Icelander REACTS to VIKINGS

[@Hrafna]

Note: I know the characters are speaking Old Norse NOT just old Icelandic. I just thought it would be interesting to compare the languages and see how much I could understand! This video is suppose to be entertaining but I also wanted to teach you a little bit of modern Icelandic along the way! I'm not a professional, just wanted to make a fun little video ❤❤

[@spyderkb9894]

And you did a great job! 👍 But, yes, Vikings takes place long before the settlement of Iceland, so they are speaking either Old Norse or Anglo Saxon. Long before either Icelandic or English even happened. As for the actors, Ragnar is Australian, his wife and son are Canadian, and his brother Rollo is British. There are plenty of Scandinavian actors as well. Floki being a big one. Anyway, it is a really great show, and I hope you chose to react to it. So few people of Viking decent have tackled it. Plz, be one of the first.

[@chadpayne9789]

Great job, thank you!

[@elmarce1983]

Hrafna There is a chapter in Season 5 where Floki (character played by Gustaf Skargård) arrives to Iceland and he thanks Odin for the opportunity. He is supposed to be speaking in old Icelandic/Norse??? I know it is not the same but it is such a magic moment. You can look for it on KZbin.

[@qibuckcoins7674]

I like the background looks relaxing

[@waywardson1663]

I second what Spyder K B says! I think that they try to use different pronunciations and different dialects to show that the Vikings come from different areas, such as Lagertha who comes from Kattegat, between Norway and Denmark. Harold and Halfdan come from Norway and Jarl Borg came from Sweden, etc. The actors are from all over, but many are Scandinavian. I also watch Norsemen on Netflix, which I think is supposed to be a parody of Vikings made in Norway.

[@toddw14]

4:21 Floki is played by Gustaf Skarsgård, whose Swedish. So its makes sense he would nail the pronunciation. 👌🏻👌🏻

[@Svartsejd]

Wasn't even him that was speaking. Floki (Gustaf) is just standing next to him, but it's the guy with the partially shaved head that speaks.

[@j6936-d6v]

A number of the actors are Scandinavian. I know the guy that plays Ivar is from Denmark.

[@kniter]

If you watch the show youll actually hear Floki/Gustaf pronounce a lot of Norse words and names in his native language. Often with Ragnar, Thorstein, Vallhall, etc.

[@toddw14]

That scene was dark & it looked like Floki was talking. That scene was from from the earlier seasons which I haven't seen in a while.

[@MononokeYokai89]

Floki (Gustaf) does speak at 10:08 though ^_^ and she does take note that it was very well spoken, as you said he is Swedish so he did nail the pronunciation.

[@jimpresley-oldfishingfool261]

I tried to learn some Icelandic before I went to Iceland two years ago. I tried to say simple things like ordering coffee or a sandwich in Icelandic. Everytime I did this the Icelandic person taking the order would laugh or smile amused and then tried to correct my pronunciation but I couldn't get it right. They were so nice to me and genuinely were pleased with my attempts. Several times they even said things like, We like you. You get 10 or 15 percent off. I think it was the most friendly country I ever visited.

[@athoswolff776]

A lot of people don't really value language or culture on a lot of countries; they'll think "I already speak english they are the ones who must learn too to talk to me". So this very simple act of taking your time to be polite and respectful is very appreciated,you don't need a lot. As a Brazilian,whenever a tourist acknowledge we speak Portuguese and not Spanish it is very appreciated, a "obrigado" instead of a "gracias" goes a long way.

[@kwekuotiacheampong2375]

Well well well...i will put their niceness to odin's test one day...pack my things over here in West Africa....jump on a viking galley and sail over and say howdy... ja ja ja ...von friend-min hankrur

[@anthonycaserta89]

@@kwekuotiacheampong2375 how is it living their? It looks beautiful.. Im so tried of concrete and asphalt

[@faamecanic1970]

I lived in Germany for 6 yrs. I was in a small town at a small US Army base. I had a great time because I started to learn German and would speak as much German as I could. And the locals there accepted me because I respected them enough to try and speak the language. Some of the older German neighbors even adopted me like a son inviting me to dinners or even holiday celebrations . One of the best times of my life.

[@ibizamaria]

@@faamecanic1970 das ist schön zu wissen😍good to know.. you always welcome in Germany....and the Islanders too❣

[@Ndrw_82]

The actors were picking from different countries of Scandinavia, that is why you hear different dialects.

[@bigbarraful]

Actually the main character lothbrok is an Australian actor

[@TGFischer1980]

A few Americans too (like Bjorn), Katherine Winnick (Lagertha) is Canadian, some of the “English” characters are played by Irish, Scottish, or Welsh actors. According to what I’ve read what they speak is supposed to be closer to Swedish or Norwegian than Icelandic. This woman is hung up on The Eddas having been written in Iceland in the Middle Ages. She likes to ignore that Danes, Swedes, Finns, and Norwegians were the ones who settled Iceland.

[@pat_mc_fly]

@@TGFischer1980 Bjorn is Canadian too

[@pat_mc_fly]

@Patrick Turner not sure if you commented on my comment, if so you have to prove me, Vancouver is not in Canada :)

[@Hnke90]

@@TGFischer1980 Finns had nothing to do with the settlement of Iceland, Scandinavians did. Otherwise I agree with everything you say.

[@nicolegoodwin9017]

The one who plays Floki is a Skarsgard. All of the Skarsgard actors are Scandinavian. They have said on many occasions that their father made them learn Icelandic growing up.

[@gurbudurk9713]

Gustaf Skårsgard?

[@poetinchains7396]

@@gurbudurk9713 yes

[@Stonewall29]

@@gurbudurk9713no, Laquan

[@AD_Carsonp]

Flokie is played by one of the skarsgard brothers forgot which one but that would explain why he’s able to speak fluently

[@evangelinemcdowell8114]

Gustav!

