Contents
Title Page
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Copyright
Dedication
Glossary
Part I
Eitt
Tvö
Þrjú
Fjögur
Fimm
Sex
Sjö
Átta
Níu
Tíu
Ellefu
Part II
Tólf
Þrettán
Fjórtán
Fimmtán
Sextán
Sautján
Átján
Nítján
Tuttugu
Tuttugu og eitt
Tuttugu og tvö
Tuttugu og þrjú
Tuttugu og fjögur
Tuttugu og fimm
Part III
Tuttugu og sex
Tuttugu og sjö
Tuttugu og átta
Tuttugu og níu
Þrjátíu
Þrjátíu og eitt
Þrjátíu og tvö
Þrjátíu og þrjú
Þrjátíu og fjögur
Þrjátíu og fimm
Þrjátíu og sex
Þrjátíu og sjö
Epilogue
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Shadows of the Short Days
Print edition ISBN: 9781789094497
E-book edition ISBN: 9781789094510
Published by Titan Books
A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd.
144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP
www.titanbooks.com
First Titan edition September 2020
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Copyright © 2019 Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson. All rights reserved.
Extract from The Sorcerer’s Screed by Skuggi (Jochum Magnús Eggertsson), translated by Philip Roughton. Reprinted with permission of Lesstofan/The Icelandic Magic Company.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
For Rakel
A KALMAR COMMONWEALTH
CITIZEN’S PRIMER TO HRÍMLAND
So you have found yourself on the very edge of the Commonwealth, away from familiar sights and comforting languages, stranded on a sorcerous island and surrounded by unwelcoming faces speaking a savage tongue that seems to have avoided the passing of time and ignored progress. Welcome to Hrímland, traveller.
This short primer will aim to assist the newly arrived citizen of the Kalmar Commonwealth in their attempts to make sense of this archaic tongue and the peculiar peoples that eke out a living on the edge of the known world.
Regarding Orthography & Pronunciation
Hrímlandic is an old language, believed to be largely unchanged since times of settlement approximately a millennium ago, due to to the island’s extreme isolation from the civilised world. Academics believe that Hrímlandic’s vocabulary and pronunciation is derived from the old Nordic as well as a significant Gaelic influence. This combination, when left alone for centuries, has resulted in the language currently assaulting your ears and eyes. But do not be dissuaded, this primer will help you decipher and master this inbred linguistic beast.
Alphabet
Hrímlandic special characters that might seem wholly unfamiliar are: Æ/æ, Ð/ð, Þ/þ. Some more familiar variations of vowels are: Í/í, Ý/ý, Ú/ú, É/é. Hrímlandic also uses special diphthongs, such as au and ei/ey. An accent over the vowels does not indicate that they are stressed; the stress is always on the first syllable in Hrímlandic. They are different sounds from unaccented vowels.
Vowels
Following is a list of the Hrímlandic vowels, including an accurate phonetic transcription for the diligent students reading this, along with a few examples which attempt to approximate the sounds in question. Note that the examples from other languages are usually not completely accurate, only an indication of the pronunciation.
A a [a] is pronounced as in “alphabet’ and “bar’.
Á á [au] as in “found’ and “loud’.
E e [ɛ] as in “bed’ and “head’.
I i [ɪ] as in “inside’ and “inn’.
Í í [i] is an “ee’ sound, as in “eerie’ and “fully’.
O o [ɔ] is pronounced as “o’ in “bore’.
Ó ó [ou] as in “sole’ and “go’.
U u [ʏ] is an unfamiliar vowel to the Kalmar speaker, who might have to look to foreign languages. “Über’ has a similar u-sound, also “cul’ (as in cul-de-sac).
Ú ú [u] is an “oo’ sound, as in “zoo’.
Æ æ [ai] as in “I’, “life’ and “bye’.
Ö ö as [œ] in “u’ from “urgent’, “fur’, “thunder’; “i’ from “bird’.
Au [œi] = A diphthong made from the Hrímlandic sounds for Ö and Í, so effectively the “uh’-sound from “thunder’ combined with “ee’ from “see’.
Ei/ey [ei] = As in “stay’.
Th- sounds
Ð/ð is not, as many Kalmar citizens assume, a “funny shaped o’, but should instead to be considered a “funny shaped d’ by Hrímlanders. It has a soft “th’ sound, as in the words “feather’ and “that’. Ð is never found at the beginning of words.
Þ/þ is not a variety of “p’. It has a very similar “th’ sound to “Ð’, but considerably stronger, as in “think’ and “thorn’. It is never at the end of words.
Hr- /Hl- sounds / Voiceless sounds
The first sounds in words like “Hrímland’ and “hljóð’ are not found in many languages. They can sound rather strange and can be hard to pronounce for a foreign speaker. The spelling can indicate that these words begin with an h-sound, but the first sound is in fact an unvoiced variety of the following sound, in these words a voiceless “r’ and “l’. These voiceless varieties could be described as a combination of “h’, which is a voiceless sound, and “r’ or “l’. Instead of using the vocal cords, as when pronouncing the voiced varieties of these sounds, one must try to pronounce “h’ at the same time as pronouncing “r’ and “l’ in order to reach the correct pronunciation. The tongue is placed to pronounce “r’ and “l’ while “h’ is produced. These sounds are rather common in Hrímlandic pronunciation as you can see in the glossary list. Hrímlandic also contains voiceless varieties of “m’ and “n’ which can be found in certain words, such as “seiðmagn’ and “stiftamtmaður’.
General notes
Only a limited number of Hrímlanders have family names. Usually these are people of a higher
