Blog

Some news.

1. We have a channel in Telegram, come visit: t.me/soithasmarraidh
2. And the VK public: vk.com/soithasmarraidh
3. In the storage facility we are digging, we found another room, completely filled with stones mixed with earth. We are digging.

And while the trial is in progress, I'll tell you a little about a long-forgotten Glinar prose form. It's called feaolfhách in classical glinnarya, translated as "a lively word". It is usually a very short form that carries two (or more) ideas: one main one, and the rest are a subtext based on a play on words. For example, look at this.

“…then the boy cried out: “Wolves!” The people came and saw him there alone, became furious and strictly ordered him not to do it again. But time passed, and the boy cried out again: “Wolves!” Then the people came and saw him alone again – and became even more furious. For his vile deed they wanted to throw him into a deep ditch, but then the wolves arrived. They tore the people to pieces, and carried the boy into the forest, and from then on no one saw him again.”

At first glance it looks like a very shortened and reworked version of the fable about the boy and the wolves. Now look at the trick. "Cry wolf" in Glinarya looks like féidhrega, from féidh "wolf" and hrega "to scream heart-rendingly." But this word also means "to howl like a wolf," among other things. And the phrase "carried away into the forest" looks like …a oidhéraeth…nán ghailen, which can also be translated as "escorted into the forest."

So what do we have? A boy who howled like a wolf, and for some reason the rest of the people didn't like it - and they were about to kill him, but then the wolves intervened and saved the boy. Why is that? Because the story is about a werewolf who was very much disliked, as often happens, in his own tribe just because he was different from them.

There are much more interesting examples of this mini-genre, but they are also more complex, and to explain them you need to talk about a bunch of different realities. It's a bit sad that no one writes in it anymore - maybe someday this will change.

Now it will be a little sad again, but in a good way. Someone nameless describes the funeral of the Glinar elves, which he somehow managed to attend. Since then, the traditions have changed little, but nevertheless:

"Usually an elf senses the approach of his death long before, three or even four months. Then he hurries to finish his business; it is not customary to tell his relatives about it - they will hardly be able to prepare themselves in spirit, but they will definitely grieve until the funeral itself.

The elf writes a note in advance, asking to be buried one way or another. This is usually how it happens: either the body is carried on a boat to a wide and fast water and allowed to float, or it is carried to a clearing free of trees and burned. The Edevais then flows through other cities, so here in Sordava, they usually only burn.

When an elf dies, some sense it somehow. They do not hurry, but they do not linger; they do not wait for a number of days, or for dawn or dusk. They carry out the body, undress it and wash it; the hair, if it is long, is braided in a special way. Then they anoint the face and hands with incense and dress it in white clothes.

It’s really scary to watch as they go to bury a husband who looks very young.

And then everyone gathers around and carries the body on their shoulders and arms to the burial place. They don't cry or tear their hair out, but they don't have fun either - they sing. They sing a song so sad that my whole body trembled just hearing it - but I couldn't make out a single word. When I asked later, no one answered.

Then they put it on a high woodpile, doused with oil, and set it on fire. The ashes and remains of the bones, when they burn out, are carried far away from the city and left there.

I don't know how it is in other places, but here the Queen herself gathers everyone in her chambers and under them, and the whole city drinks and eats all day, and then the night - and then another day. They quietly remember the deceased and his life; sometimes they laugh quietly, and sometimes they cry quietly. Life almost stops for those eighteen months.

But then the tables are packed and the elves leave - and the whole city wakes up from its sleep again. They no longer grieve or mourn - at least not in the public eye. But I am sure they remember such things better than anything else."

r-u-b-a-i

The size here is simply amazing - every single foot is heavy. And I can guess why - most likely, to give the verse massiveness.

Zōrīg ud sēzdēn hē - čašm-it wārānīg ast.
Tō sturg ud taftīg hē, bē xandag tārīg ast.
Dard, drō, paččībāgīh ī rēman waxš-it škast,
Bē dušxwārīh mā bāš - dōstān-it nazdīk ast.

Literal translation:

You are strong and powerful - and your eyes are rainy.
You are hot and fiery, but your laughter is dark.
Pain, lies, vile hypocrisy have broken your spirit,
But don't be heavy-hearted - your friends are with you.

