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111-456: This work is one of the earliest written works in Icelandic (and in any North Germanic language ). It is a linguistic work dealing with Old Norse , in the tradition of Latin and Greek grammatical treatises, generally dated to the mid-12th century. Hreinn Benediktsson was not able to narrow the time of writing more precisely than to 1125–1175. The First Grammatical Treatise is of great interest to

222-416: A cauldron large enough to brew ale for them all. They arrive, and Týr sees his nine-hundred-headed grandmother and his gold-clad mother, the latter of which welcomes them with a horn. After Hymir —who is not happy to see Thor—comes in from the cold outdoors, Týr 's mother helps them find a properly strong cauldron. Thor eats a big meal of two oxen (all the rest eat but one), and then goes to sleep. In

333-566: A West Scandinavian branch, consisting of Norwegian , Faroese and Icelandic and, thirdly, an Old Gutnish branch. Norwegian settlers brought Old West Norse to Iceland and the Faroe Islands around 800. Of the modern Scandinavian languages, written Icelandic is closest to this ancient language. An additional language, known as Norn , developed on Orkney and Shetland after Vikings had settled there around 800, but this language became extinct around 1700. In medieval times, speakers of all

444-418: A boat, out at sea. Hymir catches a few whales at once, and Thor baits his line with the head of the ox. Thor casts his line and the monstrous serpent Jörmungandr bites. Thor pulls the serpent on board, and violently slams him in the head with his hammer. Jörmungandr shrieks, and a noisy commotion is heard from underwater before another lacuna appears in the manuscript. After the second lacuna, Hymir

555-550: A bridal head-dress, and the necklace Brísingamen . Thor rejects the idea, yet Loki interjects that this will be the only way to get back Mjölnir . Loki points out that, without Mjölnir , the jötnar will be able to invade and settle in Asgard . The gods dress Thor as a bride, and Loki states that he will go with Thor as his maid, and that the two shall drive to Jötunheimr together. After riding together in Thor's goat-driven chariot ,

666-622: A continental group (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). The division between Insular Nordic ( önordiska / ønordisk / øynordisk ) and Continental Scandinavian ( Skandinavisk ) is based on mutual intelligibility between the two groups and developed due to different influences, particularly the political union of Denmark and Norway (1536–1814) which led to significant Danish influence on central and eastern Norwegian dialects ( Bokmål or Dano-Norwegian ). The North Germanic languages are national languages in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, whereas

777-559: A francophone period), for example the Old Swedish word vindöga 'window' was replaced by fönster (from Middle Low German), whereas native vindue was kept in Danish. Norwegians, who spoke (and still speak) the Norwegian dialects derived from Old Norse, would say vindauga or similar. The written language of Denmark-Norway however, was based on the dialect of Copenhagen and thus had vindue . On

888-525: A monstrosity among the world's phonemic systems". However, a system of 18 oral vowels is in no way unusual for a Germanic language, and nasality must be seen an independent category. The author is unknown, and is usually referred to as "First Grammarian". Scholars have hypothesized various identities for the First Grammarian. One probable candidate is Hallr Teitsson (born ca. 1085, died 1150). Þóroddr Gamlason has also been suggested. Haugen notes that

999-459: A more significant extent than the West Germanic languages do. These lexical, grammatical, and morphological similarities can be outlined in the table below. Given the aforementioned homogeneity, there exists some discussion on whether the continental group should be considered one or several languages. The Continental Scandinavian languages are often cited as proof of the aphorism " A language

1110-486: A mother whose name is not recorded, he fathered Móði , and he is the stepfather of the god Ullr . Thor is the son of Odin and Jörð , by way of his father Odin, he has numerous brothers , including Baldr . Thor has two servants, Þjálfi and Röskva , rides in a cart or chariot pulled by two goats, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr (whom he eats and resurrects), and is ascribed three dwellings ( Bilskirnir , Þrúðheimr , and Þrúðvangr ). Thor wields

1221-538: A poor command of Norwegian and Swedish. They do somewhat better with Danish, as they are taught Danish in school (Icelandic is not mutually intelligible with Scandinavian languages, nor any language, not even Faroese, which is though closest). When speakers of Faroese and Icelandic were tested on how well they understood the three Continental Scandinavian languages, the test results were as follows (maximum score 10.0): The North Germanic languages share many lexical, grammatical, phonological, and morphological similarities, to

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1332-447: A rage, causing all of the halls of the Æsir to tremble in her anger, and her necklace, the famed Brísingamen , falls from her. Freyja pointedly refuses. As a result, the gods and goddesses meet and hold a thing to discuss and debate the matter. At the thing, the god Heimdallr puts forth the suggestion that, in place of Freyja , Thor should be dressed as the bride, complete with jewels, women's clothing down to his knees,

1443-411: A ride from him. The ferryman, shouting from the inlet, is immediately rude and obnoxious to Thor and refuses to ferry him. At first, Thor holds his tongue, but Hárbarðr only becomes more aggressive, and the poem soon becomes a flyting match between Thor and Hárbarðr , all the while revealing lore about the two, including Thor's killing of several jötnar in "the east" and women on Hlesey (now

1554-642: A separate language by many linguists. Traditionally regarded as a Swedish dialect, but by several criteria closer to West Scandinavian dialects, Elfdalian is a separate language by the standard of mutual intelligibility. Traveller Danish, Rodi, and Swedish Romani are varieties of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish with Romani vocabulary or Para-Romani known collectively as the Scandoromani language . They are spoken by Norwegian and Swedish Travellers . The Scando-Romani varieties in Sweden and Norway combine elements from

