# Viking curses!



## Voadam (Apr 9, 2003)

I want culturally appropriate curses.

I'm playing a warrior wizard type character who comes from a viking culture (including deities and mythology).

Recently in the campaign I've had an NPC betray me and steal a major artefact, and separately a spy I discovered who I thought was a doppleganger and tried to subdue ended up being a powerful phasm who soaked up boatloads of damage, turned into a dragon and got away.

From the Conan comics I've got "Ymir's Icy Breath!" but I want to expand my repetoire for voicing my frustration in character.

Any suggestions?


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## Mathew_Freeman (Apr 9, 2003)

heh, my DM was kind enough to give me 50xp for a spontaneous appropriate curse ("By Girru's flaming beard!" if you're interested), so I'm all for this:

"As the hammer of Thor is unliftable, so shall I be unmovable in your defense!"

"By Odin's missing eye!"

"By the severed hand of Tyr!"


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## Mark (Apr 9, 2003)

Voadam said:
			
		

> *I want culturally appropriate curses.
> 
> I'm playing a warrior wizard type character who comes from a viking culture (including deities and mythology).
> 
> ...




Not sure how many you will find in your local library, but there is a list of books attached to this post in a list server I found that might prove useful-

http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/13/13-3243.html

Hope it helps!


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## Enkhidu (Apr 9, 2003)

My favorite period curse has always been "God's big toe!"

Pretty much, pick a god, pick a body part, and go for it. It gets better if you have some mythology to go with it. Example - In Tallarns "Girru's Flaming Beard!" it's quite possible that Girru was a hero of old, who in the process of stealing fire from the god's hearth, caught his beard afire. Of course, he proceeded to run around the countryside trying to put it out, eventually coming to a great lake. He thrust his beard in the lake and it dried up - to this day, a bare valley stands in its place.

So "Girru's Beard" might be an oath pertaining to theft, or fire, or even lakes. 

See?


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## Hand of Evil (Apr 9, 2003)

Enkhidu said:
			
		

> *My favorite period curse has always been "God's big toe!"
> 
> Pretty much, pick a god, pick a body part, and go for it. It gets better if you have some mythology to go with it. Example - In Tallarns "Girru's Flaming Beard!" it's quite possible that Girru was a hero of old, who in the process of stealing fire from the god's hearth, caught his beard afire. Of course, he proceeded to run around the countryside trying to put it out, eventually coming to a great lake. He thrust his beard in the lake and it dried up - to this day, a bare valley stands in its place.
> 
> ...




This is always a good way to go.  Use weapons and home of the gods too.  

...By the flaming hammer of X 
...Into the cold icy plain of X

As a viking think manly curses too.


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## s/LaSH (Apr 11, 2003)

I should have  few good Viking curses sitting around... I've got two tomes of Icelandic saga, after all. (I've read hardly any of them, but what I have is good readin'.)

Let's see... use verse. Long verse. Vikings were very fond of poetry, and the more of it the better. Here's one uttered by Egil Skallagrimson about the king of Norway, who had just ruled against him in a court case:

'May the gods get rid
Of this ruling robber,
Let the heavens hang him
For highway robbery!
May Odin and the others,
Frey and Njord, show their anger
To this enemy of ease
And order at Assemblies.'

Egil then sailed back to his home in Iceland just in case.

Egil was often introduced as a troll, by the way; he killed hundreds of men in his career and had a bone disease that made him virtually impenetrable to weapons. Big, huge, and about as manly as the vikings ever got, although not handsome by their standards. He'd utter verse at many occasions, and wrote an entire presentation in one night - it goes on for pages and pages - to save his life at one point.

Norwegian law forbade certain curse-related practices called shame-poles. (The actual word is niDstOng - the D is a soft 'th' D, and the O has an umlaut, for those interested in pronunciation. NiD covers infamy, slander, shame, derision and insult.) At one point, our man Egil set up a niDstOng on an island near Norway: he took a hazel pole, went onto a cliff facing the mainland, and jammed a horse's head on top of it. The next bit was described as an invocation:

  'Here I set up a shame-pole, and I turn this shame against King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild.' Then he turned the horse-head to face the mainland. 'And I turn this shame against the guardian spirits who inhabit this land, so that they shall go astray, unable to detect nor discover their swellings until they have driven King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild from this land.'
  He jammed the pole into a clef in the rock and left it standing there with the horse-head facint towards the mainland. Then he carved the whole invocation on the pole in runes. ...

I read that there's also a form of shame-poling called treniD (tree-shame) which involves carving human figures in compromising sexual positions. Also forbidden under Norse law.

So there's some authentic Viking cursing for you. It's not heat-of-battle stuff unless you're really good at on-the-spot versing (which should probably rhyme; it was originally spoken in some ancient language which I'm mangling quite horribly without the two dozen extra letters you find on a Danish keyboard). But it's what they used, and it could really add some flavour to fits of rage if, instead of smashing up a bar, you go out and kill some guy's horse and do horrible things with the remains.

