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9littlebees
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"Story of the North" in Old(ish) Norse

Sun 18 Feb 2018, 11:30

Hallå/Hallo/Hej/Halló! I have a question about the Norse Mythology-inspired Year Zero game I'm working on.

I want to know how to say "Story of the North" in Old Norse, but also adapted a bit for our times. The "North" I am referring to here is Nordic countries / Norden (so I'll also be cross-posting in those sub-forums).

From my research (I'm by no means an expert), it would appear that this would be something like "norðrsaga" in Old Norse.

If I was to modernise / anglicise it a bit to something like "Nordensaga", would this be acceptable to native Swedes/Norwegians/Danes/Icelanders for a game set hundreds of years in our past? Or does "Norden" sound too modern?

Maybe there is a better way of saying this?
I make YZE games (https://drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?author=Matt%20Kay) and produce predominately Free League content on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@3skulls)
 
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Klas
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Re: "Story of the North" in Old(ish) Norse

Mon 19 Feb 2018, 00:06

"Norden" is the geographic area of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. It's a very established term in contemporary Swedish and, I guess, the other Nordic languages as well.

Nordsaga sounds better for storytelling purposes. Personally I wouldn't modernize it though :)
 
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9littlebees
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Re: "Story of the North" in Old(ish) Norse

Mon 19 Feb 2018, 00:09

"Norden" is the geographic area of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. It's a very established term in contemporary Swedish and, I guess, the other Nordic languages as well.

Nordsaga sounds better for storytelling purposes. Personally I wouldn't modernize it though :)
Thanks for the feedback! "Nordsaga" is different from "Nordrsaga" which is (I believe) how it would look in Old Norse, no?
I make YZE games (https://drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?author=Matt%20Kay) and produce predominately Free League content on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@3skulls)
 
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Klas
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Re: "Story of the North" in Old(ish) Norse

Mon 19 Feb 2018, 00:15

I really don't know but it sounds plausible.
 
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Brior
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Re: "Story of the North" in Old(ish) Norse

Mon 19 Feb 2018, 08:51

"Norden" is the geographic area of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. It's a very established term in contemporary Swedish and, I guess, the other Nordic languages as well.

Nordsaga sounds better for storytelling purposes. Personally I wouldn't modernize it though :)
Thanks for the feedback! "Nordsaga" is different from "Nordrsaga" which is (I believe) how it would look in Old Norse, no?
Even though ”nordr” migh be more correct I agree with Klas that ”Nordsaga” has a great and primitive ring to it. (I looked in the Swedish online dictionary SAOB, and it seems that old Norse ”nordr” was preceeded by germanic ”nord” which in turn was preceeded by protogermanic ”nordr”, so I don't thing you need be that picky with the etymology here)
 
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9littlebees
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Re: "Story of the North" in Old(ish) Norse

Mon 19 Feb 2018, 10:23

Once again, thanks for the feedback, gentlemen!
I make YZE games (https://drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?author=Matt%20Kay) and produce predominately Free League content on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@3skulls)
 
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Klas
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Re: "Story of the North" in Old(ish) Norse

Mon 19 Feb 2018, 11:26

Happy to help :)
You might want to check out The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland. It contains a number of myths in English translation and uses very mildly "anglofied" versions of many terms. Some of them are well established in English, like Midgaard, while others are probably not so familiar.
 
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9littlebees
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Re: "Story of the North" in Old(ish) Norse

Mon 19 Feb 2018, 11:38

Happy to help :)
You might want to check out The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland. It contains a number of myths in English translation and uses very mildly "anglofied" versions of many terms. Some of them are well established in English, like Midgaard, while others are probably not so familiar.
Thanks for the tip, it's already on my bookshelf, along with the Heimskringla, Prose Edda, Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology and a few of the Icelandic Sagas. ;-)
I make YZE games (https://drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?author=Matt%20Kay) and produce predominately Free League content on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@3skulls)
 
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Peter
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Re: "Story of the North" in Old(ish) Norse

Thu 01 Mar 2018, 16:16

Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology
! I didn't know he'd written on that - any good?
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9littlebees
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Re: "Story of the North" in Old(ish) Norse

Thu 01 Mar 2018, 16:32

! I didn't know he'd written on that - any good?
He very much writes in the saga style but definitely makes the Prose Edda much more accessible.  I already knew all the stories, but enjoyed them the most from him.  I also listened to the Audiobook from Audible - Gaiman narrates the whole thing himself and it is really well done.
I make YZE games (https://drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?author=Matt%20Kay) and produce predominately Free League content on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@3skulls)

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