1665-573: A single time in Västergötland ( VG 150 ), Sweden. A fifth appearance may possibly occur on a runestone found in Södermanland , Sweden ( Sö 140 ), but the reading is contested. Pictorial representations of Thor's hammer appear on a total of five runestones found in Denmark ( DR 26 and DR 120 ) and in the Swedish counties of Västergötland ( VG 113 ) and Södermanland ( Sö 86 and Sö 111 ). It

1776-414: A sitting man, and the man lying down often barks out lies." Loki states that it was indeed an effort, and also a success, for he has discovered that Þrymr has the hammer, but that it cannot be retrieved unless Freyja is brought to Þrymr as his wife. The two return to Freyja and tell her to put on a bridal head dress, as they will drive her to Jötunheimr . Freyja , indignant and angry, goes into

1887-557: A statue of Thor, who Adam describes as "mightiest", sits in the Temple at Uppsala in the center of a triple throne (flanked by Woden and "Fricco") located in Gamla Uppsala , Sweden . Adam details that "Thor, they reckon, rules the sky; he governs thunder and lightning, winds and storms, fine weather and fertility" and that "Thor, with his mace, looks like Jupiter". Adam details that the people of Uppsala had appointed priests to each of

1998-711: A stick bearing a runic message found among the Bryggen inscriptions in Bergen , Norway . On the stick, both Thor and Odin are called upon for help; Thor is asked to "receive" the reader, and Odin to "own" them. In the Poetic Edda , compiled during the 13th century from traditional source material reaching into the pagan period, Thor appears (or is mentioned) in the poems Völuspá , Grímnismál , Skírnismál , Hárbarðsljóð , Hymiskviða , Lokasenna , Þrymskviða , Alvíssmál , and Hyndluljóð . In

2109-518: A strong mutual intelligibility where cross-border communication in native languages is very common, particularly between the latter two. Approximately 20 million people in the Nordic countries speak a Scandinavian language as their native language, including an approximately 5% minority in Finland . Besides being the only North Germanic language with official status in two separate sovereign states, Swedish

2220-532: Is cognate with Old High German Donarestag . All of these terms derive from a Late Proto-Germanic weekday name along the lines of * Þunaresdagaz ('Day of * Þun(a)raz '), a calque of Latin Iovis dies ('Day of Jove '; cf. modern Italian giovedì , French jeudi , Spanish jueves ). By employing a practice known as interpretatio germanica during the Roman period , ancient Germanic peoples adopted

2331-461: Is a dialect with an army and navy ". The differences in dialects within the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark can often be greater than the differences across the borders, but the political independence of these countries leads continental Scandinavian to be classified into Norwegian , Swedish , and Danish in the popular mind as well as among most linguists. The generally agreed upon language border is, in other words, politically shaped. This

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2442-452: Is also because of the strong influence of the standard languages , particularly in Denmark and Sweden. Even if the language policy of Norway has been more tolerant of rural dialectal variation in formal language, the prestige dialect often referred to as "Eastern Urban Norwegian", spoken mainly in and around the Oslo region, is sometimes considered normative. The influence of a standard Norwegian

2553-458: Is also referred to as the Nordic languages , a direct translation of the most common term used among Danish , Faroese , Icelandic , Norwegian , and Swedish scholars and people. The term North Germanic languages is used in comparative linguistics , whereas the term Scandinavian languages appears in studies of the modern standard languages and the dialect continuum of Scandinavia . Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are close enough to form

2664-641: Is also seen on runestone DR 48 . The design is believed to be a heathen response to Christian runestones, which often have a cross at the centre. One of the stones, Sö 86 , shows a face or mask above the hammer. Anders Hultgård has argued that this is the face of Thor. At least three stones depict Thor fishing for the serpent Jörmungandr : the Hørdum stone in Thy , Denmark, the Altuna Runestone in Altuna , Sweden and

2775-727: Is also spoken by the North Schleswig Germans , and German is a recognized minority language in this region. German is the primary language among the Danish minority of Southern Schleswig , and likewise, Danish is the primary language of the North Schleswig Germans. Both minority groups are highly bilingual. Traditionally, Danish and German were the two official languages of Denmark–Norway ; laws and other official instruments for use in Denmark and Norway were written in Danish, and local administrators spoke Danish or Norwegian. German

2886-614: Is also the most spoken of the languages overall. 15% of the population in Greenland speak Danish as a first language. This language branch is separated from the West Germanic languages , consisting of languages like English, Dutch, and German to the south, and does not include Finnish to the east, which belongs to the completely unrelated Uralic language family . The modern languages and their dialects in this group are: The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West , East and North Germanic. Their exact relation

2997-403: Is because " Freyja " has not slept for eight nights in her eagerness. The "wretched sister" of the jötnar appears, asks for a bridal gift from " Freyja ", and the jötnar bring out Mjölnir to "sanctify the bride", to lay it on her lap, and marry the two by "the hand" of the goddess Vár . Thor laughs internally when he sees the hammer, takes hold of it, strikes Þrymr , beats all of

3108-572: Is described as red-bearded, but there is no evidence for a red beard in the Eddas. The name of the æsir is explained as "men from Asia ", Asgard being the "Asian city" (i.e., Troy). Alternatively, Troy is in Tyrkland (Turkey, i.e., Asia Minor), and Asialand is Scythia , where Thor founded a new city named Asgard. Odin is a remote descendant of Thor, removed by twelve generations, who led an expedition across Germany, Denmark and Sweden to Norway. In

