For anyone interested in the intersection between neuroscience and cosmology, I recommend looking up this book: The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology

Kudos to the Elves that kept interrupting your recording.

“babe wake up simon posted”

After 12 years of watching KZfaq content without posting a comment, this video has prompted a change. An excellent video, clearly explained, and so, so fascinating. Keep up the great work, and thank you.

Interesting note on belief in elves, a residual cosmology which includes elves is still present in Iceland, especially in rural areas. I went there with my family for a long holiday in 2015, and we encountered people who were sincere in their belief in elvish creatures and their influence on the local landscape. To be honest I can understand why: in many places the volcanic landscape has natural structures which must have seemed completely alien to Germanic settlers from northern Europe, and they reasonably (to them) concluded that these structures were built and inhabited by elves and similar creatures. This belief extends even to local planning departments, where sometimes roads are diverted and extra care is taken in new buildings to avoid disturbing the local elves. Locals in visitor centres and bike rental shops were also careful to inform us as tourists where to avoid so as to not anger the elves. I don't know if Anglo-Saxon cosmology associated elves so strongly with specific places or natural structures, but this cosmological belief is definitely still there in parts of Iceland.

I actually really like the birdsong that sneaks its way into the audio.

Seeing intelligent, critically minded people like you share topics with badly needed, sober analysis that challenges our assumptions gives me real hope. Thanks for all your efforts.

'mood' coming from a word meaning soul or spirit is such a mood

Thank you for sharing these topics, ideas, thoughts and for making them accessible to all of us who are curious about these things. Being a Norwegian, I find it particularly interesting to see written examples of Anglo-Saxon phrases, because it reminds me a some vague details I half remember reading about in samples from old Scandinavian languages and how those languages changed over time to their modern forms. Keep up the good work, I find this both fascinating and, at times, captivating.

Simon; thank you for these videos! I love the way that you interweave anthropology, linguistics, history, and bits of your own personal experience. You have a great gift for taking seriously arcane and esoteric information and presenting it in a way that is understandable (and fascinating!) to the great unwashed masses out here on the other side of the internet. Please keep it up!

Elves must exist, Aelfred could never have accomplished all he did without their counsel.

You say you are not a linguist, but you conduct yourself and your work in a very professional, lingusticis-researcher manner. The more I watch your content, the more I feel like you are to the Anglo-Saxon language reconstruction, what Dr. Jackson Crawford is to the Old Norse language reconstruction. Keep it up good sir.

As a teacher, I would have really loved to have you in my class.

Simon Roper is an extremely intelligent and knowledgeable young man who has a fantastic gift of teaching.

my grandparents grew up in rural county tyrone, and when my grandmother was little if a rash or a spot developed on her body she would be brought to a relative who would coat it in (if i recall correctly) milk and recite a christian incantation or prayer of some kind; after 2 failed attempts, the third one worked! kinda similar to what was being described in this video, it wasn't really considered that the two were unrelated, given that the third attempt was a success that reinforced the belief in its effectiveness! very interesting stuff

Simon, your channel is delightful! I follow you mostly for your linguistics videos, because that's what I'll major in I hope, but I love it when you talk about archeology/anthropology because these subjects are less "accessible" to me, i.e. no one I know really studies these things or geeks out about them enough to explain them to me in as much detail as your channel does You're very good at what you're doing, keep it up!!

Regarding: "mód" German "Mut" means nowadays usually just that someone is brave but the more archaic meaning is something like state of consciousness or state of the soul

Damn man I'd never heard this term mod before. Stopped to hear what you had to say about anthropology, and still got a free etymology lesson. Good work

Culture 👏🏽. Matters 👏🏽. What more can I say? ♥️

You're so right about associating certain smells with Christmas and the like. Good video and good topic. I have an interest in Anglo-Saxon England and Old English, even though I'm much more of a Mediterraneanist.

I just wanted to announce that I wasn't the first commenter. It's important to let the internet know insignificant moments.

