No way is this anything in any language!
“The first line is transcribed into Proto-Norse as either Ek erilaz sa Wilagaz haite’ka or Ek erilaz Sawilagaz haite’ka. This translates to “I am (an) erilaz, I am called the wily” (or “I am called Sawilagaz). If the word in first line is translated as a name, Sawilagaz means “the one of the Sun (Sowilo).” If the word is translated as “the wily” or “crafty one” or “deceitful one,” then it may be related to a byname of Odin or another god.”
I don’t buy that “aaaaaaaaaazzzznn[n]” means anything in any sort of Norse, proto-or otherwise, but if you say so, Sweden.
Tags: amulets, come on, history, sweden
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All I can see in that second line is “azzzzz n butt”
Similarly, because azn/AZN is old internet slang for Asian, I can’t help but read it as “asian butt.”
AZNs in the house! Give that deceased Swede a posthumous Xanga blog!
All they need is a “QT” and you wouldn’t know the difference!
I see “aaaaaaaaaah” followed by “zzzzzzzzz,” which in my head translates to “aaaaah! I’m covered in bees!”
And I must say, I’m disappointed in Mr. Izzard for stealing his material from dead Vikings.
It’s probably public domain by now, though.
But it’s the principle of the thing, you know.
Fair point. And it’s best not to incur the wrath of dead Vikings just in case.
They’ll sit on your roof and make so much noise you can’t sleep, for one thing.
Can we be certain that this wasn’t originally found in the Cave of Caerbannog?
“But if he was dying, he wouldn’t bother to carve “Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh”. He’d just say it.”
“Perhaps he was dictating.”
No idea what that is, but it is awesome!
It’s from the film ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’.
Watch it. Love it. Exasperate your kith and kin by quoting it.
Perhaps he meant to say it was in the Camaaarrrrrgue.
On a related note, have you heard about Iceland’s new pagan temple to the Norse gods?
I would especially like to draw your attention to the guy in the 3-piece suit and the long blond hair in that photo. Please click to embiggen it and take in the shiny buttons on his vest, and his complicated-looking collar/necktie thing, and the HAIR, it looks like he tied it up at the back and then let it flow majestically over his shoulders like a torrent of gold. I AM HERE FOR THIS. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’M HERE FOR.
I’m trying to figure everyone out (but he is, by far, the most memorable!). This is a crazy photo in that everyone’s eyes are doing different things (but in pairs, naturally). I get that it’s an action shot, but it’s such a weird composition and everyone is disjointed. I love your dude’s vest and hair. He put a lot of effort in, you can tell. But so did the horn holder/spiller of unknown liquid. I like to think the liquid is man tears, but that might be me projecting onto these Icelanders. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was?
“I don’t believe anyone believes in a one-eyed man who is riding about on a horse with eight feet,” said Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, high priest of Ásatrúarfélagið, an association that promotes faith in the Norse gods.
“We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology.“
No, sorry, I’m going to need you to be actually pagan before you build your pagan temple. Especially if you’re promoting faith in pagan gods. PAGAN HARDER, HILMAR.
Helmar’s really going to need to start bringing his A(satrúarfélagið) game.
WAT!
I know which unbeliever I’m going to sacrifice at the next blót.
I mean, I’m not even pagan, and I still find his lack of faith disturbing. YOU ARE BUILDING A TEMPLE, GUY.
This is an real-life flamewar I have encountered far too many times on various pagan/polytheistic websites. I actually cringed when I read Hilmar’s line, as I pictured a horde of enraged hard polytheists hitting the keyboards simultaneously.
In free verse? Because that would be appropriate.
He’s like a Malfoy, but a real one, kind of, which is more than a little disconcerting.
OMG there is a Norse-run outdoor guiding company in BC that was in the news for refusing to hire some woman because she was Christian, and then TROLLING HER HARD over and over again, including something about have sex with Jesus? Anyway, the dudes all had long, flowing locks, and were way rugged. The whole thing was amazing.
Did it turn out to be real? At one point I remember the media wasn’t entirely sure if it wasn’t some weird trolling website
Can people stop saying “but nobody really worships Thor” now?
*dreamy sigh*
I’d let that man lay his hammer in my lap anytime.
Seriously. If there’s a pantheon, somebody probably worships it. You don’t get to say that nobody does just because you happen to think it’s silly, random dudes.
It clearly says, “sorry, the baby got on the iPad again.”
“My cat fell asleep on the chisel.”
maybe “aaaaaaaaaazzzzzn” is Proto-Norse for “omgggggggggggg”
Hey laaddiiiiiiiieessss!
you’re actually not far off—the “a” rune, ansuz, also stood in for “god(s)/also particularly Odin”, and repeating a single rune over and again was to add depth and emphasis. so, ansuz 80 times is definitely like gODDDDDDDDD!!!!! which is probs the same as our omggg.
this is the best
It looks like the aa[…]aaz bit is a triple invocation of the god Tyr (“Tiwaz,” to the Proto-Norse).
The Proto-Norse just generally had a thing for repeating phonemes. There’s a bunch of old lances and arm disks and standing stones out there with GAGAGA carved in ’em. It seems to have been a war cry, something like
Proto-Vikings hey! / Proto-Vikings ha! / Proto-Vikings Proto-Vikings ga ga ga!
