#d: faðir

[tatteredsmiles]

Faðir || Drabble

Children. Children were something of a wonder to him. Children were innocent and did not know the workings of deception or of war or any other vile trait that was bestowed upon them once they reached the age of adulthood. No, children were innocent and full of wonder, the way their eyes lit up at a story, the way the world and everything around it fascinated them. Children were also trusting, did not judge, they did not see faults in him.

He loved children. So it was no surprise that when he’d found out that he would have children he was somewhat elated. First Angrboda with their three and despite their ‘disfigurements’ or whatever the Aesir deamed it they were his children, they were perfect in everyway possible. He loved them, he loved their quirks and he loved their differences and loved them for who they were. He made sure that he visited as much as he could despite having married and settled in Asgard. He would not allow his children to grow up unknowning of him.

When Sigyn had become with child he thought he’d explode from happiness. Despite having to still do Odin’s bidding he spent every waking moment with her, every moment he had, kissing and caressing her  swelling belly elated in the growth of their child. He was fascinated with everything that happened, every little movement or flutter. It wasn’t to say that he didn’t know what it was like, he did, he’d children elsewhere of his own carried them himself or fathered them. With Sigyn though this was different entirely.

The moment he’d held his son his heart had completely melted and he knew that this, this here was where he was meant to remain. That this here with his wife and their child is where he was needed and despite everything that this is where he would spend his time. Did it stop him from traveling, not really but it had slowed him somewhat. It had dampened the wanderlust to but a few weeks every few months as he relished in watching his son grow.

Often times found outside with the babe, a blanket set out in the soft grass allowing him to crawl about as Loki watched him explore. Sometimes he would shift into a fox or some sort of small furry creature and play with the child which elicited squeels of laughter and delight. It was something he cherished, the laughter of his sons. To listen to them laugh and giggle at his antics. As they grew older he loved taking them into the forest that surrounded their home to check traps in both the small river and around the woods.

He sat beside the fire, the boys sitting on the furs listening to him as he spun a tale of trickery and adventure. Narfi’s eyes wide as he listened to his father while Vali still but a toddler sat chewing upon a wooden carved horse Loki had made him. “And do you know what I did? I turned her into a nut”, he said as he retold the tale of having to save Idunn.

“And then what happened?!”, Narfi asked obviously engrossed in the story which made Loki chuckle softly at how concerned his son seemed to be. “Fadir, did the giant find her?”, he asked his voice full of concern.

“No, because I turned myself into a falcon with Freyja’s cloak of feathers and I picked her up with my foot”, he said raising his foot slightly. “And we flew! As fast as we could back here to Asgard”, he said his voice somewhat conveying the urgency they had flown. Vali squeeled waving the wooden horse.

“Da!”, he said excitedly as he bounced where he sat also seeming to enjoy the story which earned a grin from Loki as he nodded. “Yes! Just like that Vali”, he laughed as he went and lifted the child nuzzling him before sitting again Vali in his lap as he continued his tale. Though he was warned a few times not to get Narfi to wound up into the tale not wanting him to find it difficult sleeping.

“Fadir, is it true that there is a wolf so big it blocks the sun?”, Vali had asked as he follwed him through the woods, his small legs almost at a jog to keep up with his father.

“Hmm?”, he looked over at the boy before stopping and motioning him to stay as he checked a snare. “I wouldn’t say he’s that large but yes, he’s quite big and he’s your elder brother”, he said as he reached down to snap the small rabbits neck before undoing the snare tossing the creature to the boy so he could put it in the sack.

“But Narfi is my older brother”, he says as he reaches down to pick up the rabbit, making a face at it before quickly putting it in the sack. “He means from his other family, stupid”, his oldest spoke up with disgust in his voice. “Fadir keeps another family besides us Vali, even though he says he loves modir”, he said a glare at his father.

Resetting the trap he looked at his sons. They were more Sigyn than they had been him. Aside from their eyes and lanky statures they were all her and he had been so very thankful that they did not take after his own shapeshifting self. He loved them more than anything because they were from her. “I love your modir more than life itself and she knows that. Your other siblings came before you, not after you”, he said as he rose from where he had been kneeling and continued on.

“Fadir what about the world serpent? Is it true he is giant?”, Vali continued as he followed along ignoring the look of disgust Narfi had given him. “Why do you keep asking these stupid questions Vali?”, he muttered knowing that his younger brother already knew the answers and was only asking for some sort of attention. “He is,” Loki said with a sad smile. His children from the ironwood had been taken because they had been different. Perhaps that was why he loved his two sons more, they weren’t different, they wouldn’t be taken from him. “And your sister is beautiful and has her own realm now”, he added before Vali could ask anything further. “But you know what? I love you both more”, he said with a wink before he ruffled Vali’s hair. “Now no more talk we need to be quiet or you’ll scare off dinner”, he chuckled as they continued to walk.