Failing that, there's the threat of straw-death which the Vikings feared. If you died in bed you'd go to Niflheim, Hel's realm, and sit around in the cold forever. If you died in battle, Valhalla. There's bound to be a good curse in there somewhere... "May you die coughing and alone, battle-fearing coward!"


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## dreaded_beast (Apr 11, 2003)

"Great Jumping Paladins of Tyr!"

"By Thor's Golden Tresses!"

"By My Mother's Beard!"

"By the sixth toe on me father's right foot!"

"By Fenris's Chew Toy!"

"By the Baldur's Beauticious Bossom!"

"Freya's Flakes!"

"Heimdal's Whores!"

"By Odin's Drunken Stupor!"

"By the horse dung of Odin's eight-legged steed!"

"By Loki's Loose Lips and Large Hips!"

"May you choke on Odin's missing eye!"

"May the goats flee at your coming!"

"Your beard smells of female sheep!"


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## tarchon (Apr 11, 2003)

Some insults I recall include "dung-beard",  "he's not good for anything but going up and down on [his wife]'s belly" and various suggestions about being ridden (sexually) by trolls.
Vikings were also quite fond of insulting epithets relating to personal appearance, especially in an ironic sense.  Harald Fairhair, for instance.

Egil Skallagrimson (son of Skull-Grim), by the way, is one of those often alleged to be non-existant examples of the bard character in legend.  Poet, warrior, sorcerer...


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## fba827 (Apr 11, 2003)

dreaded_beast said:
			
		

> *"Your beard smells of female sheep!" *




 

I can't stop laughing -- that put such an image in my mind as to HOW the guy's beard got to smelling like female sheep... just where has it been!!!...  better yet, I don't want to know ...

Of course, this begs the question, what are these two people doing so close to each other that one can smell the other's beard in the first place


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## Pbartender (Apr 11, 2003)

s/LaSH has got the right idea...  you need to think more of Threat Curses, rather than Oath Curses.

"I will feed your liver to my dogs!"

"I will cut off your beard!"  (Especially threatening, since cut hair could be used to cast powerful spells against its former owner.)

"I will leave you alive, so that went you are dying in your sick bed, you can lament great you never were."

"Wait here while I go get my woman...  so she can teach you to fight."

"I'll leave your footless carcass lying out for the crows, so you will never be able walk to the underworld."

"Go drink another tun of ale, and then perhaps you'll have the courage to face me."

"Your livestock will sicken, your crops will wither, your dogs will roam wild, your daughters will be sold into slavery and your wives will lie in other men's beds."

"I will send you to Vahalla, and there you will wait in shame until I arrive, so that you can serve me Odin's meat and mead."

It's usually best if you can string several such curses and taunts into a prolonged tirade.


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## s/LaSH (Apr 11, 2003)

tarchon said:
			
		

> *Egil Skallagrimson (son of Skull-Grim), by the way, is one of those often alleged to be non-existant examples of the bard character in legend.  Poet, warrior, sorcerer... *




The volume I have says 'son of Bald-Grim', but yes. That said, it's interesting that there are two historical tie-ins with Egil's Saga - he was said to have commanded a fair number of King Athelstan's troops when Olaf, King of Scots came down to do some kinda bad stuff. And the saga ends with a priest (by the name of Skapti Thorarinsson) examining some bones that came to light when a church was demolished, which he concluded from the size were those of Egil. From the description given (and the saga's portrayal of Egil's later years of poor health), some conclude that Egil was suffering from Paget's disease (_osteitis deformans_). A very good description is given, in fact - Egil might well have been real, as this diagnosis was made in 1996. Then again, that doesn't prove anything about Egil's actual deeds; the saga writer might have made up all that stuff about verse. Who knows? All that seems likely is that there was a huge guy with very solid bones (this priest hit the skull with the hammer of 'a good-sized hand axe', and left a little white dent).

(Sadly, Egil's is the only full-length saga I've had the time to read, but it's very rich for material.)

Anyway, more curses. Guardian spirits are probably a good place to start if you're cursing a whole people or institute. Wishing that someone might never find their way home is another one that would appeal to a people whose lives revolved around going to distant places, pillaging stuff, and coming back. Then there are violent acts - Vikings were very fond of these - like "May your head be split asunder by a sea-farer's bearded axe" or "May your ribs be crushed by oxen, leaving you sputtering blood past ragged lips" or "May your tendons be plucked from your limbs and your hair become attractive to otherwise slow-moving rodents".



> "By the Baldur's Beauticious Bossom!"




Wasn't Balder a guy?

Horrible curse, then.


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## Maggan (Apr 11, 2003)

*Source for good stuff*

Try to get hold of The Long Ships : A Saga of the Viking Age by Frans G. Bengtsson.

Wonderful book, filled with colourful viking expressions. Should help a lot, and ought to be required reading for all roleplayers who go for the viking style.

