Shrouded within the uncertainty of Europe's distant past are many mysteries. Whilst we are relatively well informed about the Mediterranean with its mighty empires we know comparatively little about the heartland and the fringes of the European continent. It wasn't until the days of Julius Caesar that a new player stepped up onto the stage of European and – by extension to the modern age – World History: The Ancient Germanic Peoples. Caesar described them as even more brutish and uncivilized than the in the eyes of the Mediterranean World already savage Gauls and justified his campaigns into Gaul partially by claiming that they needed protection from the Germans. But before we venture too far into historical events involving these peoples the term “German” and its use in the context of Antiquity has to be clarified.
linguistics
Continental West Germanic Dialect Continuum
The Continental West Germanic Dialect Continuum. Today Dutch and German are thought of as distinct languages and justly so. But in actuality there was a fluent transition between what is considered Dutch and what is considered German today for most of history and in some places in the border area this still holds true today. … Continue reading Continental West Germanic Dialect Continuum
The Cause of the High German Consonant Shift
The High German Consonant Shift gave rise to the High and Upper German dialects of the West Germanic Dialect Continuum. It's cause is still debated, however, although a Gallo-Roman substrate seems to be the most likely explanation.
Tattúínárdǿla saga: If Star Wars Were an Icelandic Saga
A great article by Dr. Jackson Crawford, Old Norse Specialist at the University of Colorado, about a hypothetical version of George Lucas’ Star Wars as an Icelandic Saga in the style of the Eddic Poems.
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A long time ago, in a North Atlantic far far away…
Introduction
Earlier this week I was drawn into an enlightening discussion with my colleague Ben Frey about the complicated textual tradition that lies behind George Lucas’s “Star Wars,” which few outside the scholarly community realize is a modern rendition of an old Germanic legend of a fatal conflict between a father and his treacherous son. Below I present some remarks on the Old Icelandic version of the legend, with some spare comparative notes on the cognate traditions in other old Germanic languages.
The story as presented in George Lucas’s films represents only one manuscript tradition, and a rather late and corrupt one at that – the Middle High German epic called Himelgengærelied (Song of the Skywalkers). There is also an Old High German palimpsest known to scholars, later overwritten by a Latin choral and only partly legible to us…
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The Origins of The Ancient Celts
Where did the Ancient Celts originally come from? A comparison of the linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence.
The prehistoric Eurasians: The Proto-Indo-Europeans
The Proto-Indo-Europeans are the hypothetical speakers of the (re-)constructed Proto-Indo-European language, the ancestor to most European and some central and south Asian languages.
The Indo-European Language Family
The Indo-European language family is the most widely spoken language family in the world today, partially due to Colonialism. But even before the European expansion Indo-European languages were spoken throughout Eurasia.
How linguistics helps us reconstruct ancient fire mythology — The Philological Society Blog
Report on the ‘Martin Burr Fund’ grant offered for a monograph on the Norse God Loki written by Riccardo Ginevra (Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University) The historical and comparative approach to Indo-European poetic language and myth has developed greatly in the second half of the 20th century, particularly thanks to the efforts of, among […]How … Continue reading How linguistics helps us reconstruct ancient fire mythology — The Philological Society Blog
Proto-Indo-European Society: A short Introduction
Western society is often thought of as profoundly patriarchal, capitalist and power hungry, as has been shown multiple times throughout history. But how deep these traits run within our ancestry has only come to light within the last few decades with the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European society.
European Origins 