SC - Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 20:21:06 -0500

[Micaylah]

Huette wrote:
>As far as I know, in English, Norse can mean both
>the language [old Norse] and the people who populated
>the area of Norway during the Dark Ages/Early Middle
>Ages.  If I am not mistaken, the term "Norwegian"
>came after they were Christianized and that the
>Vikings from Norway always called themselves the
>Norse, not Norwegian until after the 12th century.

Well, no, they called themselves "norrænir", not Norse, since they weren´t
English. Please don´t think I´m being sarcastic. You see, what I´m really
wondering about is if the terms "norrænn" and "Norse" cover exactly the same
(norrænn means literally "from the north"). In the Sagas and other old
Icelandic written sources, the term "norrænn" covers anyone who speaks
"norræna tungu", i.e. the inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland,
the Faroe Islands, etc. This is also how the term is still used in modern
Icelandic. I´m not saying we didn´t distinguish between the inhabitants of
these countries; we called them Svíar, Danir, Austmenn (Norwegians), etc.

I´m not sure when the term "norskur" (Norwegian) came into use but I´ll ask
someone who knows tomorrow (unfortunately my brother, who is a professor of
Icelandic and can usually answer any question of mine on such matters, is
away on vacation).

Nanna


============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================