Shadows of the Short Days Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Leave us a review

  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

  TITAN BOOKS

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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 class than others, but this is not a formal rule by any means. Most humans in Hrímland follow the ancient tradition of deriving their last name from the first name of their fathers. A woman called Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttir has the first name Bríet and is Bjarnhéðinsdóttir
(the daughter of a man named Bjarnhéðinn). If a man is called Ingólfur Arnarsson his first name is Ingólfur and he is Arnarsson (son of Arnar). In these examples, the patronyms Arnarsson and Bjarnhéðinsdóttir are not names as such and are never used to refer to someone. As such, Hrímlanders are almost always addressed by their first names, regardless of their formal or informal station in society, and there are no polite forms of address which use the patronymic alone. Other peoples, such as the huldufólk, have adopted this naming convention.

  I and Y share the same pronunciation, as do Í and Ý.

  The HV- sound is pronounced as KV.

  The double LL- sound gives Kalmar citizens considerable trouble. The sound is pronounced like “dl’ or “tl’, with a flattened tongue and a slight click. It is sometimes pronounced as a long L-sound, in certain words.

  R always has a trilled pronunciation.

  If unable to type in the Hrímlandic letters, then they can be substituted as follows:

  Ð/ð = D/d

  Þ/þ = Th/th

  Æ/æ = Ae/ae

  GLOSSARY

  Note that the English notation of each word’s pronunciation is only a rough approximation. Please refer to the earlier chapter on pronunciation, or the phonetic notation, when in doubt.

  Amma [ˈamːa / Am-ma] – Grandmother.

  Blendingur [ˈplɛntinˌkʏr / blend-ing-er] – A person with human and huldufólk parents. Word refers to a being which is a mixture of two species.

  Blóðgagl [ˈplouðˌkak / bloathe-gakl] / Blóðgögl [ˈplouðˌkœk] – Clan warriors of the náskárar tribes. Old poetical kenning for raven. Blóð = blood; gagl = bird (young goose).

  Blót [plouːt / bloat] – A ritualistic worship or sacrifice to the gods. From old Norse paganism.

  Brennivín [ˈprɛnːɪˌvin / bren-nih-ween] – A type of strong liquor. Literally means burning wine.

  Delýsíð [ˈtɛːlisið / deh-lee-seethe] – A sorcerous narcotic, can be fluid or solid. Most often snorted in powder. Frequent use erodes the nasal septum.

  Draugur [ˈtrœiːɣʏr / droy-ger] – A ghost, resentful, hateful and dangerous. In Icelandic folklore, draugar are physical unliving beings, not ethereal spirits.

  Elskan [ˈɛlskan / el-skan] – Word of affection; darling, dear.

  Galdramaður [ˈkaltraˌmaːðʏr / gal-dra-ma-ther] / Galdramenn [ˈkaltraˌmɛnː] – Practitioners of galdur. Galdur = magic; maður/menn = man/men.

  Galdrastafur [ˈkaltraˌstaːvʏr / gal-dra-stah-ver] / Galdrastafir [ˈkaltraˌstaːvɪ] – Arcane symbols, runes, staves. Galdur = magic; stafur/stafir = stave/staves.

  Galdur [ˈkaltʏr / gal-der] – Type of spoken magic. From old Norse paganism. Word derived from the verb gala, meaning to yell or sing, deriving its power from poetry chanted in a particular way.

  Gandreið [ˈkantˌrɛɪð / gand-ray-th] – A vile, arcane method of control or possession. In Icelandic folklore, witches used gandreið to control an object to fly through the air. The worst method of gandreið used a man as a mount to fly.

  Goði [ˈkɔːðɪ / goth-ih] / Goðar [ˈkɔːðar] – A parliament member of Lögrétta. In the Icelandic Age of Settlement, around AD 930, goðar were ruling chieftains who sat in Alþingi.

  Haugbúi [ˈhœiːɣˌpuɪ / hay-guh-boo-ih] / Haugbúar [ˈhœiːɣˌpuar?] – A type of undead creature, a corporeal ghost, a draugur.

