24 November 2008

Old Norse Invades YouTube



Nowhere is safe from Old Norse, not even YouTube. Here are a couple of links, unintentionally a bit funny, but with some educational value too:
Extract from Konungs skuggsjá spoken by two oddly-dressed chaps using the modern Norwegian pronunciation of Old Norse and with subtitles in Nynorsk. I wonder what the background is?
Extract from Atlakviða with interesting sound-effects (and an oddly-dressed chap - btw what is the other chap doing in jeans?). Pronunciation as before, but subtitles in Old Norse (including hooked o!), English and Bokmål.
If you want to practise your Norwegian-Old Norse, there are exercises on this page at the University of Bergen (go to the end of the page and click on 'norrøne øvingar'). If you click on 'norrønt' a bit higher up, you will also get the second extract listed above (this is clearly its source), but without the Old Norse or English text.
And if you suffer from insomnia, I can recommend this rather soporific lecture on the Old Norse language - it will send you off pretty soon!

12 November 2008

Viking Women


According to the BBC, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland are the top four countries in the league table of nations 'closing the gender gap'. Is it any wonder we like studying the North? But where is Denmark?