Dear Lazyweb...

[lwood]

In Old Norse (Modern Icelandic, etc.), how would one cobble together a by-name for Odin on a train? In the spirit of "Vegtam" (Way-Tame), I was thinking one could do tolerably well with "Iron Horse Rider".

Thoughts?

-- Lorrie

Comments

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I have no doubt as to the accuracy of your translation, although the length makes it almost German-like in its unwieldiness.

Would Járnhestam for "Iron Horse Tamer" be an acceptable compound-with-elision, as you understand the, er, not really rules more like guidelines?

-- Lorrie

[dr-beowulf.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not much longer than Hrosshársgrani (Horsehair-Mustache), which is Odin's _nom de guerre_ in _Gautreks saga_ -- the one where he gets Starkad to stage a mock sacrifice of King Vikar, and then the sacrifice suddenly turns real. I'm currently working on a translation of that. . .

I looked up words for "horseman" and found reiðmaðr and riddari -- although riddari more usually means "knight". You could do Járnriddari, I guess, but that implies that the knight himself is iron, rather than a rider on an iron horse.

In modern Icelandic, "railroad" is járnbraut, "iron road" -- maybe Járnbrautariði, "Iron Road Rider"?

[dasubergeek.livejournal.com]

Járnhestareiðmaður is the literal translation (six syllables vs. AE five). You could use járnhestaknap instead but that means iron horse jockey, which is probably not the thing to call a god in an invocation.

[dr-beowulf.livejournal.com]

Oh, and as best I understand Norse grammar -- that is, "still kind of muddling through, really" -- you can't elide "hestr" and "tamr" as "Hestamr", on the model of "Vegtamr"; it would have to be "Hesta-tamr".

"Tamr", the cognate to English " tame", usually means something closer to "accustomed to" or "ready for" -- so "Vegtamr" connotes "one who is accustomed to the road" or "one who is ready to travel". "Hesta-tamr" would mean, not so much "horse tamer", but "accustomed to horses". Which may or may not be what you want -- "Járnhestatamr"?

Bear in mind that I'm still learning this stuff, and may well have committed some dreadful Nordic solecisms.