3219-597: Is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible to some degree during the Migration Period , so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify. Dialects with the features assigned to the northern group formed from the Proto-Germanic language in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age in Northern Europe . Eventually, around the year 200 AD, speakers of

3330-489: Is frequently referred to in place names, the day of the week Thursday bears his name (modern English Thursday derives from Old English thunresdaeġ , 'Thunor's day'), and names stemming from the pagan period containing his own continue to be used today, particularly in Scandinavia. Thor has inspired numerous works of art and references to Thor appear in modern popular culture. Like other Germanic deities, veneration of Thor

3441-407: Is gone. Þrymr says that he has hidden Mjölnir eight leagues beneath the earth, from which it will be retrieved, but only if Freyja is brought to him as his wife. Loki flies off, the feather cloak whistling, away from Jötunheimr and back to the court of the gods. Thor asks Loki if his efforts were successful, and that Loki should tell him while he is still in the air as "tales often escape

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3552-507: Is important for the study of Old Norse, as it is a major text showing the state of the language just prior to the writing of the Icelandic Sagas . It also provides a comprehensive study of the pronunciation of the language, to the extent that it created an Icelandic alphabet derived from the Latin, and more adapted to writing on paper or parchment than the older, epigraphic Runic alphabet that

3663-482: Is nevertheless less so than in Denmark and Sweden, since the prestige dialect in Norway has moved geographically several times over the past 200 years. The organised formation of Nynorsk out of western Norwegian dialects after Norway became independent from Denmark in 1814 intensified the politico-linguistic divisions. The Nordic Council has on several occasions referred to the (Germanic) languages spoken in Scandinavia as

3774-598: Is revived in the modern period in Heathenry . The name Thor is derived from Norse mythology. Its medieval Germanic equivalents or cognates are Donar ( Old High German ), Þunor ( Old English ), Thuner ( Old Frisian ), Thunar ( Old Saxon ), and Þórr ( Old Norse ), the latter of which inspired the form Thor . Though Old Norse Þórr has only one syllable, it too comes from an earlier, Proto-Norse two-syllable form which can be reconstructed as * Þunarr and/or * Þunurr (evidenced by

3885-849: Is similar to Nynorsk and is used by a very small minority. Thor Thor (from Old Norse : Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism . In Norse mythology , he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning , thunder , storms , sacred groves and trees , strength , the protection of humankind, hallowing , and fertility . Besides Old Norse Þórr , the deity occurs in Old English as Thunor , in Old Frisian as Thuner , in Old Saxon as Thunar , and in Old High German as Donar , all ultimately stemming from

3996-577: Is sitting in the boat, unhappy and totally silent, as they row back to shore. On shore, Hymir suggests that Thor should help him carry a whale back to his farm. Thor picks both the boat and the whales up, and carries it all back to Hymir 's farm. After Thor successfully smashes a crystal goblet by throwing it at Hymir 's head on Týr 's mother's suggestion, Thor and Týr are given the cauldron. Týr cannot lift it, but Thor manages to roll it, and so with it they leave. Some distance from Hymir 's home, an army of many-headed beings led by Hymir attacks

4107-420: Is so angry, and comments that Thor will not be so daring to fight "the wolf" ( Fenrir ) when it eats Odin (a reference to the foretold events of Ragnarök ). Thor again tells him to be silent, and threatens to throw him into the sky, where he will never be seen again. Loki says that Thor should not brag of his time in the east, as he once crouched in fear in the thumb of a glove (a story involving deception by

4218-607: The Prose Edda euhemerises Thor as a prince of Troy , and the son of Menon by Troana, a daughter of Priam . Thor, also known as Tror , is said to have married the prophetess Sibyl (identified with Sif ). Thor is further said here to have been raised in Thrace by a chieftain named Lorikus , whom he later slew to assume the title of "King of Thrace", to have had a pale complexion and hair "fairer than gold", and to have been strong enough to lift ten bearskins. In later sagas he

4329-520: The Canterbury Charm from Canterbury , England , calls upon Thor to heal a wound by banishing a thurs . The second, the Kvinneby amulet , invokes protection by both Thor and his hammer. On four (or possibly five) runestones , an invocation to Thor appears that reads "May Thor hallow (these runes /this monument)!" The invocation appears thrice in Denmark ( DR 110 , DR 209 , and DR 220 ), and

4440-522: The Gosforth Cross in Gosforth , England. Sune Lindqvist argued in the 1930s that the image stone Ardre VIII on Gotland depicts two scenes from the story: Thor ripping the head of Hymir's ox and Thor and Hymir in the boat, but this has been disputed. In the 12th century, more than a century after Norway was "officially" Christianized, Thor was still being invoked by the population, as evidenced by

4551-815: The Isle of Man , and Norwegian settlements in Normandy . The Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Russia, England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East. Yet, by 1600, another classification of the North Germanic language branches had arisen from a syntactic point of view, dividing them into an insular group (Icelandic and Faroese) and

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4662-543: The Northwest Germanic languages, divided into four main dialects: North Germanic, and the three groups conventionally called "West Germanic", namely Inability of the tree model to explain the existence of some features in the West Germanic languages stimulated the development of an alternative, the so-called wave model . Under this view, the properties that the West Germanic languages have in common separate from