Cheers

Maggan


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## Liquide (Apr 11, 2003)

Tallarn said:
			
		

> *"As the hammer of Thor is unliftable, so shall I be unmovable in your defense!" *




"Såsom Tors hammare icko äro möjlig att lyfta, skola jag bli omöjlig att flyttas i försvaret av dig!" (this actually means "In such as the hammer of Thor is unliftable, so shalst I be impossible to move in the defense of you")



			
				Tallarn said:
			
		

> *""By Odin's missing eye!" *




"Vid Odens förlorade öga." (can also mean "By Odin's lost eye")



			
				Tallarn said:
			
		

> *""By the severed hand of Tyr!" *




"Vid Tyrs avslitna hand" (this actually means: "By the ripped off hand of Tyr" but I couldn't find a got translation for severed at the moment)

I'll keep 'em coming if you like it


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## Dispater (Apr 11, 2003)

Well, the vikings certainly loved wittiness...

I vaguely recall to have read that in a great sea battle the king of Norway, Olav, set his eyes upon the enemies. From one side came the swedes and their ships. He shrugged them off as weaklings and then looked at the danes. Well, to him they were the same bunch of no-good men. Then came the ships of enemy norwegians, and said something like "looks like its going to be a fight"

If you read the icelandic sagas, what's cool is the utter and complete contempt of death the heroes had. A guy walks into the woods, gets struck by a spear and walks back to the camp. When they ask him what's happened he says "It's rather unpleasant to walk through the woods" and dies.


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## Voadam (Apr 11, 2003)

I had forgotten about the curse poles! 

Two games ago I actually did something like that. The guy who betrayed me left two werewolves behind to cover his escape. After we killed them I cut off their heads, cast magic mouth on both of them and put them on a pole. I then cast protection from arrows upon myself and flew invisibly at night to the manor house of the noble family he worked for. I set the pole in the ground in their courtyard, I then used knock on a window in their guardhouse, threw in a web, and then lightningbolted the web and wooden bulding catching it on fire, I then went invisible again and flew away. Their were a bunch of arrow shots but nothing got through the protection.

When the guards came pouring out of the burning house there were two severed heads of their werewolf companions hanging from a pole, when one of them was touched, it spoke to them warning that any who served this noble house would end as they did, abandoned, forsaken and cut down.


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## Voadam (Apr 11, 2003)

Liquide said:
			
		

> *
> 
> "Såsom Tors hammare icko äro möjlig att lyfta, skola jag bli omöjlig att flyttas i försvaret av dig!" (this actually means "In such as the hammer of Thor is unliftable, so shalst I be impossible to move in the defense of you")
> 
> ...




These are great liquide! 

I've got a Swedish English travel guide I that I want to use for naming his magic sword, but it is very limited.

Avslitna has a great ring to it!


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## Liquide (Apr 11, 2003)

Voadam said:
			
		

> *
> 
> These are great liquide!
> 
> ...




Thanks if you have anything else you need translated just give me a notice


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## Voadam (Apr 11, 2003)

Liquide

Any suggestions for a good bastard sword name?

It only has plusses and sheds light, but I am a good hero.

What would shadow/darkness cutter/slicer be?


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## Liquide (Apr 12, 2003)

[edit]edit's between [ and ] [/edit]



			
				Voadam said:
			
		

> *Liquide
> 
> Any suggestions for a good bastard sword name?
> 
> ...




For the sword I have no i[ d ]ea since I have just gotten up from bed and I'm NOT so creat[ ive ] before coffee 

shadow: skugga
darkness: mörker
cutter/slicer: skära (if it is an object), skärare (if it is something [ or someone ] that cuts/slices)


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## Liquide (Apr 12, 2003)

Voadam said:
			
		

> *Liquide
> 
> Any suggestions for a good bastard sword name?
> 
> It only has plusses and sheds light, but I am a good hero.*




Well thought of:

Min Följeslagare.

This means "My Follower" but refers to the sword as a person instead of an object.


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## Pbartender (Apr 12, 2003)

Voadam said:
			
		

> *Liquide
> 
> Any suggestions for a good bastard sword name?
> 
> ...




Look here for some good stuff on Germanic/Old English/Old Norse name etymology.

For example...

Matilda (Mahthild) = "strength in battle"
Egbert (Ecgbeorht) = "bright (famous) edge (of a sword)"
Herbert (Herebeorht) = "bright (famous) warrior (or army)"
Edwin (Eadwine) = "blessed (or rich) friend"

You could probably even mix and match...

Herreadecgbeorhtwine (Heredegbertwin)... "blessed warrior's bright sword-friend"


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## Voadam (Apr 16, 2003)

We do a lot of stuff by e-mail in between games and here is an excerpt from the last go around with the other player and the DM:

> Tyr's Severed Hand, Malachi! Good thing I got here in
> time! You almost killed all those workers and maybe
> yourself as well.

I love that line!  Voadam get some RP xp added.


Advice from ENWorld, it adds to your game and xp to your character! Thanks guys.


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