"The Turning Tide"

[AB Editor]

Good evening word-wranglers,

I wondered if anyone could offer me their translation/research skills.

I'm looking to translate the above phrase into Anglo-saxon/Old English/Regional English.

Happy to hear more foreign versions too, Nordic or Germanic sounding would be a preference.

I'm looking for one which "sounds right".

Sorry for the odd question, but I know you're all creative souls!

All the best,

Spare Ed

[swedeheart]

Lol@ Thomas, Richard and dear Harrison, Spare. As for the rest of you comedians, I can't be sure who's being sarky and who isn't so I'm gonna have to let you all get away with it;-) (Come to think of it I think you're all being sarky so I'll just send Wallander after the lot of you, shall I:)

Now then. First I should say this has turned out to be more of a challenge than I thought it would be: Remember I said many Swedish nouns are compounds? It's causing a problem here cos they are kind of clumsy words and don't sound like names. And when you split them into the two words they are formed of, the meaning is changed completely. That's one problem. Another problem is that many of our words are way too similar to yours. Or to other words in English. Or to other words in other languages. Take our word for jellyfish for instance, it's 'manet'. Naming a creature Manet wouldn't fit in with your marine agenda...

...but yes I have got a number of words for you, some of them in Danish and some in Swedish. When it comes to the Danish words, I won't be able to tell you if they also mean something else other than their marine meaning, i.e. whether or not they are homonyms - I'm not familiar with Danish at all, really. You should find a Dane to check with if you want to use any of those.

I'll make one post per item to make it more manageable for you and me both. And I'll probably keep going for a couple of weeks or so ha ha... (no really - I will...) I'll also post about folklore and a few phenomena that may inspire you even if you can't turn it into names. Here goes.

[swedeheart]

Okay, I'll start at the top and from here on it will be downhill;-) cos this suggestion is my absolute darling: How about a couple of guys called Marulki & Mareldi, doesn't that sound like something straight out of Sopranos or Hill Street Blues.

Swedish word marulk = angler, the fish http://en.wikipedia.o...i/Lophius_piscatorius

Swedish word mareld = the bioluminescence caused by for instance the Sea Sparkle (the Noctiluca scintillans). Nota bene, in Swedish the word doesn't denote the dinoflagellates themselves but the phenomena, the luminescence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioluminescence

http://en.wikipedia.o...Noctiluca_scintillans

If you don't go for the Sopranos/Hill Street Blues Marulki and Mareldi, you could always turn them into the lovely - or evil - twins Marulke and Marelde. Or they could be von Marulk & Van Marelde, your story's equivalents of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet. (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were actually named after noble families in Sweden and Denmark.) 'von'-names are not unusual in Sweden, 'Van'-names are.

That's it for today. Doesn't get any better than that;-)

[swedeheart]

this is mareld:

[swedeheart]

Oh, forgot to say: 'mar' is like a prefix denoting marine, and 'eld' = fire. 'Ulk' is that particular family of fish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottidae

[swedeheart]

Evening Spare. Today's word is: Sverdrup. Originally a surname (Norwegian oceanographer Harald Sverdrup) it sounds kind of funny and could serve as a given name in your book or as the name of a "species", the sverdrups.

http://www.ecoworld.c.../sverdrups-brine.html

I see you use the same term in English but I don't think it would be too much of a give-away - do you? Not very many people will have heard of it. And you do want a teeny tiny few to suss you out. Well that's all for today.

[swedeheart]

Hi Spare, haven't abandoned you, it's just I have a wounded cat in my care and it's pretty grim (the situation, not the cat:) and distressing and I can't really focus. But I'm still here:)

Today's word is: Örlog. It's an Old Swedish word (Old Swedish = in use during the Middle Ages) meaning 'war at sea'. (Cf. Dutch 'oorlog' for war in general, not just at sea.) The word is still used today in compound nouns to do with naval military service (e.g. örlogskapten = sea war captain = lieutenant commander). Most Swedes would, I believe, recognise the word but some might erroneously think it's just another word for 'marine'.