4773-529: The Prose Edda , Thor is mentioned in all four books; Prologue , Gylfaginning , Skáldskaparmál , and Háttatal . In Heimskringla , composed in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson , Thor or statues of Thor are mentioned in Ynglinga saga , Hákonar saga góða , Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar , and Óláfs saga helga . In Ynglinga saga chapter 5, a heavily euhemerized account of

4884-660: The Proto-Germanic theonym * Þun(a)raz , meaning 'Thunder'. Thor is a prominently mentioned god throughout the recorded history of the Germanic peoples , from the Roman occupation of regions of Germania , to the Germanic expansions of the Migration Period , to his high popularity during the Viking Age , when, in the face of the process of the Christianization of Scandinavia , emblems of his hammer, Mjölnir , were worn and Norse pagan personal names containing

4995-411: The jötnar , kills their "older sister", and so gets his hammer back. In the poem Alvíssmál , Thor tricks a dwarf , Alvíss , to his doom upon finding that he seeks to wed his daughter (unnamed, possibly Þrúðr ). As the poem starts, Thor meets a dwarf who talks about getting married. Thor finds the dwarf repulsive and, apparently, realizes that the bride is his daughter. Thor comments that

5106-412: The Øresund Bridge and a larger number of cross-border commuters in the Øresund Region contribute to a better knowledge of spoken Danish and a better knowledge of the unique Danish words among the region's inhabitants. According to the study, youth in this region were able to understand the Danish language (slightly) better than the Norwegian language. But they still could not understand Danish as well as

5217-698: The "Scandinavian language" (singular); for instance, the official newsletter of the Nordic Council is written in the "Scandinavian language". The creation of one unified written language has been considered as highly unlikely, given the failure to agree upon a common standardized language in Norway . However, there is a slight chance of "some uniformization of spelling" between Norway, Sweden and Denmark. All North Germanic languages are descended from Old Norse . Divisions between subfamilies of North Germanic are rarely precisely defined: Most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and

5328-475: The 12th century, folk traditions and iconography of the Christianizing king Olaf II of Norway (Saint Olaf; c. 995 – 1030) absorbed elements of both Thor and Freyr. After Olaf's death, his cult had spread quickly all over Scandinavia, where many churches were dedicated to him, as well as to other parts of Northern Europe. His cult distinctively mixed both ecclesiastical and folk elements. From Thor, he inherited

5439-495: The Danish island of Læsø ). In the end, Thor ends up walking instead. Thor is again the main character in the poem Hymiskviða , where, after the gods have been hunting and have eaten their prey, they have an urge to drink. They "sh[ake] the twigs" and interpret what they say. The gods decide that they would find suitable cauldrons at Ægir 's home. Thor arrives at Ægir 's home and finds him to be cheerful, looks into his eyes, and tells him that he must prepare feasts for

5550-405: The Danish vocabulary and grammar, and was nearly identical to written Danish until the spelling reform of 1907. (For this reason, Bokmål and its unofficial, more conservative variant Riksmål are sometimes considered East Scandinavian, and Nynorsk West Scandinavian via the west–east division shown above.) However, Danish has developed a greater distance between the spoken and written versions of

5661-585: The First Grammatical Treatise proposes that long vowels be marked with an acute accent, e.g. á. The nasal vowels are marked with a dot. Small capitals denote a geminate consonant . The author proposes a letter Ǥ, named eng , which denotes /ŋɡ/ . Raddarstafir (Vowels): a, ȧ, ǫ, ǫ̇, e, ė, ę, ę̇, ı, i, o, ȯ, ø, ø̇, u, u̇, y, ẏ Samhljóðendr (Consonants): b, ʙ, c, ᴋ, d, ᴅ, f, ꜰ, g, ɢ, ǥ, h, l, ʟ, m, ᴍ, n, ɴ, p, ᴘ, r, ʀ, ſ, ꜱ, t, ᴛ, þ Samsettar (Letters for composite sounds): x, z Other: ⁊ , ˜ Based on

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5772-563: The Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans, and in these works Thor is frequently referred to – via a process known as interpretatio romana (where characteristics perceived to be similar by Romans result in identification of a non-Roman god as a Roman deity) – as either the Roman god Jupiter (also known as Jove ) or the Greco-Roman god Hercules . The first clear example of this occurs in

5883-532: The Latin weekly calendar and replaced the names of Roman gods with their own. Beginning in the Viking Age , personal names containing the theonym Þórr are recorded with great frequency, whereas no examples are known prior to this period. Þórr -based names may have flourished during the Viking Age as a defiant response to attempts at Christianization, similar to the widespread Viking Age practice of wearing Thor's hammer pendants. The earliest records of

5994-419: The North Germanic branch became distinguishable from the other Germanic language speakers . The early development of this language branch is attested through runic inscriptions. The North Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations shared with West Germanic : Some have argued that after East Germanic broke off from the group, the remaining Germanic languages,

6105-540: The North Germanic family tree is divided into two main branches, West Scandinavian languages ( Norwegian , Faroese and Icelandic ) and East Scandinavian languages ( Danish and Swedish ), along with various dialects and varieties. The two branches are derived from the western and eastern dialect groups of Old Norse respectively. There was also an Old Gutnish branch spoken on the island of Gotland . The continental Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian and Danish) were heavily influenced by Middle Low German during

6216-547: The North Germanic languages are not inherited from a "Proto-West-Germanic" language, but rather spread by language contact among the Germanic languages spoken in central Europe, not reaching those spoken in Scandinavia. Some innovations are not found in West and East Germanic, such as: After the Old Norse period, the North Germanic languages developed into an East Scandinavian branch, consisting of Danish and Swedish ; and, secondly,