[@maltehoffmann2914]

Björns actor is half Swedish or Norwegian aswell i think

[@andjelavidakov2014]

Vikings are actually one of the reasons why I started watching you 😂

[@Kaiens46]

hahaha same here!

[@Facu_Roldan]

Same

[@77solsken]

Othinn brought me here

[@andjelavidakov2014]

Appian A My man Floki too

[@elementvd]

absolutely the same here :D

[@tymiller176]

Some of the characters are actually speaking Old English too in the beginning

[@RSProduxx]

yes...the tough part for this show (respect fro even doing that) is probably, that there are way more sources for Old English than for the ancient Nordic languages...i don´t think much was written down or not destroyed

[@RaZuesR12]

​@@RSProduxx There is quite a bit in both Old English, and possibly more in Old Norse of which survived in Iceland including grammar documentation plus runic in other places. Old Norse refers to the dialects of Old West Norse, which became Icelandic, Faroese, and Norwegian, minus its Swedish/Danish influences. Old East Norse which the Vikings who mostly spoke this variant, became Swedish and Danish, and Old Gutnish (less close to each of them). Old West and East Norse didn't really split into their own family until the 12 century more or less. Modern Icelandic is the closest to Old Norse as one can get with it being relatively unchanged over the past 800 years, along with Faroese going a bit further. I like to think the producers tried to get as authentic as possible for the language parts mainly to juxtapose between cultures. With that in mind, I think Hrafna demonstrates her understanding of "Old Norse" quite well compared to modern Icelandic. Old English nobody really knows how that was spoken so mostly educated guessing for that.

[@MrAchsas]

i meyn they are saxons so its kinda of a mix between english and german

[@RSProduxx]

@@RaZuesR12 thanks for the lesson :)

[@williamkeil882]

Some speak old French too

[@TheSecondPrimarch]

i love the care for the language, and the respect for the actors, that Hrafna shows here. She has earned a sub!

[@sitraash]

The actress who played Lagertha, the one who "spurðu hann", is from Canada, but was born in Ukraine and until 8 years old spoke only Ukrainian. And Ukrainian is a Slavic language, and in many Slavic languages, the letters sounds very straightforward, without mitigation, if they are not affected by softening of previous letters or special characters. And it turns out such an accent with the letter Ý. Just explaining why this could happen here)

[@respectablebogan3276]

2:46 no wonder it sounds nothing like Icelandic he's speaking Old English

[@Kazza_8240]

That was the vikings landing on England at Lindesfarne. The person talking old English was one of the English soldiers who met them on the beach. Vikings does this sometimes. 2 people will talk in Nordic and old English, then the characters will start speaking English for the viewers, but you know they are both speaking a different language.

[@chitterlingsrtasty]

Kazza 8240 yup. Occurs constantly in the series. She should research these scenes more

[@KaneCiticani]

Hughston Bloomfield you gotta post the time before it happens, not after the scene buddy.

[@respectablebogan3276]

@@KaneCiticani did you even click my time stamp??? He speaks old English and then she says ok so far this sounds nothing like Icelandic

[@KaneCiticani]

Hughston Bloomfield Did you click your own time stamp? It just goes straight to her talking, and not the clip of the show, which is what I meant. She plays the clip again, and repeats herself, so it’s all good.

[@MosesTemu]

"This video is turning to an Icelandic lesson" hehe perfect. As I watched this I really started wanting to learn Icelandic.

[@naitzeel]

She sounds so cute when she is talking islandic. My ears are pleased, love it.

[@pippaschroeder9660]

It really rolls of the tongue and sounds really cool

[@Michaelsloncehammr]

What are you doing ?

[@Tohrwid]

@@Michaelsloncehammr Why are you runnin

[@Michaelsloncehammr]

@@Tohrwid Don’t ever play Halloween with me. Scary Little Bitch.

[@Michaelsloncehammr]

@@Tohrwid Scabbies is the answer. We don’t give a fuck.

[@donsambo5488]

I loved the scene where we see the saxon and Norse language interaction. The confusion and distrust. The simple misunderstanding. Very well done for tv at the least

[@A47M36]

Vikings is the best series i ever watched. thanks for the informative video because it answered some of my concerns.

[@camrendavis6650]

The guys in the pointed helmets are speaking Old English (Anglo-saxon). Fairly different language

[@Hrafna]

Oh okay, interesting! Thank you

[@camrendavis6650]

@Yoel Armas Macías That's why I said "fairly". They are both germanic languages, respectively.

[@ave.christus.rex.]

Camren Davis closest Language to that would be german since anglo saxons were german tribe

[@camrendavis6650]

@@ave.christus.rex. true. Isn't there a Saxon dialect of German?

[@wynnsigmarsson8689]

Sounds like Dutch almost

[@dadisiolutosin]

Hrafna, I recently discovered your channel, I love it by the way, and this particular video I decided to comment on to clarify a few things especially for those who never watched this television show. Here in the US, the show is a production of the History Channel and this story is based on the legend of Ragnar Lodbrok or Ragnarr Loðbrók. I actually watched this show during its first 3 seasons because I find history fascinating and I've always been intrigued by the history of Norse peoples. First thing first, the characters in this show are not from Iceland per se. Some of them are and they comprise peoples from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. That speaks to the history of Ragnarr Loðbrók and his legend. According to this history, he's originally from Sweden but ended up in all the Scandinavian countries when he was building his armies to invade Western and Eastern Europe. He's basically ascribed as being the historic figure who brought all the Scandanivans together as one loosely nit nation. This probably explains why you hear the similarities in the languages they speak in the show. Old Norse, a general language for trade, etc, is why languages like Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, etc have very similar root words and sentence structures. Old Norse was to Scandanavia what Latin was to Southern and Western Europe. Also, none of the actors in this show are Icelandic that I know of and only a few of them are Nordic or Scandinavian. As you've listened to them speak you can probably tell which ones. For example, Gustaf Skarsgård who plays Floki is from Sweden and comes from a family of very famous actors namely his father, Stellan Skarsgård. Most of them are British, Danish, Australians, Irish, and Canadians. I don't think any of them are Americans. Although, to a greater extent Canadians sound a bit like Americans until they pronounce certain words like proooocess instead of process. LOL The one language you didn't understand wasn't Scandinavian at all, it was Olde Anglish/ Old English. It has its roots in older Germanic languages with a healthy amount of influence from the Latins who invaded during the Roman empire and brought them Catholicism. Hell, people who speak English today wouldn't understand 90% of Old English. And with that, I ask forgiveness for such a long comment. Cheers.