Poetic translation:

You are strong and powerful, but your face is gloomy;
And hot-tempered and hot-tempered, but your laughter is suppressed:
Pretense, pain and lies have broken the strong spirit -
But take the burden off your heart. Your friends are with you.

Etymological post. Let's take a look at the names of elves, dwarves, djargars and dragars in different languages and where they came from for general education.

• Retsinsky:
  • *alf - from Old Rugin alfr. Borrowing from the 13th-14th centuries.
  • *dverg - from Old Rugin dvergr. Borrowing from the same period.
  • jeart - from jeartoy jeārţ. Borrowing from the 16th century.
  • dragar - from Western Draghar dragar. Borrowed from the 18th century; before that the word "dragon" or "serpent" was used.

* before this period, sometimes earlier borrowings were encountered, which gave the words forehead and doors; they have been preserved in Rechan in the form forehead, dvereg, and are used in it to a limited extent.

• Ancient Hellenic:
  • Alphis /alphis/ — related alfr, from the anti-Orthodox *albʰis, from the root *albʰ— "white";
  • ὦρος /ō̂ros/ is a derivative of ὄρος "mountain". I think it's clear why.
  • λέβων, -νος /lebōn/ - the etymology is unclear, but almost everyone agrees that it is related to λέων "lion".
  • δράκων, —ντος /dragon/. I don’t think there’s much need to explain either.
• Skadinsky:
  • albis, —is — of the same origin as Hellenic, or even borrowed from it.
  • Henius, —ī — from PTO *dʰéǵʰōm "earth, soil". The idea is the same as in Hellenic.
  • dears, —tis/yuiyus, —īThe first is a borrowing, and the second is related. iuba, "mane".
  • dragon, —nis. Direct borrowing from ancient Hellenic.
• English:
  • elf - related alfr and ἄλφις.
  • dwarf - related dvergr.
  • jearth /ˈd͡ʒɪəɹθ/, /d͡ʒɜɹθ/. A late fifteenth-century borrowing that has supplanted a host of other common spelling variations with similar pronunciations.
  • drake — ultimately from ancient Hellenic.

You can then delve into other languages, but (in Orova) the situation as a whole is as follows:

• elves - variations on elves, elves, and so on;
• dwarves - a terrible spread, but a lot of terms related to the earth;
• with jearts, most often the borrowing of their self-name;
• with dragars - either borrowing or variations on dragons.

We continue to work slowly on the sword named Guardian. In fact, everything is almost ready, only a few small details remain.

The hilt looks a little odd - and that's not surprising, since it's the hilt of a two-handed sword, made when two-handed swords weren't even a thing. Innovation is always difficult.

The pommel (second frame) looks like a standard Viking "lobed" one, nothing special.

The upper part of the handle has a leather braid, glued with waxed dark blue thread (especially clearly visible in the third and fourth frames.

But the lower part (fourth frame) is more fun - it is completely wrapped in thick silver wire. Usually, the Vikings did this wrapping with copper or bronze wire, but we already mentioned that the sword hardly belonged to a poor man (judging by the patterns on the crossguard and the blade itself), so I suppose this is another indicator of status. It must have been really expensive.

Oh, and the color of the thread itself also indirectly indicates that the owner of the sword was far from a simple peasant.

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Today there will be a small interim summing up, which should have been done a long time ago, but we are not the fastest. As always, by the way.

We currently have almost two hundred posts, most of which are our findings at the excavation site. The way we present them (and we only single out the most interesting/funny ones), they look completely unrelated and disjointed, but that is not entirely true. All the objects, weapons, and notes that we find, in one way or another, revolve around a certain number of repeating persons. So far, we can single out:

• four guys whose travel notes were published recently. They are a Rechan named (nicknamed?) Pestriy, a Stur Emed, an Eryakhsharets Viryaz, and a Norman Lodinn. We did not find any items belonging to the first; the second may be the owner of a bracelet with a fravachrome, the third had part of a sketch with his distinctive signs, and the last had as many as two things: a magic stone and a sword named Okhranitel (we published all these things - look for them among the messages).
• a werewolf named Brunvenn - we even have a whole series of his notes in our articles, in which he mentions the above persons.
• maybe a couple more people, but I won’t name them yet, so as not to make a mistake.

This actually raises even more questions. Who are these people? Why a whole vault with their things and stories about them? Why did we find it now?

It's hard to say if we'll ever be able to answer them. For now, we'll just keep digging things up and hoping for the best.