Lyrics for a Norwegian Song?

[Palanan]

I've just watched "The Last King" (Birkebeinerne) and I'd love to know what the lyrics are for the song in the end credits. This is "Bifröst," composed by Gaute Storaas and sung by Helene Bøksle. I've just listened to it about five times.

I can only find the lyrics in Norwegian, and it would be great if someone could translate them for me, or maybe just give an overall sense of what the song is about. Given the title and the film's focus, I'm guessing it has something to do with celestial crossings or journeys?

The lyrics are posted on the film's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Birkebeinerne), a little ways down on June 30.

.

[BWR]

It's in Old Norse, not modern Norwegian, so you'd probably have more luck getting someone who knows Icelandic to help, since I assume that's more commonly known than ON. I suppose I could give it a go if no one volunteers by the end of the day - I'm rusty as hell and was never particularly good but I understand some of it without having to break out the dictionary.

Inst í einn kenning, yfir orð
erundir himinn, langt um norðr
Ekundra, vill hon sýna sik?
ekallar, má hann heyra mik!

Einn tíð fyr strið, einn tíð fyr friðr,
blóðdreifa snjór at syrgja við,
Kom sýn mér, hver er leiði nú?
einn konung, ennú einn lítinn glóð

Brátt vere varr einn skimi bjart,
tendran á ljos ím vetranátt
þar bifra band sem hvítr lín
í bogir undir stjarnaskin

Tíð fyr strið, ok tíð fyr friðr,
sverði ok vón at kempa við
Sjá jartegn í einn himinnbrú
einn konung, ok eitt folk af trú

Heimdallr, vǫrðr goða
sitr við himins enda
hver er leið til himins af jörðu?
Goðin gerðu Bifröst
brú við himins enda
Bifröst, þrimr litum
B i f r ö s t sterk

[SaintRidley]

Got my Old Norse dictionary. I'll give some of this a crack. Whatever I give here will be super rough. Also, it seems likely to me there might be some errors in the Norse based on some of the constructions used.


Here's the first two stanzas:

Within a kenning, over words
[erundir isn't in there, but it's probably undir, meaning under] the sky, far north
Ekundra, will she reveal herself?
[ekallar], to erase, he to hear me.

One time [fyr] grief, one time [fyr] peace,
bloody snow with battle sorrow.
Come show me, where is the grave now?
A king, still a colorful ember.

[BWR]

Got my Old Norse dictionary. I'll give some of this a crack. Whatever I give here will be super rough. Also, it seems likely to me there might be some errors in the Norse based on some of the constructions used.


Here's the first two stanzas:

Within a kenning, over words
[erundir isn't in there, but it's probably undir, meaning under] the sky, far north
Ekundra, will she reveal herself?
[ekallar], to erase, he to hear me.

One time [fyr] grief, one time [fyr] peace,
bloody snow with battle sorrow.
Come show me, where is the grave now?
A king, still a colorful ember.

I'm pretty sure some of this is wrong.

má hann heyra mik! is 'may he hear me', I believe

Einn tíð fyr strið, einn tíð fyr friðr, - A time for strife, a time for peace (possibly 'a time before strife/peace'). IIRC, Old Norse didn't use indefinite articles all that much, which makes this construction a bit weird. I wonder if it's a quote from some ON translation of the Bible, but since I'm unfamiliar with any such things I can't tell.

einn konung, ennú einn lítinn glóð - 'still' isn't wrong but it carries the meaning of something expected to change rather than a state of affairs expected to continue or one that should have changed but hasn't.

[SaintRidley]

Yeah, this is an old dictionary and I was working in a bit of a rush. Fyr is definitely for, but it straight up does not exist in this dictionary.

No Old Norse translations of the Bible. Might be a parallel with the Icelandic translation, but that would be a pain to search for.

[Teddy]

I've never done any serious studies of Old Norse, but it is similar enough to Swedish that I'm able to read most lines, or at least make an educated guess with the help of Wiktionary. Let's see...