[@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess]

some things you said are wrong, the last paragraph is completely wrong. old english doesn't have any latin influence, it is a dialect of low german. the germanic tribes that conquered england came from germany, denmark and holland [saxons, jutes, frisians], each of those tribes spoke their own dialect of low german [read the anglo saxon chronicles]. old english was not influenced by latin, regardless if it absorbed some religious words from christianity. it is modern english that is hugely infected with latin and french, so diluted it's hardly a germanic tongue anymore

[@dadisiolutosin]

@@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess I stand corrected to a certain degree but seemingly we were both a bit wrong in our respective analysis. Athelstan, the Catholic monk represented in the show as well as the other Anglo-Saxons were speaking Wessex, which is based on old Germanic. I was attempting to address however that this might be the reason Hrafna didn't understand a particular scene she seemed perplexed by. I think the show did it's best considering what it had to work with and considering no one alive really speaks any of these languages from over 1,000 years ago. What I found humorous was your use of the word "infected" when referencing other influences on modern English. That was hilarious. I appreciate your reply though.

[@alexgersh1950]

ANDON HOWARD yes, that is exactly the impression I got from the two posters.

[@roopnarinericky]

I love the show Vikings. I didn't know anything about Norse culture before and I found your channel bc of the Vikings show. I love learning about the culture. You are awesome.

[@ivanguerrero7934]

I love the sound of your language ! I don't really understand much but I prefer that than the KZbin subtitle

[@simaozinho37]

10:08 He´s actually swedish his name is Gustaff Skarsgard.

[@sparkyjohan]

*Gustaf Skarsgård*

[@simaozinho37]

@@sparkyjohan Exactly, sorry.

[@sparkyjohan]

@@simaozinho37 Lol, no problem. Just making sure it's correct.

[@griffinmeagher6290]

Yep yep, he was also the self appointed dialogue coach during filming

[@Kazza_8240]

Of course he's a skarsgård - he's Bill Skarsgård who plays Pennywise in the IT films brother. I think Floki and Pennywise have a similar laugh, I love to think that's their natural laughs, and the whole family sit around chuckling like that 😂

[@geek2the2ndpower]

I love these videos. I feel like I'm learning so much, even though I still haven't really actually learned anything.

[@kevinvargas7579]

They are from Scandinavia and this time the vikings hasn't been to Iceland yet

[@jgalvan6]

Agreed. Scandinavian/Norse.

[@cryosleeper1119]

Yes Old Norwegian and Danish. Icelandic language was not established yet.

[@greeny202ab]

They were specifically from Denmark so why would they sound like Icelanders anyway? The Norwegian variant did not come to the British isles for hundreds of years after this series is set.

[@cryosleeper1119]

Greeny202a They were mostly from Norway, not Denmark. Although there would be some Danes there.

[@greeny202ab]

@@cryosleeper1119 No, the ones that invaded England were from Denmark not Norway. The ones that went to France and Ireland were from Norway. Half of the loan words in English come From Danish.

[@littledrawingfan]

Listening to Icelandic makes me feel like I’m listening to elvish, such a beautiful language! Also I love the fact you not only put the translation in icelandic, I’m learning norwegian and it’s genuinely fun to see similarities between these languages

[@gordonhardwick9552]

Tolkien based his elvish on obscure dead languages from the Scandinavian region

[@brazilianman92]

@@gordonhardwick9552 Elvish was based on Celtic languages. It's more flowy and less guttural. It's also written more flowy and not runic and brutish. Celts were whimsical in their approach to nature. Similar to the elves.

[@gordonhardwick9552]

Tolkien was a linguistic prof

[@BrettOShea20]

I would like to say aswell that in your content i have also found you very respectful to all your potential viewers..and thank you for being so respectful.

[@alexman378]

Iceland wasn’t a thing back then, maybe that’s why you’re not hearing a lot of Icelandic in there or abnormalities. 😛 The Viking who discovered Iceland is in the show though, they get there later. He’s played by a Swede, that’s why he had such a good prenounciation. The main characters of the show are Danes and Norwegians. Definitely watch the series, one of the best of all time.

[@meginna8354]

Icelandic is the closest language to the viking language, modern Swedish/Danish/Norwegian have changed a ton and didn't exist back then.

[@alexman378]

@@meginna8354 Yeah, I never said they were speaking any modern language. They spoke Old Norse, but prenounciation and spelling can be different depending on the region. Icelandic is close, as she pointed out, but not 100% the same.

[@beersmurff]

There have been found roman coin on Iceland. There are also mentions of Irish monks being there as early as 8th century. Though it's all theory and speculations. We do however find Scandinavian archaeological finds dating back to mid 10th century, which goes well with the Landnam book that states it was discovered in 950th. Could be Romans actually discovered it first :-)

[@meginna8354]

@@beersmurff No, Icelandic grammar and spelling are pretty much identical to Old Norse while it's completely different in Danish.