Would it make a good name though? Well, for me it brings the name Orlov to mind http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlov If you were to remove the dots from örlog you could have your very own Prince Orlog...

[swedeheart]

Evening, Spare. Got one word and one weird and wonderful phenomenon for you today. The word is: Mistlur. Sounds almost Icelandic doesn't it? But it's one of those Swedish compound nouns again. It means 'foghorn'. Mist is... oh okay so you've already guessed what 'mist' is:) (Weirdly enough though the word 'mist' is only used in 'mistlur', for all other contexts we have other words for fog.) Lur is 'horn'. So the word mistlur is constructed exactly the same way as the word foghorn. The word lur can have several meanings but I don't think I'd better go into all that as mistlur is a compound noun anyway and as a compound only has this, one meaning. Anyhoo, I was thinking "mistlurs" sounds rather like muggles and hobbits...?

The phenomenon I wanted to show you may not be of immediate use to you but then again it might, who knows. Either way it's fascinating: A submerged forest! It was discovered off the coast of Haväng in the south of Sweden a couple of years ago. Read the description. http://video.moglik.c.../Submerged-forest.htm

[swedeheart]

Evening Spare, first a correction from the other day when I said that the word örlog has to some extent lost its martial ring and many Swedes probably think it simply means 'marine' - I should have said 'nautical'. Not 'marine'.

Today's word is: Släke. It's a regional word from the dialect spoken on the Swedish island of Gotland. It means seaweed. Personally I had never heard it before but it's a good word for you I thought: Remove the dots and you have Slake, which could well be a name - sorta like Blake? I realise it's a word in English as well but with other meanings, not sure if that's a bad thing in your opinion but anyway I like it.

Today's phenomenon is the Mariana trench, I'm sure you're well familiar with it already so won't bother with a link but did you know it's also a surname as well as a given name (for a woman) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana#People

[swedeheart]

Evening. Picking up from yesterday's Mariana Trench, there's also the Litke Deep. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litke_Deep, named after Russian navigator, geographer, and Arctic explorer Fyodor Litke. Along with the Mariana trench it is one of the Extremes on Earth http://en.wikipedia.o...atest_oceanic_depths. What a profound heroine the Countess Mariana Litke would be...

...or the notorious litkes, what would they be like, I wonder... averse to light, shady...

And what about Lady Lovart, she sounds like a lovely girl doesn't she. Lovart is Swedish for 'windward'.

[swedeheart]

Sorry, I ruined the first link with punctuation, here it is again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litke_Deep

Second link seems to be working anyway.

[swedeheart]

Evening, Spare. Today's word is: Bläckfisk. Swedish for cephalopods in general I think, I'm not sure about the distinctions but you know the sort of thing: octopuses and squid and stuff. Bläck is ink and fisk is fish, so the word as a whole is 'inkfish'. I have a thing for Middle English so I suggest a villain called Blak Fyske. He he. I like it.

I just like the look of Middle English but I don't really know anything about it so if you like the idea you would still have to verify the spelling. These links say Blak Fyske would be correct but I would check.

http://www.mybaby.net...-detail/fyske/43382/1

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Black

[AB Editor]

Thanks for this Swede. Cracking stuff. As always.

[swedeheart]

You're welcome, Spare. It would be great fun if some of it were of use to you, but if not it's still been educational for me too. We are now rapidly approaching the outer limits of my knowledge;-) but I've still got a couple more posts for you.