6327-689: The Northern Peoples . Dialectal variation between west and east in Old Norse however was certainly present during the Middle Ages and three dialects had emerged: Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old Icelandic was essentially identical to Old Norwegian , and together they formed the Old West Norse dialect of Old Norse and were also spoken in settlements in Faroe Islands, Ireland , Scotland,

6438-550: The Norwegians could, demonstrating once again the relative distance of Swedish from Danish. Youth in Copenhagen had a very poor command of Swedish, showing that the Øresund connection was mostly one-way. The results from the study of how well native youth in different Scandinavian cities did when tested on their knowledge of the other Continental Scandinavian languages are summarized in table format, reproduced below. The maximum score

6549-542: The Nynorsk project (which had as a goal to re-establish a written Norwegian language) would have been much harder to carry out if Norway had been in a union with Sweden instead of with Denmark, simply because the differences would have been smaller. Currently, English loanwords are influencing the languages. A 2005 survey of words used by speakers of the Scandinavian languages showed that the number of English loanwords used in

6660-454: The Roman historian Tacitus 's late first-century work Germania , where, writing about the religion of the Suebi (a confederation of Germanic peoples ), he comments that "among the gods Mercury is the one they principally worship. They regard it as a religious duty to offer to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of

6771-537: The Scandinavian languages could understand one another to a significant degree, and it was often referred to as a single language, called the "Danish tongue" until the 13th century by some in Sweden and Iceland. In the 16th century, many Danes and Swedes still referred to North Germanic as a single language, which is stated in the introduction to the first Danish translation of the Bible and in Olaus Magnus ' A Description of

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6882-434: The Swedish dialects. Nynorsk incorporates much of these words, like byrja (cf. Swedish börja , Danish begynde ), veke (cf. Sw vecka , Dan uge ) and vatn (Sw vatten , Dan vand ) whereas Bokmål has retained the Danish forms ( begynne , uke , vann ). As a result, Nynorsk does not conform to the above east–west split model, since it shares a lot of features with Swedish. According to the Norwegian linguist Arne Torp ,

6993-780: The Vedic weather-god Parjanya is also called stanayitnú- ('Thunderer'). The potentially perfect match between the thunder-gods * Tonaros and * Þunaraz , which both go back to a common form * ton(a)ros ~ * tṇros , is notable in the context of early Celtic–Germanic linguistic contacts, especially when added to other inherited terms with thunder attributes, such as * Meldunjaz –* meldo- (from * meldh - 'lightning, hammer', i.e. * Perk unos ' weapon) and * Fergunja –* Fercunyā (from * perk un-iyā 'wooded mountains', i.e. *Perk unos' realm). The English weekday name Thursday comes from Old English Þunresdæg , meaning 'day of Þunor', with influence from Old Norse Þórsdagr . The name

7104-609: The author of the text cannot be the 11th century Icelandic scholar Ari the Learned (1067-1148), as the author refers to Ari, "in the text with a reverence such as might be offered by a pupil or a friend." Furthermore, Haugen notes, concerning the author candidate Hallr Teitsson, that, "His [Hallr's] father was a foster brother of Ari the Learned, and Hallr himself was the fourth in line of a distinguished family of cultural leaders in Iceland". . The First Grammarian's choice of terminology, such as

7215-494: The beast: Benjamin Thorpe translation: Then comes the mighty son of Hlôdyn : (Odin's son goes with the monster to fight); Midgârd 's Veor in his rage will slay the worm. Nine feet will go Fiörgyn's son, bowed by the serpent, who feared no foe. All men will their homes forsake. Henry Adams Bellows translation: Hither there comes the son of Hlothyn, The bright snake gapes to heaven above; ... Against

7326-434: The behavior at odds with his impression of Freyja , and Loki, sitting before Þrymr and appearing as a "very shrewd maid", makes the excuse that " Freyja 's" behaviour is due to her having not consumed anything for eight entire days before arriving due to her eagerness to arrive. Þrymr then lifts " Freyja 's" veil and wants to kiss "her". Terrifying eyes stare back at him, seemingly burning with fire. Loki says that this

7437-569: The dative tanaro and the Gaulish river name Tanarus ), and further related to the Latin epithet Tonans (attached to Jupiter ), via the common Proto-Indo-European root for 'thunder' * (s)tenh₂- . According to scholar Peter Jackson, those theonyms may have emerged as the result of the fossilization of an original epithet (or epiclesis , i.e. invocational name) of the Proto-Indo-European thunder-god * Perk unos , since

7548-421: The description of minimal pairs of words in Old Norse, Einar Haugen proposes one tentative interpretation of the vowel description given by the First Grammatical Treatise. There are potentially 36 vowels in Old Norse, with 9 basic vowel qualities, /i, y, e, ø, ɛ, u, o, ɔ, a/ , which are further distinguished by length and nasality. Haugen notes that "A system of thirty-six vowel phonemes would have been something of

7659-441: The dialects of Western Sweden, Eastern Norway (Østlandet) and Trøndersk. Norwegian has two official written norms, Bokmål and Nynorsk. In addition, there are some unofficial norms. Riksmål is more conservative than Bokmål (that is, closer to Danish) and is used to various extents by numerous people, especially in the cities and by the largest newspaper in Norway, Aftenposten . On the other hand, Høgnorsk (High Norwegian)