[@grisflyt]

3:14 sounds like Swedish with Icelandic dialect, but could be "poorly" pronounced Icelandic. This is the first I have ever seen from the TV series. I'm from Sweden. Swedish: Vad säger han? (säger is pronounced säyer in modern Swedish, but can be prounced säger for effect) Danish: Hvad siger han? (the hardest of the Scandinavian languages and by far biggest difference between spelling and pronunciation; can't speak for Icelandic) Norwegian: Hva sier han? Icelandic: Hvað segir hann? (Only Icelandic still has old characters like ð) Language wasn't standardized back then. You could put words in different order (e.g. vad han säger? (what he say?/what say he?)) and nobody would react. Spelling was all over the place. All languages were, not just the Scandinavian ones. Shakespeare wasn't entirely consistent with spelling, if I'm correct.

[@danielalozovska2050]

Something about all Nordic languages, and Icelandic in particular, sounds both so charming and brutal at the same time... I tried repeating some of the phrases after you, and I've never felt more confidant about myself. It must the words themselves that made me brave. Thank you so much!!! P.S. Cheers from a native Ukrainian speaker.

[@bosssabosstv3982]

I love the way you put a translation from English to Icelandic to Danish.. I wanna learn more from you. Wow. Amazing.

[@Nightbrrd]

I wish I knew scandinavian languages they sound so beautiful... *downloads duolingo*

[@kaydotcontent]

@@waseem8710 I think he was just joking

[@johanneslagerholm469]

@Conexus X18 tror det går dåligt för han haha

[@blainepavlock8012]

Scandinavian isn’t a language so it depends on what region you’re talking about

[@Nightbrrd]

@@blainepavlock8012 Well I mean, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic a d Danish 😊 Wish I could learn them all 'cause even in songs it sounds so Beautiful!

[@sebastianpye9328]

@@johanneslagerholm469 för honom*

[@joshuakallenberger915]

Vikings is a good show, especially the early seasons.

[@broadstork]

"ESPECIALLY" very important

[@randycooper3428]

The show actually starts off slow for me. It gets better every season until season 5 and even then it's better than the 1st season or 2 of Vikings. At least in my opinion.

[@randycooper3428]

@@redpillbulgaria-v2.063 Really? Vikings is one of the best shows with some of the best characters of all-time for me. Have you seen The last Kingdom, maybe you would prefer it more. It's another show with Vikings that I think is really good, at least in my opinion.

[@redpillbulgaria-v2.063]

@@randycooper3428 No I haven't seen "The Last Kingdom" I'll check it out. I think someone else mentioned it. As far as "Vikings" is concerned, yes from a production point of view is a fantastic show, but what I (personally) find annoying is the SJW agenda pushed into it. In fact not only annoying but "intelligence insulting" The writers/producers use a good premise to push modern day political ideologies that in spite of all resources and propaganda invested into them are still highly unpopular with the average joe on the street.

[@broadstork]

@@redpillbulgaria-v2.063 agreed with every word you said.

[@charlottebradford6425]

I love your video. As a person who speaks 6 languages I love how you wrote the pronunciation of all 4 languages including Norwegian! Gracias!!!

[@danishviking8002]

Old Norse was divided into two dialects. East ON and West ON. Icelandic derrives from the West ON which almost all Old Norse we know of today are based on. Therefore its kinda funny how it seems easier for a dane to understand the Old Norse in Vikings :D

[@meginna8354]

They are actually using Icelandic pronunciation in the show, they seam to switch a lot.

[@tylersmith3139]

Actually no, because Danish has drastically changed from Old Norse to the point that it is unintelligible. Dialects are mutually intelligible, so if you can understand one dialect, you can understand the other. That's how Norwegians (who spoke West ON) and Danes (who spoke East On) were able to formulate raids on England together. Icelandic is the closest language to Old Norse so they would have a little more trouble understanding East Norse, but more so than the Danish, whose language is far removed from Old Norse.

[@legendteigen461]

Norwegian Are from old West Norse aswell

[@beersmurff]

@@tylersmith3139 Yet the Icelandic pronunciation has derived considerably from West ON, so a modern Icelander would not be able to understand a person speaking West ON in 950 AD.

[@tylersmith3139]

@@beersmurff Yes they would. They can read old Norse for God's sake.

[@eliyahushvartz2167]

Does she not realize so many of the characters were speaking old english?

[@dr.lexwinter8604]

Old Norse is nothing like Old Icelandic. Reconstructed Old Norse draws a little on Icelandic, but also draws on what we know from other derivative proto-Germanic tongues of the same era that have survived. Dr Jackson Crawford on KZbin here is a great resource on the topic for those wanting to learn more. Edit: The first portion is Anglisc, or Old English / Anglo-Saxon, not Danish.

[@jamesheasley2980]

2:48 There are too languages being spoken in this scene: Old English and Old Norse, both of which would have been somewhat intelligible at the time, at least enough for simple conversations.

[@a.d.4570]

i really like your old location, it just gave me a cozy feeling, loved watching your videos with that view! 💕

[@GhostInPajamas]

I’m from Massachusetts and I love it but Iceland is so fascinating to me. The climate and scenery seem stunning beautiful I wanna live there

[@zacsparksbmx33]

They’re attempting to recreate Old Norse language by essentially mashing the languages together between Icelandic, Swedish, and danish

[@guntherachterhof4876]

Yes it's a mix

[@binarygreenhouse3037]

“Before we get started, I just want to say-“ Oh boy here comes an advertisement. “-hi!” Oh. Hello! :)

[@artisauzins]

In Latvian we use double Ls too. interesting. Your channel is by the way amazing

[@blackhood4366]

Floki: "I'M IN VALHALLAAAAAAAAAA!!!". Me: "oh dear, do i tell you?".