Wow, good explanation about "mood" and "soul". As "mood" for something that can need will-power to be kept in check, and the soul is something that just is on its own -> solo. Just for the record: in Flemish/Dutch: "moed" and "ziel". And there we have even the 2 opposite meanings -> moed-ig (courageous) and ziel-ig (to be in such a deplorable unsupported state that triggers compassion in others, appeals their soul). I think the words with "mod" (mood, mode) can be connected with fe Flemish/Dutch word "moed". Nowadays used for courage, but evenly known in the word "ge-moed" which means emotional constitution (uplifted or depressed or anything in between). This ressembles the Flemish/Dutch word "maat" (measure or rythm), like "de maat houden" (keep balanced) is the recept for a longlasting and succesfull material and emotional life. And that is what the Egypt construct and deity of Ma'at does exactly the same. See the connection with Old English "gemæte", also coming from Flemish/Dutch "ge-meten" (measured). When you meet someone or something, you measure up to that one or thing. I can imagine that the mother (moed-er) is the one in the family that assures the correct "mood" for a healthy environment to bring up kids.

100% here for this. Yours is one of the best channels on youtube. What you said reminded me of an article about Iceland, which manages to juggle global economics with an abiding and unswerving belief in the Hidden Ones, which an Icelandic person will straight up tell you are the same thing as elves. Cut to an ALCOA (American alumninum corporation) factory in Iceland, whose Icelandic employees refused to return to work unless the Hidden Ones were appropriately removed from the premises and appeased. Can you imagine those board meetings?

Your point about smells is super compelling

All of your videos are always really interesting, but I gotta say this one might be the most fascinating one yet

Thank you, Simon, for making me think about different themes I never used to wonder about before, also I love it that you let me view things from such curious angle.

Looking forward to your upcoming film project, I like the concept you described. Thanks for this video Simon, great stuff in this one.

I can't wait for this series you're working on, that's a really cool concept

I love Alaric Hall's book. I relied on it heavily for two different essays mostly because I enjoyed reading about elves so much.

I was with a girl who grew up in Honduras and she told me stories about Elves and acted like they were completely normal and real.

I absolutely love your videos. You're such an interesting person, I feel like I could listen to you for days. This is some amazing work.

Excellent as always. Love the bush.

Go into dense woodland at night on your own without technology and say you don’t believe in elves.

It's interesting to note that during the excessively Empiricist Victorian era there was a resurgence in the belief in elves. See the paintings of Richard Dadd, for instance.

Excellent as always Simon, thank you again 😊 Interesting how we have kept certain artefacts (?) in the language such as days of the week, etc., long after having shifted basic paradigms in our perceptions. (To morrow is Woden’s day.)

Thank you for describing and explaining, the best way to understand what it was like!

The account of the conversion of Northumbria in Bede's Ecclesiastical History is a source of information about how Anglo-Saxons transitioned from their earlier belief system to Christianity. Notable is the comparison of the soul to a bird that flies into a house and then flies around in the house until eventually leaving through the window. The comparison is that the time spent by the bird in the house is like the time spent by the soul in this world; that is, we don't know what came before or what comes after. Also noteworthy is that fact that the king's advisor on religious matters (possibly a euphemism for a chief priest) does not oppose the conversion and takes it on himself to burn down what was probably a temple of Woden in a ritualized manner (thus, both paving the way for Christianity and also preserving any arcane secrets which the temple may have housed). Another source of information about the Anglo-Saxon world view, a source which seems hardly Christian from a modern point of view even though it has at least a veneer of Christianity, is the poem The Seafarer. The narrator of the poem is a warrior whose leader has died (who would have been a ronin in a Japanese context), and the feel of the poem is almost as though he is rowing a boat on the river Styx rather than a mortal waterway. Its imagery seems more black-and-white than Technicolor.

You're looking great Simon, wonderful video.

I always find your content so interesting.

My new favorite channel

When I was a Christian I basically came to the conclusion that some parts of the bible might be unreadable because that culture is gone. I even learned a little Koine Greek and the more I learned the less confident I was.

Thank goodness for you

Nicely done! I will be linking this for my students to watch!

