Angelcynn and Valinor extend you an invitation to join this in this chat discussion.

Come into the Great Hall of Germania on the evening of Friday February 13 and join in this discussion of the impact of ancient Germania on Tolkien's imagination and on his fiction.

With the release of the recent The Lord of the Rings films, there is increasing interest in Tolkien, his scholarship and the works and languages that inspired him.

This discussion, jointly hosted at Germania by Angelcynn and Valinor, will explore Tolkien's love and knowledge of Old English and Old Norse literature and the formative effect ancient Germanic languages like Gothic had on his scholarship and fiction.

Germanic parallels with elements in Tolkien's work, his thoughts on Beowulf and the Germanic influence on the costumes and sets in the recent movies will be amongst the subjects to be discussed.

So join us by the fire in the Great Hall and share your thoughts on Tolkien and his influences.

Part Four will examine some of the more complete stories - those of Weland, Wada, Theodoric and Hildibrand.

See? Post to a Germanic group and watch what happens.

Meanwhile the discussion on the Battle of Hastings is picking up pace, with posters old and new joining in.

And given that battles are something we find quite a bit of in Anglo-Saxon England it was only fitting that I took up Harald Olafsson's excellent suggestion and create an Anglo-Saxon Warfare board at Angelcynn.

In these articles I will be tracing what we know may have once existed from fragments and mentions in existing Old English writings and cognates in Old Norse and Continental literature.

In The Lost Literature of Anglo-Saxon England - Part 1: Haunting Fragments I look at how we can begin to trace the outlines of some of this lost material and its even more distant historical origins in the Migration Age. Then in The Lost Literature of Anglo-Saxon England - Part 2: The Earliest Strata I trace how some of the very ancient tribes described by Tacitus in his Germania were also remembered by the Anglo-saxons centuries later and can be found in the tribe and king lists in Widsith.

The next few parts will look at what legends of the Goths and Huns the Anglo-Saxons would have celebrated in their poems and then at how there must have been Sigurd/Volsung cycle in Old English verse as well. The final parts will detail the story cycles alluded to in passing in Beowulf - Froda and Ingeld, the wars of the Swedes and Geats and the fight at Finnsburh.

One of my recent purchases has been the new Osprey volume, The Sarmatians: 600 BC - AD 450 so I have posted a review of this book at Lords of the Plains today.

Expect more posts there on the Sarmatians et al soon. And my copy of Otto Maenchen-Helfen's The World of Attila and the Huns is on its way to me as well, so there will be many posts on the Huns to be had soon also.

My fellow Germanic scribes and I are aiming to ramp up activity on some of Germania's groups. We will be leading by example, so I will also use this Journal to alert readers to new posts I (and others) have been making around Germania.

Stay posted ...

This was calculated by getting a re-enactor to engage in 1 hour of horseback riding; 2 hours of chopping wood with an ax; 1 hour of heavy farm chores (e.g., forking hay bales); 4 hours of moderate farm chores (e.g., feeding animals); 4 hours of moderate walking; 1 hour climbing hills with a light load (5kg); 3 hours of "general activity".

Using these calculations they then worked out how much food a Viking would need to maintain this level of activity. They worked out four menus to take into account seasonal variations in availability of food (no fresh meat or diary produce in the winter menu for example), making sure they stuck to Viking Age foods.

Using average modern portion sizes, they found the food available at the time didn't provide anywhere near enough energy. But when the servings were increased, Viking Age food could happily keep energy levels up while providing generally good nutrition.

Scientific proof that Vikings must have been big eaters.

Ansuzharjaz has added his PGmc version of the Old High German "Second Merseberg Charm". This spell, which mentions several Germanic gods and mythic beings, is found in an Eleventh Century German manuscript, but is clearly far older.

Ansuzharjaz's version reads:

Fullin andi Wodanaz forjun te hultai
þan habede Balþrez fulon sinaz fotuz farstukiþi
þan biguldro izwiz Sinþagunþjo, Sunnon iuz swester
þan biguldro izwiz Frowon, Fullaz iuz swester
þan biguldro izwiz Wodanaz, swa iz welo kunnada
es ita bainarenkaz, es ita bloþarenkaz, es ita liþurenkaz,
bainaz til bainoz, bloþam til bloþom, liþuz til liþiwez, ibnaz galimiþi sind

The Old High German original reads:

Phol ende UUodan vuorun zi holza.
do uuart demo Balderes volon sin vuoz birenkit.
thu biguol en Sinthgunt, Sunna era suister,
thu biguol en Friia, Volla era suister,
thu biguol en Uuoda, so he uuole conda:
sose benrenki, sose bluotrenki, sose lidirenki:
ben zi bena, bluot zi bluoda,
lid zi geliden, sose gelimida sin!

Which translates as:

Phol and Wodan rode into the forest.
Then was for Balder's foal its foot wrenched.
Then encharmed it Sinthgunt, (and) Sunna her sister;
Then encharmed it Frija, (and) Volla her sister;
Then encharmed it Wodan, as he the best could:
As the bone-wrench, so the blood-wrench, (and) so the limb-wrench:
Bone to bone; blood to blood;
Limb to limb -- so be glued!

We hope to see more compositions like this at þeuðiskôn as time goes by.

Cheers.