Neo-gothic poem needs help

llama_nom 600cell at OE.ECLIPSE.CO.UK
Tue Aug 30 11:04:14 UTC 2005


Hey there Arthur,

Another good bit of poetry there.  In the words of Cleasy & 
Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary: "Matth. i. and ii, and by a 
singular mishap Matth. xxvii. 19, are lost in Ulf., so that we are 
unable to say how he rendered the Gr. ONAR".  Your reconstructions 
look good to me though.  In Icelandic, which usually agrees with 
Gothic in such matters, the verb is impersonal in form, with an 
accusative subject and object.  So we might imagine a Gothic MIK 
*DRAUMEIÞ "I dream", literally "it dreams me".  The noun is 
masculine in German, Icelandic and Old English.  (Fredrik, all the 
indications are that the noun is an a-stem in Germanic, thus OE 
dream, ON draumr < Gmc. *draumaz.  If it had been **draumjaz, we'd 
expect the noun to be OE **drieme, ON **dreymir.)

RANILONS DRAUMS FRAUJONS.

> "I dreamt of raging borderlords
>     Whose wrath consumed the plains
> For ancient wrongs, hard-riding hordes
>      Did burn, and burn again."

A literal version:  Mik modagans draumida markafraujans, þizeei 
þwairhei waggam fraqam.  In fairnjaize skaþize harjos 
hardureidandans gabrannidedun jah aftra gabrannidedun.

An alliterative version, which isn't as good as your English 
original...  The letters in brackets refer to "Siever's five types", 
the standard metrical patterns of old Germanic poetry.

Mik markafraujans (D)  .  modagans draumida (A)
þizeei þwairhei (A)  .  gaþars waggans (C);
harjos ushofun  (A)  .  hardureidandans (D)
und frawaurhtim (C)  .  fairnjaim haurja (A),
fon jah aftra fon.

(...withered plains/fields/meadows.  Hordes/hosts hard-riding 
raised, in payment for ancient wrongs, bonfires, fire and fire 
again.)

LLama Nom




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