Within a kenning, over words
under the sky, far up north
I wonder, will she show herself?
I call, may he hear me!

A time for war, a time for peace
blood-spattered snow to mourn by,
Come show me, where's the grave now?
a king, yet a small ember



(Alternatively, "where's the path now?")


Suddenly there was a bright light
twinkling of light in the winter night
there waved ribbons like white linen
in arches under the starlight




(The English language suddenly starts to feel very starved of synonyms to "light"...)


A time for war, a time for peace,
sword and hope to fight by
see omens in a heavenly bridge
a king, and a people of faith

Heimdallr, guardian god
sits by the end of the sky
where is the path to Heaven from Earth?
The god guards Bifröst
bridge at the end of the sky
Bifröst, three colours
Bifröst, strong



(Why did they make a question out of it?)

[BWR]

Meh, just as I was about to post my translation, you went and beat me to it.
Looks pretty much identical to what I came up with.





Suddenly there was a bright light
twinkling of light in the winter night
there [/I][bifra] ribbons like white linen
in [bogir] under the starlight [*The English language suddenly starts to feel very starved for synonyms to "light"...][I]


'Bifra' I can't find in my book, but I suspect it means 'shake' 'shiver', if it is related to 'bivra', which makes sense if we're talking about the northern lights.
bogir - bow, as in rainbow.

As for 'fyr', look under 'fyrir'. That's where it was in my book.


i wonder if this was just written in modern Norwegian then translated, rather than being written in ON straight off. it certainly gives that feel.

[Teddy]

'Bifra' I can't find in my book, but I suspect it means 'shake' 'shiver', if it is related to 'bivra', which makes sense if we're talking about the northern lights.

Ahh. Related to Swedish "bäva" then, I suppose.


bogir - bow, as in rainbow.

And Swedish "båge". Yes, I can definitely see it.


i wonder if this was just written in modern Norwegian then translated, rather than being written in ON straight off. it certainly gives that feel.

That sounds fairly likely, yes. They're not particularly consistent with the spelling either.

[RazorChain]

Let me take a crack at it.



It's in Old Norse, not modern Norwegian, so you'd probably have more luck getting someone who knows Icelandic to help, since I assume that's more commonly known than ON. I suppose I could give it a go if no one volunteers by the end of the day - I'm rusty as hell and was never particularly good but I understand some of it without having to break out the dictionary.

Inst í einn kenning, yfir orð
erundir himinn, langt um norðr
Ekundra, vill hon sýna sik?
ekallar, má hann heyra mik!

Within one theory/metamorph, over words
is under sky, far to the north
I wonder, will she show herself
I call, he must hear me.

The first line is troublesome to translate.



Einn tíð fyr strið, einn tíð fyr friðr,
blóðdreifa snjór at syrgja við,
Kom sýn mér, hver er leiði nú?
einn konung, ennú einn lítinn glóð

One time for war, one time for peace
we mourn the blood-splattered snow.
Come and show me, what is the way?
One King, still just a small spark.



Brátt vere varr einn skimi bjart,
tendran á ljos ím vetranátt
þar bifra band sem hvítr lín
í bogir undir stjarnaskin

Soon to be our one bright light
ignite a light in the winter night
There shimmers a cord like white linen
in an arch under the starlight



Tíð fyr strið, ok tíð fyr friðr,
sverði ok vón at kempa við
Sjá jartegn í einn himinnbrú
einn konung, ok eitt folk af trú

Time for war, and time for peace
Sword and hope to fight against.
See a sign in one heavenly bridge
one king, and one people of faith

The line: Sword and hope to fight against, could have to supposed to mean to fight with sword and hope but in literal translation and how the sentence is, it means to fight against not with.



