From beyond the grave I hear a call form our forebears. They neither speak nor scream; they attract me to the past in silence; like a beautiful painting makes me look at it and adore it. They move my mind to the days of yore… the forgotten European realms. They inspire me! They are in sum our god of inspiration!
Because of that I want to thank this wonderful deity inspiring me to write, to fight and to lvie even, and hail him at every opportunity! Not by saying «Heil Odin», like any modern Norwegian probably would have. Not by saying «Heill Ôðinn» either, like a Viking Age Norwegian would have, but by saying «HailaR WôðanaR», like a Norwegian living in Norway in the time before Christianity came about would have.
«HailaR» and «WôðanaR» are reconstructed words, reconstructed from known Norse to proto-Nordic grammatical rules, and the even older form (older proto-Nordic) would have been «Hailaz Wôþanaz», but for some reason I feel more attracted to the younger proto-Nordic «HailaR WôðanaR», so I use that instead. These days anyhow. My mind might be shifted even further back in time – to Hailaz Wôþanaz or even to Hailas Wôþanas… the assumed PIE (i. e. proto-Indo-European) version of this (used in MYFAROG). And then back again.
The challenge this poses to many of you readers is of course to know how to pronounce this. The truth is that we actually don’t know for sure. We assume that the -R is like something inbetween the older -z and the younger -r, so we assume that it is pronounced like a voiced alevolar -r. The w is pronounced like a normal English v and the ð like th in English that (and the þ like th in English thing). The ô is just a normal long continental o (Norwegian å).
Good luck pronouncing this correctly… I know some of you want to.
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The physical way to greet this way is «of course» to raise your weapon arm (the right if right-handed, the left if left-handed) and show your palm to the person you greet. This was done by the Romans, the Italian Fascists and the National Socialists too, yes, I know that, but they did because this is the European way to greet others! Everyone in Europe greeted each othe rthis way! You do this from a polite distance and you do to show that you come as a friend (you don’t carry any weapon in your hand, ergo you come in peace).
Shaking hands is also European, but was originally only done to seal agreements; the two men shaked their hands and a third man – a witness – pushed their hands downwards to confirm it. If the agreement was to be cancelled the men needed to shake hands again and a witness had to push their hands up. Therefore we e. g. still say «jeg slår opp» («I push/hit up») in Norway, when we cancel an agreement (today usually only in context with relationships between children and teenagers).
To greet somebody with a handshake is actually rather dishonest; that would be the way of the assassin, who wants to get up close and stab you in your belly without showing his hands first. The proper European way to greet others is by showing them the palm of the hand you would use if you were to hold a weapon. If you want to agree on something you first greet properly, and then you can shake hands afterwards.
There is nothing wrong with the old European salute. It is the most honest way to greet others for sure – and we shold use it proudly! HailaR WôðanaR!
