Month: July 2016

Oldest Welsh Lullaby: Pais Dinogad –Ffynnon, Lynne Denman

“Pais Dinogad, fraith, fraith;
O grwyn balaod ban wraith.
Chwid! chwid! Chwidogaith,
Gochanwn, gochenyn wythgaith.
…saithhgeith
…chwechgeith
…pimpgeith
…tairgeith  
…daugeith
…ungeith

Un, dau, tri, petuar, pimp, chwech, saith, wyth.

Yan, tan, tether, pedder, pimp, sether, hither, hother.*

Pan elei dy dat ty e helya; llath ar y ysgwyd llory eny law. Ef gelwi gwn gogyhwc. Giff! Gaff! Dhaly! Dhaly! Dhwg! Dhwg!
Ef lledi bysc yng corwc. Mal ban llad. Llew llywywg. Pan elei dy dat ty e vynyd. Dydygai ef penn ywrch penn gwythwch pen hyd. Penn grugyar vreith o venyd. Penn pysc o rayadyr derwennyd. Or sawl yt gyrhaedei dy dat ty ae gicwein o wythwch a llewyn a llwyuein. Nyt anghei oll ny uei oradein.”
-x

*The first count of eight, as well as the number of slaves, or ”ones in chains”, is in Old Welsh. The second (yan, tan, tethera, methera, etc.)  is one of the variations of Cumbrian sheep-counting numerals.

“Dinogad’s shift is speckled, speckled;
It was made from the pelts of martens.
`Wheet! Wheet! a-whistling,
I would sing, sang the eight in chains. 
(….seven, six, five, four, three, two, one in chains…)

When your father went out to hunt –
A spear on his shoulder, a club in his hand –
He called on his lively dogs,
`Giff! Gaff! Take, take! Fetch, fetch!’
He killed fish from his coracle
Like the lion killing small animals.
When your father went to the mountains
He would bring back a roebuck, a boar, a stag,
A speckled grouse from the mountain,
And a fish from the Derwennydd falls.
At whatever your father aimed his spear –
Be it a boar, a wild cat, or a fox –
None would escape but that had strong wings.”  
–x

art-of-swords:

Yataghan Sword

  • Dated: 1812 
  • Place of Origin: Balkans
  • Medium: steel, silver
  • Measurements: overall length 28.5 inches (725mm); blade length 23 inches (585mm)

The sword has a decorated silver hilt and silver bolster straps. The hilt has ornate silver decorative studs covering the securing pins. The blade is forged from high quality Turkish Ribbon Damascus with silver inlay along both sides. One side has a very ornate Tughra with the Islamic date 1227 contained within it (1812 A.D.). The other inscriptions reveal the maker, “Fahledi”, to be “Ahmed” and the owner to be “Haji Yusaf” (on the spine of the blade).

Source: Copyright © 2016 Akaal Arms

mapsburgh:

tartapplesauce:

hereff:

Sometimes I really don’t know if I’m happy or sad that I’m in a fandom where it’s easier to find meta about weather in Himring than nsfw fanart.

But I want to know what the general opinions about the cold and windy hill of Himring are!  Is it as bad as it sounds?  Does that mean more snow and ice or more rain and like the weather in Ireland/Britain for three-quarters of the year?  Are we talking “how you know it’s summer is when the rain is warm”?

Himring headcanons!

Overall, the March of Maedhros is a relatively dry area, as it lies fairly far inland. Because Himring rises substantially above the surrounding land, however, it experiences significant orographic precipitation on the western side. Inhabitants of the city sometimes refer to the west and east as the “wet-hand side” and “dry-hand side.”

After fortifying the hilltop, Maedhros established a system of reserves on the wet-hand side to ensure adequate groundwater recharge, which was then piped to the farmlands on the dry-hand side (which took advantage of the greater sunlight there to stretch the northern growing season). This system is often pointed to as evidence of Maedhros’s benevolence as a ruler. (Though some critics point out that by limiting the available land, this system also means that Maedhros’s domain has a higher percentage of tenant farmers working for well-off landlords rather than independent small farmers. Such an arrangement also makes it easier for Maedhros to raise armies, as tenant farmers are more interested in the promise of military pay and glory, as well as easier to draft, than yeomen.)

When focused on the needs of his own domain, Maedhros is typically a wise and caring ruler. This has led to the expression “Morgoth left him his wet hand,” referring to the fact that when facing north (on guard against the enemy), his remaining (left) hand faces the valuable wet side of Himring. However, from time to time the Oath will consume his thoughts and he will implement austerity-based policies and crack down on perceived disorder, so as not to appear “weak.” At these times, people (especially his close advisors) will say “Morgoth cut off his wet hand.”

It is now my sacred duty to draw NSFW fanart of Morgoth and Maedhros’s wet hand. 

// That’s all the one-word responses! Thank you for giving me an excuse to use (and bastardize) my Akkadian dictionary as a substitute for Valarin. 

“The tongues and voices of the Valar are great and stern, and yet also swift and subtle in movement, making sounds that we find hard to counterfeit; and their words are mostly long and rapid, like the glitter of swords, like the rush of leaves in a great wind or the fall of stones in the mountains.“ 

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