Heimdallr, vǫrðr goða
sitr við himins enda
hver er leið til himins af jörðu?
Goðin gerðu Bifröst
brú við himins enda
Bifröst, þrimr litum
B i f r ö s t sterk

Heimdallr, guardian of gods
Sits at the ends of heaven
what is the path to heaven from earth?
The gods made Bifröst
bridge at the end of heaven
Bifröst, three colors
Bifröst, strong

[SaintRidley]

Part of the reason I think the first stanza is particularly hard to translate is that it seems to be bad Old Norse. Erundir isn't a word, and if it's two words run together, it's not two done in a way that Old Norse would. Likewise with Ekundra. Old Norse does combo the first person pronoun with verbs, but as a suffix. So it would be Ek undrak. So who knows what other issues are in there that would contribute to making it difficult?

[Teddy]

Time for war, and time for peace
Sword and hope to fight against.
See a sign in one heavenly bridge
one king, and one people of faith

The line: Sword and hope to fight against, could have to supposed to mean to fight with sword and hope but in literal translation and how the sentence is, it means to fight against not with.

Are you sure about this? All Norse-descendent languages have a word "vid/ved/við" which directly translates to "with" or "by" (I realise now that "by" probably is more appropriate in this case), but "against" is pretty much always translated to "mot/mod" (I can't find an Icelandic or Faroese translation on short notice, though)...

EDIT:

Part of the reason I think the first stanza is particularly hard to translate is that it seems to be bad Old Norse. Erundir isn't a word, and if it's two words run together, it's not two done in a way that Old Norse would. Likewise with Ekundra. Old Norse does combo the first person pronoun with verbs, but as a suffix. So it would be Ek undrak. So who knows what other issues are in there that would contribute to making it difficult?

I'm pretty sure they refered to the line "Inst í einn kenning, yfir orð", since its meaning is nigh undecipherable, at least before someone figures out what the kenning is.

[Feytalist]

Nothing constructive to add here, but I have to say, as a speaker of a wholly different Germanic language (Afrikaans), I'm pleased at how much I understand of that - with a bit of creative squinting. I got like a good 30-40% of that.

[DracoknightZero]

A consideration: Icelandic is the closest language you have to old norse so consider trying to translate it from Icelandic. Otherwise, ask someone from that area.

[RazorChain]

Part of the reason I think the first stanza is particularly hard to translate is that it seems to be bad Old Norse. Erundir isn't a word, and if it's two words run together, it's not two done in a way that Old Norse would. Likewise with Ekundra. Old Norse does combo the first person pronoun with verbs, but as a suffix. So it would be Ek undrak. So who knows what other issues are in there that would contribute to making it difficult?


There are a lot of issues with the grammar in the text but Erundir is just a combination of Er and undir which means: is under. Ekundra is just combination of Ek and undra: I wonder.

[RazorChain]

Are you sure about this? All Norse-descendent languages have a word "vid/ved/við" which directly translates to "with" or "by" (I realise now that "by" probably is more appropriate in this case), but "against" is pretty much always translated to "mot/mod" (I can't find an Icelandic or Faroese translation on short notice, though)...

EDIT:


I'm pretty sure they refered to the line "Inst í einn kenning, yfir orð", since its meaning is nigh undecipherable, at least before someone figures out what the kenning is.


Yes but kempe við means fight against whereas kempe með would fight alongside somebody

Kenning means theory in modern icelandic but the old meaning is metamorph as in poetry.

[BWR]

Yes but kempe við means fight against whereas kempe með would fight alongside somebody

Kenning means theory in modern icelandic but the old meaning is metamorph as in poetry.

I believe you mean 'metaphor'.

[RazorChain]

I believe you mean 'metaphor'.

Yeah sorry my Icelandic is better than my english...it's a metaphor or circumlocation where you use different word to mean something else like Haddur Sifjar is used in a sentence to mean gold. Haddur Sifjar is the hair of Sif and she had her hair spun of pure gold after Loki cut off all her hair while she was sleeping

[SaintRidley]

There are a lot of issues with the grammar in the text but Erundir is just a combination of Er and undir which means: is under. Ekundra is just combination of Ek and undra: I wonder.

Right. I noted that, but it's also bad Old Norse, which is where some of the difficulty would come in.