r/AncientGermanic • • 10h ago

Question How did they read poetry?

3 Upvotes

So I'm going to do a recitation of the Heliand in English, but it was translated in a way to be able to be read like it was Old Saxon, so I would love to be able to know where they stressed words, what were the feet, etc. From Tacitus he said that the Germans chanted, would this apply, and what would it look like?


r/AncientGermanic • • 1d ago

Request [Request] Entries from Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies

3 Upvotes

Hi, sorry to bother, but my uni does not currently have access to Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies and this subreddit is more academic than the others. Does any of you have access and could send me the pdfs on Old Norse literary studies. Would be much indebted.

Sagas and Tales of Icelanders

Religious Instruction (Homilies, Sermons, etc.)

Contemporary Sagas (Bishops’ sagas and Sturlunga saga)

Rímur

Historical Literature (Íslendingabók, Landnámabók)

Kings’ Sagas

Saints’ Lives

Learned and Scientific Literature

Skaldic Poetry

Romances (East and West Norse)

Old Norse-Icelandic Sagas

Fornaldarsögur

Nordic Laws

Snorra Edda

Eddic Poetry

Vikings

Sermons

Rus in Medieval Europe


r/AncientGermanic • • 11d ago

Request Translating Maldon ll. 312-3 from Old English into Gothic

12 Upvotes

For anyone who is fairly competent in it, how would you translate the famous lines 312 and 313 from The Battle of Maldon into Gothic?

"Hiġe sceal þē heardra, heorte þē cēnre,

mōd sceal þē māre þē ūre mæġen lȳtlað."


r/AncientGermanic • • 11d ago

Question Is the peltoid-shaped bird head ornamentation we see in domburg-fibulae and the Nydam sword scabbard Germanic or Roman in origin?

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7 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • 12d ago

Folklore: Myth, legend, and/or folk belief Sjón, co-writer of the "Werwulf" script, will be speaking at a wolf and werewolf folklore-themed event at Fischersund in Reykjavík on November 13 as part of Hyldyr's upcoming "Wulf, My Wulf" book release. Traditional verse regarding wolves and werewolves will also be performed by researchers.

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24 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • 14d ago

General ancient Germanic studies The Lex Frisionum: Pagan laws in early medieval Frisia.

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29 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • 16d ago

Art (Contemporary) Samson J. Goetze as one of my favourite Germanic Iron Age artists

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53 Upvotes

It's a bit of an advertisment for my game project Donnervolk. This Reddit has been and still is a resource for me to adjust the game into an authentic directional - historical correct as good as possible - as far as research allows it.

However this is only secondary about the game. It's more about the visual inspirations of Samson J. Goetze https://www.instagram.com/samsonillustration/ who inspires me throughout the whole project.

Despite the fact he "only" published a handful of illustration that depict exactly what I imagine germanic culture looked like - it's sufficent for me to always come up with deeper lore and ideas for game mechanics.

And if anyone does not know his work yet - you're welcome ;)


r/AncientGermanic • • 21d ago

Germanic Origins by Francis Barton Gummere 1892 first edition

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24 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • 20d ago

General ancient Germanic studies (Hines 2026) RE-ASSESSING THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD – AND RE-SETTING THE TONE OF DEBATE | The Antiquaries Journal

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2 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • 23d ago

Ljere, Denmark. Site of the mythical Meade hall, Heorot, from Beowulf.

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62 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • 24d ago

Where, when and by whom were the runes and futharkic writing systems used in history?

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5 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • 29d ago

Question Why do most Germanic languages have /ɪ/, and when did they get it?

18 Upvotes

This is a fact that has been bothering me for a while now, when did they get /ɪ/? And if it isn't in Proto-Germanic, then why does almost every single Germanic language have one, and when exactly did they get it? Did it emerge out in late dialects of PG; but why is Old English ĭ reconstructed with [i]? If it didn't, than why is Gothic ĭ usually reconstructed as [ɪ]? And if Old English ĭ was [i], when did it become [ɪ]? And when did the Nordic languages develop [ɪ]? In Proto-Norse it's reconstructed as [i], but in Old Icelandic it is usually reconstructed as [ɪ]?

I know i'm circling a lot, but this has just bothered me a lot, and I just can't make sense of it myself, it just doesn't make sense that PG wouldn't just have /ɪ/; and I know there is a small amount of evidence of it being [i], but how does it make sense?


r/AncientGermanic • • Sep 27 '26

Runology "Corpus Editions of English and Frisian Runic Inscriptions" (Martin Findell, 2021, Futhark 12)

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3 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • Sep 25 '26

Archaeology Discussion of Contemporary Understanding of Migration Period Archaeogenetics in "CARTA: The Genetic History of Europe with Johannes Krause" (2026, University of California Television (UCTV))

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18 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • Sep 22 '26

Question What language did the Thuringians speak?

44 Upvotes

I can't find any information online on what they spoke, but I would like to know if anyone knows anything about it, whether it was west, east, or north germanic, and just any other details that might be nice to know.


r/AncientGermanic • • Sep 21 '26

How the Germanic word for soap reached Aboriginal Australia

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10 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • Sep 04 '26

Reconstruction What is Aldsidu?

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6 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • Aug 30 '26

What Do Early Germanic Dragons Look Like?

34 Upvotes

The most common modern depiction of a dragon is as a fire-breathing, clawed reptile with wings. However, the native Germanic words (orm, wyrm, wurm) all mean "serpent." In the Eddas and Gesta Danorum, these dragons seem mostly to be large, venomous snakes with some magical properties. However, I know that the dragon in Beowulf flies and breathes fire, and it is my understanding that dragons in some of the sagas do as well, though I haven't read much in the sagas, yet. Are these attributes that have been borrowed from classical dragons? (Beowulf sometimes uses the word draka, which is Greek through Latin, suggesting that the concept of draka is overlapping with the concept of wyrm.) Or are fire-breathing, flying, and claws native to Germanic dragons? Or do we just not have enough evidence?


r/AncientGermanic • • Aug 30 '26

Alternative word for 'mirror'? (Proto-Germanic to Modern English evolution)

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2 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • Aug 20 '26

Archaeology Portable Antiquities Scheme New Database

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finds.org.uk
6 Upvotes

What are your thoughts on the updated Portable Antiquities Scheme database?


r/AncientGermanic • • Aug 14 '26

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.

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18 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • Aug 13 '26

Runology 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).

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14 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • Aug 11 '26

Question Buying Ancient Germanic Clothing?

16 Upvotes

Does anyone here know any stores that sell Germanic clothing from before the migration period?


r/AncientGermanic • • Aug 07 '26

Archaeology Could the apparent headdresses worn by the Germanic matronae resembled these? (cf. the Matronae Aufaniae)

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25 Upvotes

r/AncientGermanic • • Aug 02 '26

Archaeology Sutton Hoo ship-burial - gold scabbard boss, early 7thC

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54 Upvotes