7770-559: The event, however, as he is away in the east for unspecified purposes. Towards the end of the poem, the flyting turns to Sif , Thor's wife, whom Loki then claims to have slept with. The god Freyr 's servant Beyla interjects, and says that, since all of the mountains are shaking, she thinks that Thor is on his way home. Beyla adds that Thor will bring peace to the quarrel, to which Loki responds with insults. Thor arrives and tells Loki to be silent, and threatens to rip Loki's head from his body with his hammer. Loki asks Thor why he

7881-455: The feather cloak whistling. In Jötunheimr , the jötunn Þrymr sits on a barrow , plaiting golden collars for his female dogs, and trimming the manes of his horses. Þrymr sees Loki, and asks what could be amiss among the Æsir and the elves ; why is Loki alone in Jötunheimr ? Loki responds that he has bad news for both the elves and the Æsir —that Thor's hammer, Mjölnir ,

7992-472: The giant Hymir (90.20), and the legendary Dane Ubbi (90.19)". North Germanic language Continental Scandinavian languages: Insular Nordic languages: The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages —a sub-family of the Indo-European languages —along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages . The language group

8103-476: The god Freyr 's messenger, Skírnir , threatens the fair Gerðr , with whom Freyr is smitten, with numerous threats and curses, including that Thor, Freyr , and Odin will be angry with her, and that she risks their "potent wrath". Thor is the main character of Hárbarðsljóð , where, after traveling "from the east", he comes to an inlet where he encounters a ferryman who gives his name as Hárbarðr (Odin, again in disguise), and attempts to hail

8214-543: The god. In relation, Thunor is sometimes used in Old English texts to gloss Jupiter , the god may be referenced in the poem Solomon and Saturn , where the thunder strikes the devil with a "fiery axe", and the Old English expression þunorrād ("thunder ride") may refer to the god's thunderous, goat-led chariot. A 9th-century AD codex from Mainz , Germany, known as the Old Saxon Baptismal Vow , records

8325-425: The gods is provided, where Thor is described as having been a gothi —a pagan priest—who was given by Odin (who himself is explained away as having been an exceedingly powerful magic-wielding chieftain from the east) a dwelling in the mythical location of Þrúðvangr , in what is now Sweden. The saga narrative adds that numerous names—at the time of the narrative, popularly in use—were derived from Thor . Around

8436-453: The gods, and that the priests were to offer up sacrifices . In Thor's case, he continues, these sacrifices were done when plague or famine threatened. Earlier in the same work, Adam relays that in 1030 an English preacher, Wulfred, was lynched by assembled Germanic pagans for "profaning" a representation of Thor. Two objects with runic inscriptions invoking Thor date from the 11th century, one from England and one from Sweden. The first,

8547-401: The gods. Annoyed, Ægir tells Thor that the gods must first bring to him a suitable cauldron to brew ale in. The gods search but find no such cauldron anywhere. However, Týr tells Thor that he may have a solution; east of Élivágar lives Hymir , and he owns such a deep kettle. So, after Thor secures his goats at Egil 's home, Thor and Týr go to Hymir 's hall in search of

8658-583: The hall, for "I know alone that you do strike", and the poem continues. In the comedic poem Þrymskviða , Thor again plays a central role. In the poem, Thor wakes and finds that his powerful hammer, Mjölnir , is missing. Thor turns to Loki, and tells him that nobody knows that the hammer has been stolen. The two go to the dwelling of the goddess Freyja , and so that he may attempt to find Mjölnir , Thor asks her if he may borrow her feather cloak. Freyja agrees, and says she would lend it to Thor even if it were made of silver or gold, and Loki flies off,

8769-492: The hammer Mjölnir , wears the belt Megingjörð and the iron gloves Járngreipr , and owns the staff Gríðarvölr . Thor's exploits, including his relentless slaughter of his foes and fierce battles with the monstrous serpent Jörmungandr —and their foretold mutual deaths during the events of Ragnarök —are recorded throughout sources for Norse mythology. Into the modern period, Thor continued to be acknowledged in folklore throughout Germanic-speaking Europe . Thor

8880-436: The history of linguistics, since it systematically used the technique of minimal pairs to establish the inventory of distinctive sounds or phonemes in the Icelandic language, in a manner reminiscent of the methods of structural linguistics . It is also notable for revealing the existence of a whole series of nasal vowel phonemes, whose presence in the Icelandic language of the time would otherwise be unknown. The Treatise

8991-670: The language group. According to a study undertaken during 2002–2005 and funded by the Nordic Cultural Fund, Swedish speakers in Stockholm and Danish speakers in Copenhagen have the greatest difficulty in understanding other Nordic languages. The study, which focused mainly on native speakers under the age of 25, showed that the lowest ability to comprehend another language is demonstrated by youth in Stockholm in regard to Danish, producing

9102-453: The language, so the differences between spoken Norwegian and spoken Danish are somewhat more significant than the difference between their respective written forms. Written Danish is relatively close to the other Continental Scandinavian languages, but the sound developments of spoken Danish include reduction and assimilation of consonants and vowels, as well as the prosodic feature called stød in Danish, developments which have not occurred in

9213-617: The languages between different parts of the three language areas. Sweden left the Kalmar Union in 1523 due to conflicts with Denmark, leaving two Scandinavian units: The union of Denmark–Norway (ruled from Copenhagen, Denmark) and Sweden (including present-day Finland). The two countries took different sides during several wars until 1814, when the Denmark-Norway unit was disestablished, and made different international contacts. This led to different borrowings from foreign languages (Sweden had

