. In the Norse Mythology Asgard, theHome of the Aesir, is the highest World. It lies above Midgard and is inhabited by the Gods. Time passesslower in Asgard and it is a Place of bliss and joy. Therefore it suits as a contrast to Midgard. Tolkien alsoneeded a contrast to his Middle Earth and so he created Valinor after the template of Asgard. Valinor(Qenya: Land of The Powers) was an etymological and cosmological adaption of Asgard to his World.In Asgard, every Aesir has his own mansion. All these mansions lie behind a large wall that encloses Asgard. In Tolkiens Valinor the separate mansions and the wall (Pelóri) are found too. Asgard is connected to Midgard by a rainbow called Bifrost. Over this bridge the Aesir can travel toMidgard. This rainbow-bridge appears in the first Quenta Silmarillion but is abandoned then. In theSilmarillion it is not mentioned anymore.

I.3.

Elfheim => Eldamar:
Elfheim is a part of Asgard. It is the home of the Light Elves. These Elves live with the Aesir and are said tobe strong warriors and magical skilled beings.Tolkien took over both the Light Elves and their home and gave to them his own invented languageQenya.

1.4.

Nilfheim:
Nilfheim is a place that lies to the north of Midgard. It is a place of snow and ice. The entrance to theunderworld, Hel, is also located there. In some points Angband resembles this Place.
I.5.

Svartalfheim:
Svartalfheim is the home of the Dark Elves. Sometimes it is also referred to as the home of the Dwarves. It lies in Midgard and can be reached through mines and caverns in the mountains.Tolkien adopted the Dark Elves to form a contrast to the Light Elves. He needed this contrast to show howa language may change if a part of the people lives in a place of eternal bliss and the other part lives in aplace of war and terror. In contrast to the Norse original, Tolkiens Dark Elves don’t live in caverns (except Menegroth, home of Thingol) but in the woods. The caverns became the dwellings of the Dwarves alonein Tolkiens Mythology.
I.6.

Muspelheim:
Muspelheim was a place in the south of Midgard where hot fires burned. It was a place of great heat andnot inhabited by men. This world does not occur in Tolkien’s Mythology. Even though there is a burningsouth mentioned in an early version of the ballad ‘The Lay of Leithian’ [6] (lines 2740-44):
Thus came Thû, as wolf more great than e’er was seen from Angbands gate to the burning south, than ever lurked in mortal lands or murder worked,[..]
It seems that Middle Earth, here called the mortal lands, is limited by Angband to the north and theburning south to the south. But these lines were written around 1930 and a burning land to the south isnever mentioned again.
I.7.

Differences:
Tolkien did not take over the remaining Worlds of the Norse Mythology.Vanaheim, the home of the Vanir, was situated in Asgard. The Vanir were a different race of gods that were overthrown by the Aesir.Hel, the Underworld, was the counterpart of Asgard. It is a world that lies beneath Midgard. Tolkienreplaced this World by Angband, which is located on Middle Earth itself. Jötunheim, the home of the Giants, did nott find its way to Tolkiens universe neither. Eventhough thereare giants in the first narrative texts, Tolkien abandoned this race afterwards and never gave them a placeof their own.

Nordic influences[edit]
Tolkien was heavily influenced by Nordic/Norse mythology. During his education at King Edward's School in Birmingham, the then young Tolkien read and translated from the Old Norse on his own time.[4] One of his first Nordic purchases was the Völsunga saga. It is known that while a student, Tolkien read the only available English translation[5][6] of the Völsunga saga, that by William Morris of the Victorian Arts and Crafts Movement and Icelandic scholar Eiríkur Magnússon.[7] The Völsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied were coeval texts made with the use of the same ancient sources.[8][9] Both of them provided some of the basis for Richard Wagner's opera series, Der Ring des Nibelungen, featuring in particular a magical golden ring and a broken sword reforged. In the Völsungasaga, these items are respectively Andvarinaut and Gram, and they correspond broadly to the One Ring and the sword Narsil (reforged as Andúril).[10] The Volsunga Saga also gives various names found in Tolkien. Tolkien wrote a book entitled The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, in which he discusses the saga in relation to the myth of Sigurd and Gudrún.

Tolkien's Elves and Dwarves are by and large based on Norse and related Germanic mythologies[11][12] Two sources that contain accounts of elves and dwarves that were of interest to Tolkien were the Prose Edda and the Elder or Poetic Edda. The descriptions of elves and dwarves in these works are ambiguous and contradictory, however. Within the contents of the Völuspá, specifically in stanza 9, the creation of Dwarves predates Man, which is precisely the formula Tolkien uses for Middle-earth.[13] The names of Gandalf and the dwarves in The Hobbit were taken from the "Dvergatal" in the Elder Edda and the "Gylfaginning" in the Prose Edda.[14]

The figure of Gandalf is particularly influenced by the Norse deity Odin[15] in his incarnation as "The Wanderer", an old man with one eye, a long white beard, a wide brimmed hat, and a staff. Tolkien, in a letter of 1946, nearly a decade after the character was invented, wrote that he thought of Gandalf as an "Odinic wanderer".[2] Much like Odin, Gandalf promotes justice, knowledge, truth, and insight.[14]

The Balrog and the collapse of the Bridge of Khazad-dûm in Moria, is a direct parallel of the fire giant Surt and the destruction of Asgard's bridge in Norse myth.

The main problem is that the Wallbuilders f***** up