'Hekk' = 'I hung' -- conflation of past tense hengja=hang and ek=I (these conflations fare common, especially in verse). It's becaue it's a past tense that it does'nt appear as a word in its own right in the dictionary, though in a big one there should be a cross-reference.
'Nidr' (I can't do the crossed d on this email facility) is not a noun but an adverb, = 'downwards'.
'meidi' I don't recognise, and I don't have the OI text here to check. Are you sure you copied correctly?
Yes, It's a Germanic language, a sort of cousin to Old English and Old german.
Jacqueline Simpson
--- On Tue, 11/11/08, mandrake <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: mandrake <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Havamal
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Tuesday, 11 November, 2008, 11:05 AM
> Jez wrote:
> >
> > But let's have a go...
> >
>
> Jez et al
>
> good one -
> I'm presuming "hekk" is to hang -
> although cant find that in OI dictionary (online)
> meithi* in second line is tree -
> I guess one has to look into the meaning of
> "hekk" to see if it has any associations with
> punishment etc
>
> nithr* for down below, underworld or abyss - its ambigious
> as you say -?
> although hung from a tree seems certain - but not killed or
> hung by the neck?
>
> Mogg
>
> I don't actually know OI - but seems like it is related
> to English and has some Indo-European word roots -
> my languages are Sanskrit and Middle Egyptian.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > /138/
> > Veit ek at ek hekk
> > vindga meiði á
> > nætr allar níu geiri undaðr
> > ok gefinn Óðni sjálfr sjálfum mér á þeim meiði
> > er manngi veit
> > hvers hann af rótum renn
> > I know that I hung
> > upon a windy tree
> > for nine whole nights,
> > wounded with a spear
> > and given to Othinn,
> > myself to myself for me;
> > on that tree
> > I knew nothing
> > of what kind of roots it came from. /139/
> > Við hleifi mik sældu
> > né við hornigi nýsta ek niðr nam ek upp rúnar
> œpandi nam fell ek aptr þaðan
> > They cheered me with a loaf
> > and not with any horn,
> > I investigated down below,
> > I took up the runes,
> > screaming I took them,
> > and I fell back from there.
> >
> > --
> > Jez
> >
> > --
> > If ignorance is bliss why aren't more people
> happy?
> >
> > Leonard Rossiter
> >
|