[@sarajohansson7461]

The first sentence you listened to, he says “vad säger han” witch is Swedish. I have noticed they speak different languages all the time haha

[@RandomGuy010]

It's like he's speaking Swedish with a northern Norwegian accent.

[@theserpentshaman5027]

I love the feel of the first season. I wish it would have carried through.

[@YouTubeWatcher9000]

Vikings is my favorite show of all time!

[@wojman3298]

Vikings is amazing tv-series especially 1-4 seasons, you definetely should give it a try. You may also react to some old-norse songs or something similar. Have a nice day ❤

[@MikaelKjell]

The most interesting thing about this is that "old norse" sounded a lot like icelandic, but with differences like dialects more than languages. Icelandic developed into what it is today from vikings moving there, but you already know😊 If we could have a viking back in this time, someone speaking icelandic would probably understand most of his/her words, but swedes, norwegians and danes wouldn't understand a lot as our languages changed too much. So icelandic is the closest we can get to understand how old norse sounded😊🙏

[@fendranm2914]

Noticed right away that there's lots of echo in your new location. Need acoustic (aka. sound-dampening or studio) foam, or some DIY alternative. Some get away with putting tapestry on the wall, but that would require you to just have such a thing laying around already. >.>

[@cwell510]

Yeah it sounds like she talking inside of the bathroom, too much echo and the lighting is very dim. Perhaps some background art or a green screen would suffice.

[@Raven-Winter]

I tried watching Vikings but I stopped because as someone who has learned medieval history in university, the historical inaccuracies drives me mad... But your video was great and fun ! I'm learning Norwegian and I loved watching the differences between the languages ^^

[@thefnaffan2]

The only thing they got right were the names..

[@madypeg6952]

Watch the series "norsemen". This is Fun!

[@mudza92]

Well it's not a documentary my friend, it's a show loosely based on history and characters that may or may not exist at all. It's like you said I didn't watch superhero movies because we all know no one have super powers!

[@derrick4937]

Love your KZbin channel. Very educational. I am learning alot thank you

[@11mrOZ]

I never realized how nice the Icelandic accent is. Thank you

[@robertmiller5735]

when the lady is this attractive, no one can see the back ground.

[@SJOGREENANTHONY]

They call you romeo

[@tacosamurai1]

Preach brother

[@noahlaw9781]

settle down robert

[@GermanChristians]

Lol it’s all makeup.....

[@ReasonAboveEverything]

Mitchell Bast matter of taste

[@JerryPaulTreeCreations]

This was great. I really enjoy hearing what the words actually sound like. Thank you for this! According to the Geni world family tree, Ragnar "Lodbrock" Sigurdsson is my 29th great grandfather on my mother's side. :)

[@-----REDACTED-----]

It’s funny when you are German and there are these few bits and pieces you just understand both spoken and written...😂 (It is ofc quite the stretch, but still...)

[@timothyfreeman97]

Definitly the old english is what you're hearing. Remember where the anglo-saxons came from.

[@jacobanderson4614]

well, they all have Germanic routes so it's not uncommon to see similarity

[@MrBjornibjorn]

Norwegian, Icelandic, danish and english are all germanic languages. I understand lots of icelandic, english (ofc) and german, just from hearing it. i never took lessons for icelandic or german.

[@gollese]

@@MrBjornibjorn Eh, swedish? "The main North Germanic languages are Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish, which have a combined total of about 20 million native speakers in the Nordic countries."

[@MrBjornibjorn]

@@gollese Yeeeah. Swedish is also part of that. no matter how much i don't want it to be the truth. xD

[@mattbellacotti]

The opening scene with the man with the helmet speaking is actually speaking old Anglo Saxon

[@jpdj2715]

Anglo references a people/nation/tribe called Angles (from soil that is Danish today) and Saxon references another Germanic nation. As of when did this become a single thing? By the way, the migration waves to England also saw a lot of Frysians go there (who's language of today may be nearer Old English than anything else). Just asking - no part of those tribes.

[@timothymartin5538]

@@jpdj2715 Anglo Saxon is a common demographic of the British isles which effectively bred out true Bretons, Anglo saxons effectively means English, this isn't an uncommon thing, I live in England and have somehow managed to get a group of friends who represent Gaelic, Celtic, Angle and Anglo Saxon whilst I am effectively Saxon so we have the full spread of the common genepools that make up the English, hope that clears that up, so old Anglo-Saxon would be old English, effectively.

[@voxproltd6597]

i love it, the background isnt important, you make the whole video worth watching

[@pacmanpakkas]

stretching his words because he's the nglish king learning a new language

[@Jesus4farrs]

The guy that introduces himself as the sheriff is speaking the forerunner to English.

[@goldenhide]

Being Anglo-Saxons they are speaking Old English. If they were going correct, they would be speaking Prehistoric Old English (which is unknown to us) as Early Old English comes about due to the Danelaw and Norse settlers and the two peoples with somewhat similar, Germanic languages, learning that they do have some problems (I believe on clear example is the word for horse in each language, means something completely different in the other), so a need for a common trading language pushed some hardcore Danish/Norse influences into Anglo-Saxon, especially loanwords and such. The use of modals and grammar are debated by linguists, since we don't know what Old English sounded like before the Danelaw, we don't know for sure if they used modals and Germanic grammar before or after the Old Norse settled. Literacy became a thing after Christianization of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 7th century. After the Danelaw the Anglo-Saxons started hard core writing (giving us the extant Early/Late Old English texts of "Beowulf" for instance). These peoples share a common ancestry, yet developed very different culturally and linguistically from one another.