  Hegningarhúsið [ˈhɛkniŋkarˌhuːsɪð / heg-ning-are-hoo-sith] – Translated means “the Penalty House’. Also called Steinninn (the Rock) and Nían (the Nine). Located on Skólavörðustígur 9, it was Iceland’s first prison, built from the same stone as the house of parliament, Alþingi.

  Helskurn [ˈhɛːlˌskʏrtn? / hel-skern] – A renowned armour of a hersir. Literal translation is death’s shell.

  Hersir [ˈhɛsɪr / her-sih-r] – The leader of a tribe of náskárar. Old poetical kenning for king.

  Hertygi [ˈhɛtʰijɪ / her-tee-gih] – A harness the náskárar wear around their torsos, displaying trophies and important status symbols. Old word for military equipment: her = army; tygi = clothes.

  Hljóð [jouːð / hl-yo-th] – Can mean sound or silence, depending on the context.

  Hrafnaspark [ˈapnaˌspak / huh-rap-na-spark] – The script of the náskárar language, called skramsl. Word used to describe bad handwriting, ugly scrawls, in Icelandic. Hrafna = raven’s; spark = kick.

  Hrímland [ˈimˌlant / hreem-land] – An island far in the north, almost uninhabitable with wild, sorcerous energies infesting the country.

  Hrævareldur [ˈaivarˌɛltʏr / hr-eye-var-el-der] / Hrævareldar [ˈaivarˌɛltar] – A flame, floating in the air, luring people to their death. They seem to frequent forgotten or cursed places.

  Huldufólk [ˈhʏltʏˌfouk / hul-duh-folk] / Huldukona [ˈhʏltʏˌkɔːna] / Huldumaður [ˈhʏltʏˌmaːðʏr] – Extradimensional exiles in the world of Hrímland. Hulda/huldu is a prefix meaning “hidden’. Can also be a female name. Maður = man; kona = woman; fólk = people.

  Hulduheimar [ˈhʏltʏˌhɛiːmar / hul-duh-hay-mar] – The original dimension of the huldufólk. Huldu = hidden; heimar = worlds.

  Huldumanneskja [ˈhʏltʏˌmanːɛsca / hul-duh-mann-esk-ya] / Huldumanneskjur [ˈhʏltʏˌmanːɛscʏr] – A word for people with huldufólk and human parents which better accepts and fully encompasses who they are: not a mixture of two beings, but a unified, whole being. Hulda = hidden; manneskja = human being.

  Korpur [ˈkʰɔpʏr / kor-purr] / Korpar [ˈkʰɔpar] – Náskárar warriors without a tribe. Old Icelandic word for raven.

  Kukl [kʰʏhk / kuh-kl] / Kuklari [ˈkʰʏhklarɪ] / Kuklarar [ˈkʰʏhklarar] – Kukl is unlearned, ill-understood magic, meddling and tampering with the occult. A kuklari is a practitioner of such low, unlearned sorcery.

  Króna [ˈkʰrouːna / krow-na] / Krónur [ˈkʰrouːnʏr] - Currency. One króna consists of one hundred aurar.

  Krummafótur [ˈkʰrʏmːaˌfouːtʏr / krumm-ah-fo-ter] – The third foot of the náskárar, much stronger than the other two claws. Used for standing on for long times and picking up heavy objects. Also used to indicate a shoe put on the wrong foot, that’s a krummafótur.

  Lögrétta [ˈlœɣˌriɛhta / lug-ree-ett-ah] – The Hrímlandic parliament. Used for both the parliament and the parliament building itself. Historically, a legislative institution of Iceland’s parliament, Alþingi.

  Mamma [ˈmamːa / mamm-ah] – Mother.

  Marbendill [ˈmarˌpɛntɪt / mar-bend-ih-tl] / Marbendlar [ˈmarˌpɛntlar] – Aquatic humanoids who live in both fresh waters and the sea. Word from Icelandic folklore for aquatic beings.

