Talk:Ormrinn langi

(Redirected from Talk:Ormen Lange (longship))
Latest comment: 11 months ago by ClydeFranklin in topic Requested move 17 May 2023

Untitled edit

" Extrapolating from archeological evidence (e.g. the Gokstad ship), this would make Ormen Lange nearly 45 meters long." Except that we have newer and better evidence than Gokstad. It should be altered to reflect Roskilde 7, discovered in 1997: 36 rooms, length approx. 35 meters. Solicitr 13:09, 21 March 2007 (UTC)Reply

Well, the faroese lenght is described in alen.. Ormurin_Langi 3.

   Knørrur var gjørdur á Noregis landi,
   gott var í honum evni:
   átjan alil og fjøruti
   var kjølurin millum stevni

Alen According to that article one alen is 62.77 centimeters.. The norwegian tranclation was the following:

   Skipet det bygdest i Noregs land utav dei beste emnom,
   sytti alner og fire til var kjølen imellom stemnom. 

That's 70 alen and 4 more.. I'm not sure what the faeroese one says.. Either it's 80 and 4 more or it's 8 and 40 more I think.. Either way I'm thinking these numbers might be relevant for the article if nothing else as an alternative source..

When calculating the norwegian tranclation's lenght in cm I get 4644,98 cm.. Just thought you should know.. 80.212.217.188 (talk) 17:44, 25 February 2008 (UTC)Reply

Also, it might be a idea to mention where the length is reported and not just that it is.. I can have a look at my norwegian translation of snorre and see what it says :) Luredreier 17:48, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh one more thing Sea Stallion (longship)) One of the guys sailing on that ship (one of the experianced ones) told me it's hard to row properly on it because the distance from one man to the next when all the oares is in use is so small. Also it's to narrow to sail properly up agains the wind. It's nice when running thou.. (I might remember some of this wrong it's a bit more then a year since I talked to him the last time..) Luredreier 17:56, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

The Viking Era alin is 47.4cm, (roughly 18" a standard cubit). This makes the keel ~115ft at 74 alin.. still significantly more than anything else we know of, but not as ridiculous as a 62.77cm Alen would do.. The longest longship currently known is the Roskilde 6 (the 7 is one of the undescribed trade ships - 3, 4 and 5 have published (and easily found) dimensions as well as this warship (Roskilde 6) - there are in total 9 Roskilde 1990s canal finds, in addition to the earlier (1960s) Skuldelev blockade ships (5 ships 1-6 (with 2/4 being the long warship). Another long ship is the Hedeby/Haithabu 1 warship - which is longer than Skuldelev 2/4 but shorter than the 34 room Roskilde 6. The width is likely to be exaggerated - a possible suggestion is that the stated measure is sheerstrake to sheerstrake via the keel (in line with the building requirement and expense), rather than direct, which makes her proportions more in keeping with the other 'large' but sea going ships such as the Irish Skuldelev 2/4... rather than with the century plus old 'Karvi' style of Gokstad. 2A00:23C7:9385:AD00:C19B:332B:6BC3:41DC (talk) 14:43, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply

The name edit

There is more to the meaning of the name than just The Long serpent.

First the ship itself is identified/personified as being a worm, by referring to it as such. Secondly that worm is called Lange, meaning "The Long One".

Worm is a better translation than serpent for several reasons. Worms are in integral part of Norse mythology. A quick glimpse on the Ragnarok myth would do it. Another reason is that the word serpent has certain suggestions in Anglo Saxon culture - and especially in Christianity -, that is not present in Norse culture. In the Nordic languages a serpent is called a slange nowadays to separate them from worms specifically. The Old Norse word Orm (or Ormr) could be used to describe other creatures than just worms - also people at times -, usually in a negative way, referring to the mythical Miðgarðsormr.

In an effort to sum this up, the name Ormen Lange can be translated as:

  • The worm Lange
  • The worm "The Long One"

It is not pretty, but here I have focussed on the meaning. RhinoMind (talk) 02:24, 5 June 2015 (UTC)Reply

PS I notice that worms in the Norse mythologies, are often referred to as serpents here on Wikipedia (fx the Midgard Serpent). I believe it must be due to some thoughtlessness in translation, as I have explained the differences between the two above. Must take it up somewhere. RhinoMind (talk) 02:28, 5 June 2015 (UTC)Reply

Requested move 17 May 2023 edit

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved to Ormrinn langi. WP:BARTENDER. (closed by non-admin page mover) CLYDE TALK TO ME/STUFF DONE (please mention me on reply) 02:58, 25 May 2023 (UTC)Reply


Ormen Lange (longship)Ormrinn Langi – Consistency with other pages - we typically use Old Norse over Norweigian or other modern North Germanic languages when referring to something from a time period in which Old Norse was spoken. This further would get around the disambiguation issue. Ingwina (talk) 19:03, 17 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.