[@samuelbarham8483]

@@goldenhide Prehistoric Old English is the name commonly given to the language as spoken between the 400s and 600s. This show is set in the 8th or 9th centuries, right? That's before the Danelaw. We have an enormous amount of textual evidence for the Old English of that time. Early Old English, typically considered to designate the language spoken from ~600-900, is more or less pure and unaffected by the Danelaw, which is founded toward the very end of that period, in 854, and probably doesn't have an immediate linguistic impact in any case. It's really mainly by the 10th century (the beginning of the Late Old English period) that Old Norse begins to influence English, though the extent -- both geographical and linguistic -- to which that took place is a bit of a controversial topic (many of the effects were confined to the northern dialects of English). To be sure, you're absolutely right: Danish and Norse settlers *did* influenced Old English, and this is hypothesized *by some linguists* to have played a part in the erosion of inflectional endings in the late Old English period. It also appeared to affect phonology in the northern regions (Northumbria, etc. -- where we have "kirk" instead of "church"), and to have affected the phonology of at least a few words in the south (giving us inanimate "ship," but animate "skipper" -- but such examples are few, and mostly confined to nautical vocabulary).

[@goldenhide]

@@samuelbarham8483 I was indeed discussing the post-Dabelaw bits. But you're correct. I was under the assumption that Angko-Saxon was spoken before this time and all these different languages were still close-ish branches from the Proto-Germanic limb. Maybe things have been redefined with more studies since I last looked. Either way, thanks for the new info, excellent to know.

[@toride_an]

Thanks so much for the video! This was very interesting to watch. Greetings from Chile!

[@maia2259]

By the way, Norway has two written languages, and Bokmål is unfortunately the most used one. Nynorsk on the other hand, is a bit more similar to Icelandic (and way cooler) than Bokmål is!:) That’s because Bokmål is closer to the Danish language. Some of the dialects that can be found on the western part of Norway are also a bit similar to Icelandic when it comes to the pronunciation of the words:)

[@augusTJ]

As far as I know, Bokmal is the written language that united the dialects from all Norway in the past. It had a great use in its time as the first german dictionary of the Grimm brothers had with the Bavarian population. Now Nynorsk is reeeally hard my brother haha politics change and now people try to accept the others, not opress them into what the mayority does.

[@martinsharrett1872]

The first scene you watched, this represents one of the first clashes of culture of the Norse and Britons. Even simple spoken communication would be a significant challenge. Then factor in the cultural, religious and political differences... Love the show and enjoyed your reaction :)

[@sea-ferring]

Its really cool to hear that the writers and actors in this show made such an effort to either speak Old Norse or at the very least Icelandic. I'm impressed. I would be interested to see what you think of the show "Norsemen"...

[@phsycotater3608]

Thw actors are australian and english. And in the show they are from Norway but some of them end up in iceland so maybe some of the differences were because in the early episodes they used norwegian as reference but after some study realized icelandic is closer to old norse

[@wardeni9603]

A large part of the cast are from the Nordic Countries. Ragnar's actor is not, but the actors who play his sons and companions are largely from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. For example King Harald Finehair is played by the Finnish actor Peter Franzén, Halfdan the Black by another Finn, Jasper Pääkkönen, Ivar the Boneless is played by the Danish actor Alex Andersen etc.

[@phsycotater3608]

@@wardeni9603 ah I was referring to Ragnar Rollo and Floki. And lagertha's actress is from Canada

[@wardeni9603]

@@phsycotater3608 I thing Floki's actor is Swedish, he's one of the Skarsgårds. Ragnar and Rollo are played by non-nordic people though

[@bradlangton1549]

Actually alot of the people who went to Iceland were rogue Norwegians, still the Icelandic language is almost the same as it was 1200 year's ago.

[@MrGrazzhoppa]

You do know that old Norse was the language of all Nordic countries. Iceland is the only country that kept it but modernized it.

[@emilianobernal7274]

Just remember that the Vikings were from the 8th century, so none of the languages they spoke back then will sound like the ones we speak now, of course it doesn't sound like Icelandic, even old English doesn't sound like the English se speak now

[@magnusorn7313]

"even old English doesn't sound like the English se speak now" yes because thats the prefect analogy, its not like English is one of the most prevalent examples of cultural influences majorly affecting language development yes, icelandic and old norse is NOT the same thing but they are in no way as different as old english and modern english

[@magnusorn7313]

@The505Guys what they 505 guys?

[@magnusorn7313]

@The505Guys yea

[@chuckfriebe843]

@Logikure "much closer THAN". You used "then". Those two words are not interchangeable when you are comparing things.

[@oreosmitmilch2181]

@@magnusorn7313 still they all come from proto-germanic times and share the same ancestry. Thats why so many words are so similar in "northern" languages (german, english, "scandinavian" languages...)

[@alanparadis5061]

You are truly amazing! Keep up the great work!

[@Hispandinavian]

I love it. My hands are already full with Swedish. One of the funniest things I did after learning Russian was watching Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking heavy Austrian/German accented Russian in the 1988 movie Red Heat. The beginning fight scene it sounds Russian with cerebral palsy. It's the movie where he plays a Soviet cop.

[@hoathanatos6179]

"I" in Old Norse, depending on the dialect, could be Ek, Jek, Jæk, etc... usually with a k at the end rather than a g, same with the word "And" being Ok and "You" being Þik in many dialects. All of the different characters are supposed to be from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden and so some may speak with Eastern Old Norse pronunciation, which would be quite different from Western (Old Icelandic) pronunciation.

[@brandonhamilton833]

Very cool video Hrafna! This show is awesome!

[@Mothman156]

6:19 the actor is Irish-Canadian. His name is Donal Logue.

[@EccentricTuber]

Of course the grammar and vocabulary is a bit different. It’s Old Norse, not Modern Icelandic.

[@muffa42]

Why do you say that? The grammar an vocabulary are the same ...still to this day.

[@thesenate433]

@@muffa42 No

[@muffa42]

@@thesenate433 Engan seyra silkilind

[@w1nr322]

@@muffa42 no slime fountain?