  Náskári [ˈnauːˌskarɪ / now-sk-ow-rih] / Náskárar [ˈnauːˌskarar] – The ravenfolk. Word is an old poetical kenning for raven. Ná = corpse; skári = bird (young seagull).

  Níðstöng [ˈniðˌstœiŋk / neethe-stunk] / Níðstangir [ˈniðˌstauŋkɪr] – An incredibly dangerous type of svartigaldur, used to curse someone with awful magic, bringing complete ruination to them. In Icelandic folklore, a níðstöng was often a raised pole with a horse’s head impaled on it, facing the location it should curse. In modern times, níðstangir have been raised against authorities and people, usually with a cod’s head on the pole.

  Nykur [ˈnɪːkʏr / nih-ker] / Nykrar [ˈnɪkrar] – An underwater creature, often towing barges for the marbendlar. A terrible creature from Icelandic folklore in the guise of a horse. It lived in lakes, luring people into the waters.

  Seiðmagn [ˈseiːðˌmakn? / say-th-mack-n] – Sorcerous energy, found in nature. Seiður = sorcery; magn = power. Compound word is similarly structured as rafmagn = electricity.

  Seiðskratti [ˈseiːðˌskrahtɪ / say-th-skra-tih] – A practitioner of seiður, highly skilled and learned in its application. In Icelandic, used to refer to a malevolent sorcerer. Seið = sorcery; skratti = fiend.

  Seiður [ˈseiːðʏr / say-th-er] – Type of sorcery. Type of magic from old Norse paganism.

  Skoffín [ˈskɔfːin / skof-een] – A type of small, wild animal, terribly ugly and danger
ous. From Icelandic folklore: a spawn of a fox and a cat, with the cat being the mother.

  Skramsl [ˈskramst / skrah-m-sill] – The language of the náskárar. Archaic word for cawing. More common, modern word for cawing is krunk.

  Skrumnir [ˈskrʏmnɪ / skrum-ner] – The sorcerer in a tribe of náskárar. Old poetical kenning for raven.

  Skuggabaldur [ˈskʏkːaˌpaltʏr / skugg-ah-bal-der] – A type of small, vicious animal, similar to a fox or a mink. Very dangerous to livestock and hard to kill. From Icelandic folklore: a spawn of a fox and a cat, with the fox being the mother.

  Sorti [ˈsɔtɪ / sort-ih] – Dangerous sorcerous narcotic. Word for something pitch black; can also refer to thick, heavy fog or weather.

  Stiftamtmaður [ˈstɪftˌa?tˌmaðʏr / stiff-tamt-math-er] – The governor of the colony of Hrímland; the stiftamtmaður acts out the will of the king and rules in his name. Historical political title in Iceland, from when Denmark ruled the country. The stiftamtmaður served as the highest royal authority and representative of the king in Iceland. The country was separated into units of amt, which amtmenn governed, the stiftamtmenn governing the entire country.

  Svartigaldur [ˈsvatɪˌkaltʏr / svart-ih-gal-der] – The vilest, most heinous kind of galdur.

  Tilberi [ˈtʰɪːlˌpɛrɪ / till-buh-rih] – A simple creature made with galdur, usually to work simple repeated tasks. In folklore, a tilberi was most often used to steal milk from nearby farms. Tröll [ˈtʰrœt / truh-tl] – A troll.

  Útburður [ˈuːtˌpʏrðʏr / oo-teh-ber-th-er] – The word for an newborn infant which was carried out into the freezing wilderness shortly after being born. In Iceland’s history, famine and shortage has been very common, resulting in these kinds of practices. Many folklore stories deal with the guilt and horror caused by the spirits of these newborn children.

  Vættur [ˈvaihtʏr] v-eye-ter/ Vættir [ˈvaihtɪr] – A kind of nature being or spirit. Illvættur [ˈitˌvaihtʏr] is malevolent. Landvættur [ˈlantˌvaihtʏr] is one of the four landvættir in Iceland, protecting the country from outside threats.