Today's word is in Danish! It is: Flynder. Sounds like a name doesn't it. I have found three meanings; the first is 'flounder', the fish. The other two flynders are maritime terms so my guess would be that the items they refer to have still been named after the fish. One of the meanings is some kind of amplification to a sail. Seems you sew a ”flounder” (a 'flynder') into the sail to make it stronger, or something.The other 'flynder' is the cylindrical rotator of a chip log http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_log

Today's phenomenon also relates to Denmark. There's a town called Skagen (once famous for it's painters, BTW) where two seas collide, literally. Specifically, it's where the Skagerrak and the Kattegat meet. It's briefly mentioned under Geography here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skagen and here are a couple of YouTube links as well, the first one just generally showing what it looks like and the second one showing a guy and his dad wading out to stand with one foot in each sea. Have no idea whether or not it's of any use to you but it's pretty cool, huh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9HfRkGZnMU

http://www.youtub

[swedeheart]

Oi what happened with the second link...? Here it is again http://www.youtube.co...UuxZ0&feature=related

[swedeheart]

Evening Spare, got two words and a lighthouse for you today:) The words are: dønning and bränning. They could easily be as you say bludgeoned into names - Herr Donning and Herr Branning... but in reality 'bränning' is Swedish for breaker, surf, breaking wave - or whatever you call them http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%A4nning ...and 'dønning' is Danish for swell. No not as in ♪♫ what a swell party this is ♪♫ but as in ”he undulating movement of the surface of the open sea”.

The highest lighthouse in Sweden is called Långe Jan = Long John or Tall John http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A5nge_Jan Långe Jan is well known to every Swede. Not sure the name is useful to you though - your readers might think you're referring to Long John Silver or underwear...

[swedeheart]

Hi Spare, some Nordic folklore for you today, scroll down to Scandinavia to read about Näcken and Bäckahästen http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Nix If they interest you at all I'll find you some more info on the subject but that could get extensive so I'll wait for you to state your interest first.

The Seventh Wave phenomenon/folklore is intriguing - scroll down http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneaker_wave


Two Swedish words related to ships: Durk and ruff. The 'durk' is either the floor of a ship, or the magazine on a warship (the storehouse/compartment for ammo and weapons). Reminded me of the name Dirk:) I bet Big Durk isn't too brainy. / A 'ruff' is a cabin.

Next post will be the last one:))) Yaaaaay...

[swedeheart]

How's the book coming along, Spare? Will you thank me in it? (Just kidding.) If not, I'll settle for carrot cake. I'm easy. A squirt of lemon in the glaze please. Or zucchini cake...? Can't decide!

...but anyhoo, I'll leave you with two Danish words and a link to the Maritime Dictionary where I found them. The words are: Kiming and kending. Could be names, no? Kiming & Kending. Or they could be creatures: The kimings and the kendings.

Kiming is similar to your word 'horizon' but kiming seems more specific: Sometimes it just means horizon, sometimes it means the horizon as seen from a ship when the sea is ”rum”. (Don't ask me what 'rum' is, your guess is as good as mine. Calm? Rough?) And sometimes it denotes the border line between the sides of a ship and it's bottom. So it's a sort of liminal word.

Kending would be very similar to your nautical term 'kenning'- see here: http://www.latitudeme...ossary/kenning-3.html

I gather it's to do with 'to ken' http://www.rhymezone....rg3=y&typeofrhyme=def

Here's the link to the Danish Maritime Dictionary http://ordbog.vejgaard.net/Ord-Top.htm If you find any other words in it that sound bludgeonable to you, let me know and I'll try to translate the definitions for you - I'll check this thread now and then.

...

You're on your own, kid! Best of Swedish!

[swedeheart]

That's very odd, the letters of the maritime alphabet don't seem to clickable right now but they always have been before. I don't get it. Sorry! Perhaps a temporary glitch.

[swedeheart]

I wouldn't be me if I didn't immediately find something wrong with my own post;) ...so here's another (semi-)correction: Danish kending and British kenning, yes I'm sure they do have a common past, etymologically. But I'm not certain that the Danish word is also defined as a specified measure of length. Could be, but I'm not certain. The use seems to be more like "They got 'kending' of land", i.e. land was sighted.

I'll try to stop now:)

[AB Editor]

Cheers for this Swede!

As to "how's it going": as it is illustrated I the basic plan but am now writing down panel descriptions/scenes for my artist to begin working on. Quite tricky actually as I've not painted for over a year I've lost something of mental composition .... The actual writing is the easy bit!


Spare

Spare Ed