9324-492: The languages has doubled during the last 30 years and is now 1.2%. Icelandic has imported fewer English words than the other North Germanic languages, despite the fact that it is the country that uses English most. The mutual intelligibility between the Continental Scandinavian languages is asymmetrical. Various studies have shown Norwegian speakers to be the best in Scandinavia at understanding other languages within

9435-431: The lowest ability score in the survey. The greatest variation in results between participants within the same country was also demonstrated by the Swedish speakers in the study. Participants from Malmö , located in the southernmost Swedish province of Scania (Skåne), demonstrated a better understanding of Danish than Swedish speakers to the north. Access to Danish television and radio, direct trains to Copenhagen over

9546-558: The magic of Útgarða-Loki , recounted in the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning )—which, he comments, "was hardly like Thor". Thor again tells him to be silent, threatening to break every bone in Loki's body. Loki responds that he intends to live a while yet, and again insults Thor with references to his encounter with Útgarða-Loki . Thor responds with a fourth call to be silent, and threatens to send Loki to Hel . At Thor's final threat, Loki gives in, commenting that only for Thor will he leave

9657-446: The morning, he awakes and informs Hymir that he wants to go fishing the following evening, and that he will catch plenty of food, but that he needs bait. Hymir tells him to go get some bait from his pasture, which he expects should not be a problem for Thor. Thor goes out, finds Hymir 's best ox, and rips its head off. After a lacuna in the manuscript of the poem, Hymiskviða abruptly picks up again with Thor and Hymir in

9768-573: The most separated ones not. The Jamtlandic dialects share many characteristics with both Trøndersk and with Norrländska mål. Due to this ambiguous position, it is contested whether Jamtlandic belongs to the West Scandinavian or the East Scandinavian group. Elfdalian (Älvdalen speech), generally considered a Sveamål dialect, today has an official orthography and is, because of a lack of mutual intelligibility with Swedish , considered as

9879-513: The name of the god appears upon the Nordendorf fibulae , a piece of jewelry created during the Migration Period and found in Bavaria . The item bears an Elder Futhark inscribed with the name Þonar (i.e. Donar ), the southern Germanic form of Thor's name. Around the second half of the 8th century, Old English texts mention Thunor ( Þunor ), which likely refers to a Saxon version of

9990-474: The name of the god bear witness to his popularity. Narratives featuring Thor are most prominently attested in Old Norse, where Thor appears throughout Norse mythology . In stories recorded in medieval Iceland , Thor bears at least fifteen names , is the husband of the golden-haired goddess Sif and the lover of the jötunn Járnsaxa . With Sif , Thor fathered the goddess (and possible valkyrie ) Þrúðr ; with Járnsaxa , he fathered Magni ; with

10101-593: The name of three Old Saxon gods, UUôden (Old Saxon " Wodan ") , Saxnôte , and Thunaer , by way of their renunciation as demons in a formula to be repeated by Germanic pagans formally converting to Christianity . According to a near-contemporary account, the Christian missionary Saint Boniface felled an oak tree dedicated to "Jove" in the 8th century, the Donar's Oak in the region of Hesse , Germany . The Kentish royal legend , probably 11th-century, contains

10212-528: The non-Germanic Finnish is spoken by the majority in Finland. In inter-Nordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions: Finnish, Icelandic, and one of the three languages Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Another official language in the Nordic countries is Greenlandic (in the Eskimo–Aleut family ), the sole official language of Greenland . In Southern Jutland in southwestern Denmark, German

10323-510: The other hand, the word begynde 'begin' (now written begynne in Norwegian Bokmål) was borrowed into Danish and Norwegian, whereas native börja was kept in Swedish. Even though standard Swedish and Danish were moving apart, the dialects were not influenced that much. Thus Norwegian and Swedish remained similar in pronunciation, and words like børja were able to survive in some of the Norwegian dialects whereas vindöga survived in some of

10434-544: The other languages (though the stød corresponds to the changes in pitch in Norwegian and Swedish, which are pitch-accent languages ). Scandinavians are widely expected to understand some of the other spoken Scandinavian languages. There may be some difficulty particularly with elderly dialect speakers, however public radio and television presenters are often well understood by speakers of the other Scandinavian countries, although there are various regional differences of mutual intelligibility for understanding mainstream dialects of

10545-401: The period of Hanseatic expansion . Another way of classifying the languages – focusing on mutual intelligibility rather than the tree-of-life model – posits Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish as Continental Scandinavian , and Faroese and Icelandic as Insular Scandinavian . Because of the long political union between Norway and Denmark, moderate and conservative Norwegian Bokmål share most of

10656-598: The permitted kind" and adds that a portion of the Suebi also venerate " Isis ". In this instance, Tacitus refers to the god Odin as " Mercury ", Thor as "Hercules", and the god Týr as " Mars ", and the identity of the Isis of the Suebi has been debated. In Thor's case, the identification with the god Hercules is likely at least in part due to similarities between Thor's hammer and Hercules' club. In his Annals , Tacitus again refers to

10767-432: The poem Grímnismál , the god Odin, in disguise as Grímnir , and tortured, starved and thirsty, imparts in the young Agnar cosmological lore, including that Thor resides in Þrúðheimr , and that, every day, Thor wades through the rivers Körmt and Örmt , and the two Kerlaugar . There, Grímnir says, Thor sits as judge at the immense cosmological world tree, Yggdrasil . In Skírnismál ,

