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r/AncientGermanic

▲ 80 r/AncientGermanic+2 crossposts

This is now the second oldest English language instance in our growing database.

One thing to highlight here is that the earliest English language example we have so far is from Whimple, which is in Devon in southwest England, far from Scotland.

Were it not for the chance recording of this early English example, the data would imply that examples from England were only known significantly later.

Clearly, the data only provides us with so much insight into what was an extremely widespread spell transmitted orally and reaching far back into prehistory but not found in, say, southern Europe as far as we can tell. We'll see if that remains the case over time.

As always, please reach out if you have instances we haven't covered. We also welcome you to apply examples you find to our template and send them to us to add them to the database.

u/-Geistzeit — 4 days ago
▲ 58 r/AncientGermanic+2 crossposts

The (current) earliest known runic inscription found in Britain is an Elder Futhark inscription (PreOE-GB-13) on a roe deer's ankle bone reading 'of the roe-deer'. It is dated to 425-475.

runesdb.de
u/-Geistzeit — 6 days ago
▲ 0 r/AncientGermanic

I'm creating songs in old languages on Suno

Hi everyone,

I'm a hobby linguist with a special interest in old germanic languages. I use Suno not only for creating regular songs, but also for those in Old English, Middle English, Old High German and Middle High German and I'm also writing audio dramas.

Suno gives us the possibility to resurrect old languages. I try to simulate authentic pronunciation as good as possible by writing my lyrics phonetically.

Some examples:

Middle High German: "So die Bluomen" https://suno.com/s/ykyVgcoRDrjDg3gD

Old English: "Westron Winde" https://suno.com/song/83a8f0ed-1b96-4782-9e21-9cf1e06b3690

Gothic:

https://suno.com/song/84e03895-1091-49ee-b751-c6171d196e8a

Middle English:

https://suno.com/song/22cd9f0a-644e-487d-9a43-f2c16a68d496

--

And my first audio drama in Middle High German: "Der arme Heinrich"

This audio play is a free interpretation of the original epos with voices in Latin, Occitan, Volgare. Episode 4 and 5 are in 3D audio (used Sparta and Ardour for this).

https://suno.com/playlist/c069753d-2d9b-4746-92b6-9f02972d0d4d

This is not AI slop - it took me more than half a year to create all five episodes. However, the quality is not as good as with real speakers.

If some of you guys did something similar or like to discuss about the topic of generating songs or audio plays in ancient languages, I would be very interested.

u/CarryAgile3791 — 6 days ago
▲ 35 r/AncientGermanic+2 crossposts

The Old English poem "The Husband's Message" is a poem in the voice of a rune-inscribed stick sent from husband to wife and includes a series of Anglo-Saxon runes read as an ideographic code. Many medieval rune-inscribed sticks were found many years later in Scandinavia (such as in Bryggen).

One thing I've never seen discussed here is the remarkable Old English poem "The Husband's Message" from the famous Exeter Book (its copying typically dated to the 900s).

This poem is in the voice of a rune-inscribed message stick from husband to wife as a form of long-distance communication and it features a series of Old English runes, apparently to be read as an ideographic puzzle, perhaps reflecting utilization of ideographic sentences as a kind of code.

As noted by scholars like MacLeod and Mees (2006: 55-56), this sounds very much like the many little rune-inscribed message sticks found in Bryggen in Bergen, Norway from the medieval period, some of which are little messages between husband and wife.

britannica.com
u/-Geistzeit — 7 days ago
▲ 1.5k r/AncientGermanic+2 crossposts

Nuremberg patrician's gold flinderhaube headdress, between 1640 and 1680 [2147 x 3226]

u/-Geistzeit — 13 days ago