Repetitions of As and Gs, huh? Any Ts or Cs in there? a few Us? I might have a theory! A bad theory that has been the cause of some awful movies, books, and racists interpretations of ancient cultures, but a theory none the less!
I’ve got a theory, that it’s a demon- a dancing demon…no something isn’t right here…
I see what you did there.
Cancer, my ass – Rosalind Franklin knew too much!
Pretty sure half of my Xanga friends back in the day had some variant of “azn” in their names. Clearly, the Proto-Norse were big on Asian/AZN Pride.
Damn, you beat me to it!
Tangentially related: My friend and I want to start a TV channel called “AZN,” recursively short for “AZN Zeitgeist Network.” We came up with the name, high fived each other, and called it a day.
This looks like something I typed the first time I went from a manual typewriter to an electric one. ‘Typewriter.’ Google it.
Folks know what typewriters are, fella.
I knew a Ty Pewriter in school! You should have seen him eat corn on the cob.
Listen, sonny, if the Gutenberg Press was good enough for Johann Fust, it’s good enough for me!
You damn kids and your ‘Renaissances’ and ‘Reformations’
Pah!
I actually wrote my BA thesis in indoeuropean linguistics in names in ancient norse rune inscriptions, so I had to deal with this kind of thing a lot. They had auch awesome namens, I am determined to name my future child Hlewagastiz!
Please tell me you actually wrote it in rune inscriptions, as opposed to on a keyboard or something.
The Lindholm “amulet”, listed as DR 261 in Rundata, is a bone piece, carved into the shape of a rib
So it’s a bone, carved into the shape of… a bone. Logically, then, the inscription “aaaaaaaaaazzzznn[n]” should be Old Norse for “inscription.”
Then again…. “If the word in first line is translated as a name, Sawilagaz means ‘the one of the Sun (Sowilo).’ ”
And what emerges from the Sun? Rays of light; illumination! So the inscription could be loosely rendered as:
Flash! Aaaaaaaaaazzzznn[n]
It’s not an amulet; it’s a backscratching implement.
The carvings are onomatopoeic: The first line denotes the sound of scratching; the second, the sound of relief.
Everyone go home now.
And because my back is always, always itchy in that one spot I can’t quite reach, I’ll take this rib-shaped bone as my as my reward.
The facts are these:
1. It is a bone, but carved to look like a different bone.
2. It has an inscription, which is basically gibberish.
3. The runes are Proto-Norse, yet it was found in Sweden.
4. It is called the “Lindholm amulet,” even though it was found nowhere near Lindholm.
5. It is only called an “amulet” to avoid calling it “the runic bone thing that we don’t know what it is.”
In summary, the “Lindholm amulet” is nothing but a pack of lies, and was obviously planted in a Swedish bog by an exceptionally foresighted Proto-Norse for the sole purpose of trolling future generations of archaeologists. The giveaway, of course, is that Scandinavia is the original mythic home of trolls.
What were the Proto-Norse like? We know only that they were amorphous creatures of bubbling tissue created as a slave race to the star-faring Elder Things, until at last they acquired sentience and rebelled against their former masters. Also they apparently enjoyed carving bones into slightly smaller bones.
The key to the puzzle is of course the peat bog, combined with the foresight to plant the artifact where it would be found centuries later. This combination (wetland precognition) means that the being responsible for the amulet must be none other than the goddess Frigg! Yes, Frigg! Mother of Gods, Queen of the Aesir, Dread Witch of the Swamp with a Thousand Young. Do you wish it was Friday? You are praying to Frigg! Bow down now before Her, child of Midgard! Bow down!
I don’t know much about the Futhark gemmatria, but maybe the second line is a record of a number or date or something? I guess 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 15 15 15 10 10 10 18 20 2 17 17 17 : 4 4 2 doesn’t mean much of anything either.
There’s actually a missing part of the amulet with a picture of a polar bear on it, which helps clear things up a bit.
“Oooh, they look like little dancing trees!”
It's probably public domain by now, though.
Cancer, my ass – Rosalind Franklin knew too much!
Fair point. And it's best not to incur the wrath of dead Vikings just in case.
you’re not far off 🙂 the first line is where he talks about being the Wily/etc and is definitely a string of wrods. the second, a you can tell from its strangeness, is not a phrase but more like an incantation or cry.
the second line actually seems to be more a petition to the gods (usually Odin with Ansuz; Tyr/Tiwaz would be his tune, Tiwaz, which looks like an arrow); we see Ansuz repeated (a rune of the gods), followed by Algiz repeated (a rune of protection), followed by two Nauthiz (the rune of need). something like, “oh god, grant me your protection.”
then we have Berkano, Mannaz, and Uruz—this is more like a battle feel, it speaks of giving power, strength, and growth to man (Mannaz). THEN we see the invocation of Tyr/Tiwaz three times, a god of strength and battle, so i think this is probably another form of petition with a different flavour.
lastly, ALU is a phrase used a lot from that time period, and is a stand-alone charm believed to be magic meaning something like (depending on who you ask) “bless me, protect me” or “bring me the ale” (an allusion to Valhalla).
so in short, this was probably inscribed saying “i lived here. may the gods (spiritual) and the gods (battle) bless me while i’m here and in need. and if i go, my i have a good death and drink with you in Valhalla.” ish. 🙂