10878-401: The poem Völuspá , a dead völva recounts the history of the universe and foretells the future to the disguised god Odin, including the death of Thor. Thor, she foretells, will do battle with the great serpent during the immense mythic war waged at Ragnarök , and there he will slay the monstrous snake, yet after he will only be able to take nine steps before succumbing to the venom of

10989-406: The poems Hymiskviða and Þórsdrápa , and modern Elfdalian tųosdag 'Thursday'), through the common Old Norse development of the sequence -unr- to -ór- . All these forms of Thor's name descend from Proto-Germanic , but there is debate as to precisely what form the name took at that early stage. The form * Þunraz has been suggested and has the attraction of clearly containing

11100-573: The question and answer session turns out to be a ploy by Thor, as, although Thor comments that he has truly never seen anyone with more wisdom in their breast, Thor has managed to delay the dwarf enough for the Sun to turn him to stone; "day dawns on you now, dwarf, now sun shines on the hall". In the poem Hyndluljóð , Freyja offers to the jötunn woman Hyndla to blót (sacrifice) to Thor so that she may be protected, and comments that Thor does not care much for jötunn women. The prologue to

11211-515: The sequence -unr- , needed to explain the later form Þórr . The form * Þunuraz is suggested by Elfdalian tųosdag ('Thursday') and by a runic inscription from around 700 from Hallbjäns in Sundre, Gotland , which includes the sequence "þunurþurus". Finally, * Þunaraz is attractive because it is identical to the name of the ancient Celtic god Taranus (by metathesis –switch of sounds–of an earlier * Tonaros , attested in

11322-461: The serpent goes Othin's son. In anger smites the warder of earth,— Forth from their homes must all men flee;— Nine paces fares the son of Fjorgyn, And, slain by the serpent, fearless he sinks. Afterwards, says the völva , the sky will turn black before fire engulfs the world, the stars will disappear, flames will dance before the sky, steam will rise, the world will be covered in water and then it will be raised again, green and fertile. In

11433-444: The story of a villainous reeve of Ecgberht of Kent called Thunor, who is swallowed up by the earth at a place from then on known as þunores hlæwe (Old English 'Thunor's mound'). Gabriel Turville-Petre saw this as an invented origin for the placename demonstrating loss of memory that Thunor had been a god's name. In the 11th century, chronicler Adam of Bremen records in his Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum that

11544-417: The two, but are killed by the hammer of Thor. Although one of his goats is lame in the leg, the two manage to bring the cauldron back, have plenty of ale, and so, from then on, return to [Týr] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |3= ( help ) 's for more every winter. In the poem Lokasenna , the half-god Loki angrily flites with the gods in the sea entity Ægir 's hall. Thor does not attend

11655-483: The two, disguised, arrive in Jötunheimr . Þrymr commands the jötnar in his hall to spread straw on the benches, for Freyja has arrived to be his wife. Þrymr recounts his treasured animals and objects, stating that Freyja was all that he was missing in his wealth. Early in the evening, the disguised Loki and Thor meet with Þrymr and the assembled jötnar . Thor eats and drinks ferociously, consuming entire animals and three casks of mead . Þrymr finds

11766-512: The use of the Latin terms "capitulum" and "vers", as well as a quotation from Cato's Distichs , suggests he received a Latin education. However, he was also well-versed and familiar with Norse skaldic poetic verse, making him "one of that line of students of poetics, whose greatest representative from Iceland was to be Snorri Sturluson ." This can be seen in the illustrative sentences used in demonstrating minimal pairs, which contain allusions to "the giantess Þórgerð Hǫlgabrúð (90.20), Thor and

11877-504: The veneration of "Hercules" by the Germanic peoples; he records a wood beyond the river Weser (in what is now northwestern Germany ) as dedicated to him. A deity known as Hercules Magusanus was venerated in Germania Inferior ; due to the Roman identification of Thor with Hercules, Rudolf Simek has suggested that Magusanus was originally an epithet attached to the Proto-Germanic deity * Þunraz . The first recorded instance of

11988-457: The wedding agreement was made among the gods while Thor was gone, and that the dwarf must seek his consent. To do so, Thor says, Alvíss must tell him what he wants to know about all of the worlds that the dwarf has visited. In a long question and answer session, Alvíss does exactly that; he describes natural features as they are known in the languages of various races of beings in the world, and gives an amount of cosmological lore. However,

12099-502: Was 10.0: Faroese speakers (of the Insular Scandinavian languages group) are even better than the Norwegians at comprehending two or more languages within the Continental Scandinavian languages group, scoring high in both Danish (which they study at school) and Norwegian and having the highest score on a Scandinavian language other than their native language, as well as the highest average score. Icelandic speakers, in contrast, have

12210-596: Was made for shorter carvings on wood or stone. (Other writings in the Latin alphabet presumably existed in the form of law books and Christian writings. The educated clergy of the time would not have used runes.) This alphabet included þ (derived straight from the runes), as well as diacritic indication of vowel length , and an o with an ogonek . The First Grammarian's entire system was never adopted, as evidenced in later manuscripts, in some cases not much younger, but it has had an influence on Icelandic writing ever since (see above). See Icelandic orthography . The author of

12321-536: Was the administrative language of Holstein and the Duchy of Schleswig . Sami languages form an unrelated group that has coexisted with the North Germanic language group in Scandinavia since prehistory. Sami, like Finnish , is part of the group of the Uralic languages . During centuries of interaction, Finnish and Sami have imported many more loanwords from North Germanic languages than vice versa. In historical linguistics,

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