h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Futhark hnias tbmlR (unfortunately I´ve got to write them this way)

- was among the first letters I learnt. But I was considered to be sort of a kiddo anyway.

Or do you prefer the old version of 24 letters. That one I´ve forgotten. Probably it´s just to google futhark and there will be some quadrizillion websites popping up...

Just curious - today my ancestral roots seem to attract either brain-reduced shaved head teenagers with taste for noisy music with horrible lyrics or dusty scholars that have been locked in their studies for ages...

But you´re maybe some new kind...


who don´t mind listening to Metal

Well I did medieval enactment for years, and the club I was mostly involved in specialised in Viking enactment, including the history, clothing, language, all that kind of stuff. Unfortunately we were a bit too remote to be able to do much with the language side of it, since there was nobody that could teach us.
I'm a linguist as well, and I figure if anyone can find out how to speak ancient norse out of that group, it would be me.
So I got around to searching for it one day, and found both the site on ancient Norse, and the one for runic Swedish.
I still have the sites sitting at home, but unfortunately I haven't got around to doing anything with them yet. And although the runic Swedish is more familiar ('coz I've used the eldar futhark before), I think the ancient Norse would be more use to me, so I'll probably try to learn that first.

So yes, I'm some new kind. I'm not dusty, nor brain-reduced. But I am a scholar, and I do listen to metal!
All things in moderation, and all that.

I assume you popped into this ´cause of the late JRRT? There is this norwegian guy with his most impressive site http://www.uib.no/people/hnohf/ which just makes me hold my breath... Probably you are familiar with it, but in case you´re not I do recommend it.

I´m intrested in linguistics and languages as well, but RL issues didn´t allow me to follow this interest in the way I´d like.

One of the first books I read, around the age of four, was and old book of History my parents had at school back in the fourties (probably a lot older) by a scholar named Odhner. History of the Swedish (or maybe the Nordic) People I think is a approximate translation of the title. One of the most famous sentences in that book is about the 17th century king Gustavus Adolphus (Gustaf II Adolf) "who became rather fat as time passed".

When I started school at the age of seven I surprised my teacher by knowing by heart all the swedish kings from Ane the Old in the 5th century to Gustav VI Adolf who was the king at that time...

Since the I´ve realilized that there are more in history than kings..

And concerning the old Norse/Swedish symbols... I´ve on and of been the bearer of a replica of a Thor´s hammer since my teens. My hometown was a place of Thor worshipping since 10th/11th century so why not?

Unfortunately neo-nazi has adopted many old symbols as their own. Born-again christians has also nagged.

I wear these symbols as a kind of respect to my ancestors. I don´t want them to be used as anyting nationalistic or even worse..

Sorry if I´ve been boring you...

Not at all! You have an avid audience!

No, I wasn't influenced by Tolkien /much/. I'll admit to a little bit of influence though.
Thanks for the site! It's already been added to my favourites list.

"Unfortunately neo-nazi has adopted many old symbols as their own. Born-again christians has also nagged.
I wear these symbols as a kind of respect to my ancestors. I don´t want them to be used as anyting nationalistic or even worse." Yeah, I can understand that. There's a lot of intolerance in my country, especially when it comes to symbolism. And even more especially when it comes to symbols which can be interpreted as religious.

My own ancestry is fairly clouded, but it's safe to say my family tree has its roots somewhere in the Nordic countries too. I intend to go visit the area in the next few years, and see what calls to me.