[@jerameysebion6841]

@@w1nr322 lol 😆 I read that too like wtf

[@Midnight_VIII]

Thank you for the Lesson! I found it quite interesting and thanks to subtitles and you explanation not difficult to understand at all!

[@dracothephantomknight812]

I wouldn’t mind you reacting to Skáld, good music and makes me wanna learn a language? Seems like a win-win Edit: Yes I know they are from France.

[@bradlangton1549]

They're actually from France and an excellent band.

[@leenb.7936]

I second this! I’ve already learned that the (indeed French) group does not pronounce everything obvious enough to be easy to understand it without the lyrics shown (was commented on either Ó Valhalla or Gleipnir, I think)

[@Sawyerjude1]

Google says they are from Sweden.

[@bradlangton1549]

@@Sawyerjude1 no, Google is wrong, I know this for sure.

[@dindamuhareni7738]

Good idea

[@m_elisabeth_w2552]

Gustav skarsgard is from Sweden and he plays floki, the guy who said “maybe for him”

[@Latexi_LMX]

Gustaf Skarsgård

[@cirith100]

Are all the skarsgard’s great actors ?

[@Latexi_LMX]

@@cirith100 Pretty much

[@Sojourner1981]

Love the video, especially the focus on language content and translation!

[@mollyep]

This show was part of the reason I became interested in Icelandic, so this video is like coming full-circle😂

[@vickyoli]

You should correct the names. In the serie they continuously keep calling Ivar as “Ay-vahr” whereas should be “Ee-vArr”.

[@skar516]

Idk why I’m getting notifications for this but Godamn am I glad I am. This woman is breathtakingly beautiful

[@bubbajones6486]

“I’m gonna scoot on over here!”.....that sounded awful southern to me! 😍😍😍😂😂😂

[@173rdskysoldier9]

I've heard her say "y'all"before too.

[@shadmanhasan4205]

There's actually lots of Southern USA ancestry from Scandinavia, Germany and Netherland heritage (excluding Spanish/Hispanic influence)

[@CEClMO]

It’s so weird, I’m Norwegian and I understand some of the words but not the whole sentence

[@phunkeehone]

Cecilie Norseth Det skandinaviske/nordiske sprog har jo også de samme rødder og har derfor mange ligheder. Så det er nu ikke så underligt endda.

[@rickardelimaa]

Same for me, and I'm Swedish. OK, I understood a few sentences, and some were "Of course" after I heard the translation.

[@vanefreja86]

Dane here who agree wih my fellow Scandinavians. Funny to listen to them speak and realise how much you could pick up without subtitles :) And I agree with Rickard - when Hrafna stepped in with the icelandic...."Of Course!" :)

[@norwAySMR]

It's not weird at all. Icelandic stems from old Norwegian, and modern Norwegian would still have been much more similar to it had we not been taken over by the Danes.

[@PajamaJazama]

​@Dennis Helgi If you are Icelandic, you should be more friendly towards your fellow nordics

[@Roy-ie5op]

I live your videos! Also I am mesmerized by your stunning beauty Hrafna! You are truly a one of a kind jewel.

[@mikkokorperich4151]

2:41 The guy with the helmet: "I am the sheriff here." Was that supposed to be Old English? I guess they landed in England on this episode.

[@quoang]

They did. I think its Ragnars second time in england

[@TeacherinTraining39]

It is indeed Old English.

[@Xiviuz]

I'm just happy we have the Icelandic language, since its the closest thing we have to the old norse these days. I often wonder about how it would be in scandinavia if the christianity didn't replace the norse mythology

[@kevincabral6423]

Vikings was amazing, probably my all time favorite show!!

[@lordhamashiach4919]

I've just realized, that icelandic is the most beautiful language in the whole world! S2

[@ramiabdo5953]

sure, but good luck trying to wrap your head around learning it :P

[@aleksiisotalo6909]

Iceland is not even found at this point in the videoclip. These Vikings are not from Iceland.

[@xXHollowkillerXx]

If I remember correctly she said in another video that modern Icelandic is closest to old norse compared to the other nordic languages. So it kinda makes sense to compare it to that, I guess

[@joaomarcoscassiano5330]

Laminator that's correct. Icelandic is the closest one to old Norse.

[@beersmurff]

@@xXHollowkillerXx Only the grammar, pronunciation wise, modern Icelandic is considerably changed and just as far from West old Norse than Italian is from Classical Latin. Neither would understand what the other says.

[@darkblaze176]

@@xXHollowkillerXx Well yeah since most Iceland are decedents of Eric the Red

[@jonamargaretajuliusdottirl4550]

No they are not from Iceland, but when Iceland was discovered this became the language of Iceland as well. Modern icelandic has changed the least through time compared to the other nordic languages that come from old norse so icelandic is the closest language today to what old norse was then. And actually it is quite similar and mostly understandable for native icelanders

[@gamergirlmars]

I am German-American and i can understand a lot of this surprisingly. Maybe it's because I know about cognates and I speak 4 languages already. But the one guy talking about Athelstan around 7:00 ish had me rolling dude. like, I am not even Icelandic and I knew he was far off. haha. I think the most interesting thiing about language learning is that so many languages around the world are so simmilar and you never notice until you try to learn additional languages. love your channel, might have to add Icelandic to my list. def feeling inspired. sorry if my english is broken, i speak 4 languages and sometimes it messes up my english a lot :)

[@Orimthekeyacolite]

"He says Rollo like he's rolling his R's" Nice one

[@derkaiser420]

It think it is so funny how happy you were when they started speaking Icelandic. I am sure you do not hear it very often.