He had perhaps should have kept his mouth shut, should have never spoken. He should have never had that much to drink before going to that damned feast! What good would it had done him? It would have never undone what had transpired, it would have never brought back...

He struggled against their grips, for once he had over estimated their intelligence. He’d thought himself so clever, thought himself so cunning but somewhere, somewhere he had lost that trait. He had for once been out thought in a different situation he would have found it humorous, but this was not humorous one bit.

He struggled as they dragged him up the mountain, he spat at them and growled curses at them as they descended into the rocky underground. All of that though, all of that came to an end when he saw what was before him. It were as if the very air in his lungs had been sucked out and his heart had dropped.

No, no not them, not them! He pleaded he begged and pleaded and apologized. He offered his life, he offered anything he could possibly imagine, loyalty, obedience, anything for them. He pleaded upon deaf ears as his punishment was sentenced. Never in his life had he heard such sounds, such screams, never had he known he could make such noises as he watched his son tear into the other.

He would never forget the look in her eyes as it happened. He would never forget the horror of what had been used as he was bound across those three boulders. He would never forget any of it, he would never forget the wrongs done to him and his family he would never forget the burdens set upon them because they had been his family. Most of all he would never forget that this had been his fault, he was supposed to protect them and he had failed them. Failed her.

The Norns had warned him, they had warned him that knowing ones fate would never change it, what must come must come but he also knew that the As would get what was coming to them. Surtr would come, the worlds would burn and they would fall.

#d: faðir #v: lost days of youth and innocence [ m y t h ] #fleeting moments and broken dreams [ d r a b b l e ]

[thorraborinn]

Hi can you please explain "r" or "ᛉ" ending in Germanic languages please? I used to think that ᛉ only existed in Masculine nouns like Brynjolfᛉ or Sleipniᛉ. But is this sound also a part of plural nouns and womens names? Like Brynhildᛉ and Lyngheidᛉ from the Edda? What about plurals? Like Víkingaᛉ and Álfaᛉ? What about Feminine Genitive Case, like Ólafᛉ Bryndísaᛉson?

Indo-European languages have a sound that goes back to *s. It can appear anywhere in a word and is common in case endings such as, but not limited to, the singular masculine nominative. PIE masculine nominative *-os is reflected in things like Greek -ος, Latin -us, Sanskrit -ḥ, Lithuanian -as, etc.

One of the major sound changes in the development of Germanic is known as Verner's Law, and describes the voicing of fricative consonants in certain conditions. Germanic languages always stress the first syllable of a word, but at an earlier stage, syllable stress was mobile like other Indo-European languages. If a non-voiced fricative (so *f, *þ, *h, or *s) followed an unstressed syllable, it became voiced (so respectively *b, *d, *g, *z).

With the exception of Gothic, which still had z when it was written, this *z becomes r in all Germanic languages. Since Gothic has z (although this has been partially undone back to s in case endings) we can use it to show this:

Gothic mizdo 'reward' : Old English meord

Gothic huzd 'a hoard' : English hoard

Gothic maiza 'more': English more, Icelandic meiri, German mehr, etc.

According to this rule, case endings should alternate between *z and *s, but in reality, the *z is so common that it was generalized in most places. For example, PIE *ǵʰoi̯sós is stressed on the second syllable, so the first *s becomes *z: PGmc. *gaiz-, but then it also gets the normal nominative ending because that's so common, even though Verner's Law doesn't apply: *gaizaz (OIce. geirr, OE gār, written variously kaiʀ, kaʀ, kiʀ in Younger Futhark).

But in both Elder Futhark and Younger Futhark runic inscriptions, this *z is still kept separate from r, so they were still different. The notation ⟨ʀ⟩ is sometimes used for this "pre-r." The rune in Elder Futhark was ᛉ or ᛦ, while in Younger Futhark/Old Norse it was only downward-pointed: ᛦ (or ᛧ).

While it could happen anywhere in the word, most instances of PIE *s that followed an unstressed syllable would be in the grammatical endings, like the aforementioned *-os, which becomes PGmc. -az, Proto-Norse -ᚨᛉ, but yes, also the other endings that you mentioned:

"Víkingaʀ" on Danish runic inscription 216 written ᚢᛁᚴᛁᚴᛅᛦ uikikaʀ.

Almost any grammatical ending in Old Norse descends from one of these. The only real exceptions are r-stem nouns which are words for family members: bróðir, systir, móðir, faðir. There are also apparent exceptions where something else has occurred: -ʀ was pronounced like regular r when it came after certain sounds, like dentals (d, t, ð) or another r:

*Brynhildʀ > Brynhildr

*Þórʀ > Þorr

In the case of assimilation following dentals, they sometimes wrote it ᛦ anyway, because it happened automatically and didn't really matter.

Eventually, it seems that all cases of -ir came to be pronounced the same as -iʀ, so you can see words like fyrir 'for' with an etymological regular r spelled ᚠᚢᚱᛁᛦ or similar.