copper

[Mike Cleven]

"Alan H. Hartley" wrote:
>
> koparr in Old Norse.

Inspired me to go look for my Old Icelandic declension tables, but I
can't find 'em.  "Koparr" is the nominative form; I'm not sure if this
is a regular declension, strong or weak or whatever.  For Jargonians who
haven't any experience with Norse (Icelandic), each word has a couple of
dozen potential forms depending on its function; sometimes these don't
look anything like the root-nominative form.  Doesn't matter in koparr's
case; it probably doesn't decline much, but it would have been fun if I
could have posted the whole declension table here if I could have found
it.....

The whole discussion about copper brings in the whole subject of metals
and metalwork.  What resources are there concerning the history of
ironworking in the NW; and what techniques were used in the working of
copper, etc.?  Copper as a trade item and mining resource has of course
been surfacing in "diffusionist" discussions; more accurate information
about when and how metal-working evolved in the Northwest is probably a
pretty interesting area of study....