Heill Llama!

> JRR Tolkien got away with a lot with this approach: archaic

grammar, obsolete vocabulary, using words that had survived but
stubbornly going back to older meanings that had gone out of fashion
(and reintroducing modern readers to the world-view that went with
them), and just making it work by the force of his writing.

Well, I choose him scopes' king (twentieth yearhundred)! He made it
work, giving life to many.

> It irked the critics no end, and still does! I came to his

writing when I was too young to know that this wasn't the done
thing. It was only later, and reading books like TA Shippey's "The
Road to Middle Earth", that I came to realise just how radical it
was.

brigð eru útlenzk orð (untrustworthy are outlandish words)ON proverb

Let's try it in *New English 'ljóðaháttr':

outlandish words (older meaning, like with Tolkien)
worth not trust (+/- are/of/our)

There is a 1-2, which can stand on its own. But binding it to the
English half-verse I made up in my last post, we can add a final
line, which can also stand on its own, and make a full verse:

his fathers' wain
in words keepeth (here I change 'word' to 'words')
would a man wise be (+/-called,etc.)
outlandish words
worth not trust (implied 'are')
true a mans own tounge (implied 'is') - a one-line proverb

This shows how ljóðaháttr verses are constructed. Parts can stand
together, or stand alone. Often, a half-verse can take a different
half-verse as a conclusion, if the context makes sense:

his fathers' wain
in words keepeth
would a man wise be
than in that work
which woden wrought
no gift was better given

Or: 'that woden wrought', giving a fine play 'that-that'. This new
ending is more English in context, as would be fitting, as all the
words are from Old English. Here the last line cannot stand alone,
but along similar lines:

wreak not the wain (internal alliteration)
that woden gave (here 'gave' for 'wrought')
given is a gods gift (a one-line proverb)

Other parts on the same theme, which can be set together in manyfold
way with the above:

than in thy tongue
no truer words

Combined with my first half verse:

his fathers' wain
in words keepeth
would a man wise be
no truer words (alone or +/- 'his/are' before 'words')
than in their tongue ('their': 'fathers'' or 'his':'a man'
home shall a horse tamed (another proverb which can stand alone)

Most things can be done in English, as Tolkien saw ;) Posting it on
Norse Course should help folk understand 'ljóðaháttr'.

-K