[@robertjennings7282]

I thank you for making this video. Well done 👍👏

[@diveuhhh]

I started learning Icelandic three weeks ago.Always appreciate your lessons Hrafna. 💜😂

[@SeannWiliamScott]

Omg, you are so beautiful! You seem to resemble the actual actresses in Vikings. I think they could have easily chosen you for a role.

[@yewawtmayt2805]

Hi im from edinburgh scotland. We use the word "Ken" as a term for "know" after i seen 6:48 i looked it up and it is a leftover norse term and as far as i am aware edinburgh and its surrounding areas are the only place in britain that still use it! This blew my mind thanks for your content 😀

[@truskaweczkabby9596]

As a german i understood one half perfectly and the other one was like from another universe lmao

[@sombraarthur]

Most of the accents and the language used as a reference in the first seasons was Norwegian and Danish, given that most of the raiders came from those two countries. Some of those later on adopted a more "Icelandic" accents, given that they MUST sound like Old Norse, and they knew that Icelandic has a pronunciation closer to Old Norse than modern Norwegian and Danish. So, in Icelandic they may sound really strange or sound like nothing at all, but in Norwegian and Danish... Makes a lot of sense, although it sounds a bit "old".

[@AnaRuizNeko]

That's what I was thinking! but it is interesting to hear what she undestands when they speak

[@sombraarthur]

​@@AnaRuizNeko indeed! Given that modern Icelandic is much closer to Old Norse than the modern Norwegian and Danish, but, if we take into account that even modern Icelandic is a bit off from Old Norse, then the truth lie in between. Old Norse can (and if I am not mistaken, the sounds are) be reconstructed from all the Nordic Languages into one. If I am not mistaken, the closest dialect (and idiom, perhaps) closest to old Norse today, would be Älvdalska, I think.

[@TheBarser]

Dont think about it. The show is not history, or trying to be correct. It is just entertainment.

[@quetzales]

That was amazing. Very well edited and very informative.

[@mustafayesil2688]

İcelandic sounds so cool. When you re talking im feeling like im preparing my shield and sword for a fight lol

[@frekitheravenous516]

I can't get over how beautiful this girl is. Wow !

[@pippaschroeder9660]

Her eyes are unbelievable

[@stevegoodson9022]

What really impresses me is how good her english is, particularly when she could clearly coast through life with her beauty alone, without ever having to learn a damn thing. I really neeed to raise the money for a trip (or emigration) to Iceland, either that or start working on a longship.

[@johnmullholand2044]

That's because the Vikings only brought back the pretty ones! LOL😁

[@stenuibopuu3653]

Thats so cool to watch u and see how proud u are of ur culture

[@gbuster8167]

I’ll start by saying that I haven’t watched your entire reaction video yet, I’m going to but whomever sent you the episode you’re watching for your video... they set you up for failure because the show Vikings follows Ragnar Lothbrook(Lodbrok for those true Norse-Legendary Tale fans) and he wasn’t Icelandic, he was from Norway, specifically a fishing village named Kattegut (very likely misspelled that name, autocorrect is butchering it) so he and his band of Vikings wouldn’t be speaking Icelandic. The show itself was fantastic in my personal opinion and I can’t wait for the 6th season to premiere!

[@ViKingsRacing]

Before I begin - I'm not trying to insult you, just want to educate. First off, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Icelandic languages didn't exist back then, they all spoke what we now know as Old Norse, which was pretty similar to modern Icelandic, the other ones have changed quite a bit over the centuries. Secondly, Kattegat is actually located somewhere in the strait between Sweden and Denmark, and it is unlikely that Ragnarr Loðbrók was actually born there as he is believed to actually have been the son of a Swedish/Danish king Sigurd Ring and Loðbrók succeeded him after his death. Furthermore, after Ragnarr's death, Björn Ironside became the king of Sweden, lived and died in Sweden. So most likely they were Swedish, or maybe Danish.

[@sdkrapdaily596]

Ragnar is Danish you fool

[@davidholt1250]

Old Norse was Old Icelandic which is very close to Modern Icelandic. So the characters in the show should be understandable to Hrafna if the accnets are supposed to be authentic.

[@TheMartyrdoom]

People in the comments are talking like this show is depicting actual history 😂. Vikings is a fantasy based on historical events, most of the characters in the show are either dramatic representations of real people, mythical characters or people that didn't even exist. In addition, the cultural norms in the show are more guided by the way we think today and not by the reality of the actual time period. For anyone that wants to learn, in reality the vikings were professional raiders, a profession like that of pirates. Also the populations in the north were called Norse not vikings and did not wear leather studded armor, fur capes or have dreadlocks. The only evidence of dreadlocks in the north is from written accounts by Romans living 1000 years before this show even takes place, believed to be mainly a Celtic tradition. Also in reality shield maidens did not go on raids and only went to war in defense of a city, village or if there was a lack of male fighters. Swords were rare and mail would have been the armor of choice for successful Vikings. Also the languages used in the shows are reconstructions an therefor are no way near 100% correct.

[@PowersOfDarkness]

"Also in reality shield maidens did not go on raids" statements like this are just as bad as "shieldmaidens did go on raids" the fact is we have no solid evidence that says they did go, but we also have no solid evidence for them not going, its not like we have a large base of texts to go through the accurately depict the opinions all around scandinavia on how they feel about women raiding, the viking period did not leave tons of documents behind, its silly to make definitive claims like that

[@TheMartyrdoom]

@@PowersOfDarkness Your're correct, the lack of evidence does not discount it. That was a slip up and a wrong for me to do/say what i said.

[@kristofantal8801]

@@PowersOfDarkness What about the costumes?

[@JadeyDC]

Icelandic sounds so badass. I love hearing you speak it. I also Love Vikings. Please react more to it 🙂

[@steven03048]

7:45 Well he is an anglo-saxon king that learned some "Norse" words, of course it sounds wired ^^