Very interesting stuff. Simon, you are knowledgeable and an enthusiast, a good combination! Always enjoy these videos! (Cheers from Canada!)

i loved the video, thank you very much for the shout out dear pal

Interesting post. I spent six months in Kenya in 2017 and came across several instances of belief in witchcraft and also of sacred trees, which were explained as "just tradition" when I asked for more detail but were obviously deeply held beliefs. I was advised not to even touch some trees because of their sacred nature, and there were reports in a national paper when a sacred tree died and fell - local worthies gathered to inspect it and reassured the people that it was not a bad omen. The services of witch doctors (is there another, less derogatory term?) are widely advertised in the streets, for all sorts of services, such as regaining a lover or getting a well-paid job. To be honest, I find the belief in elves no more incredible than the belief in money, or in nationality as real things...

The elves stories sound a bit like the Cherokee tales of the “little people “ who would play tricks on people for fun or cause trouble or illness for people they didn’t like.

Brilliant! Thank you for providing this interesting perspective!

After living in mainland China for several years (and having a wonderful time), I have learned that everything is cultural. Nothing is universal except maybe loving our children.

Another highly informative video Simon: Keep up the good work and thanks!

Great content as always, thank you!

When I was an exchange student in Norway 40 years ago, people enjoyed telling me stories about ˋnisse‘,which I think must be the equivalent to elves. These nisse are considered folklore or mythology now, but in the past, daily things that went wrong, were attributed to the nisse playing tricks on them. For example, if the milk went sour, or something went missing, it was blamed on the nisse! Also in Norwegian tradition, it is the Julenisse, or Christmas elves who bring the Christmas presents! Perhaps a Norwegian person can explain this better than me, or add to it(?) Then in Norway, there are also the trolls!! I think they may have played a similar role to the elves. 🤔

Great video, really looking forward to the stuff in the pipeline!

simon you're becoming a true old anglo-saxon

Please keep up the good work. It’s super interesting.

Simon, i Absolutely love your videos. You open my mind and i thank you

etymology is underrated among the laymen

I hope that you can get rid of the cold, cough, whatever the cause. I enjoy your language lessons, although it goes over my head! Never studied that while getting my bachelors degree 😱. Get well, take care, stay safe !

Simon Roper, Hope is well in the cultures of England. From your Celtic, Viking, Norman, Anglo, Hebrew, German , Dutch and others who have rambled into our lands over the centuries.

Interesting , revealing this is fascinating

So chill

That's an interesting topic, thank you Simon!

Love this. Thanks

outstanding

Excellent

could you give some examples of cosmologies which do not include the things you mention? Like privacy/time alone (i think some mongolian cultures do this), individualism, time, etc.

Elves were river spirits, "alv" meaning river in old Norse. C.S. Lewis dealt with "lesser deities" etc, in the "Narnia Chronicals" and how to incorporate their cosmology into the Christian influenced ideas. Well explained. Keep up the good work. Belief shifts of a culture take centuries. Christianity was gradual even until the Reformation.

Excellent! I learned a lot.

my moods definitely fit that description.

This is such a good thought process. Especially because it's quite broadly applicable. Most of your points could also be applied to how bizarre many ancient pre-Christian Roman traditions were to our modern eyes. They look that bizarre because we're not ancient Romans, we're 21st century humans, of course it's going to look weird to us.

This is just straight up unintentional asmr

the elves aren't real?! are you saying that Santa is wrapping all those presents on his own? don't believe it

Very interesting.

Even today people hold strange beliefs, a man told me that after a friend died that a bird had followed him, implying that it was some embodiment of the friend. Also my mother said that after my father died that on one occasion she had been aware of his presence and she suggested that this was his way of telling her that he 'was alright '.

very recommended: Vor folkeæt i oldtiden, Wilhelm Grönbech (The Culture of the Teutons, Oxford University Press 1932) It´s not about the Teutons, but all the Germanic culture and Cosmology and Sociology.

For many years I have puzzled over the ruah-pneuma-spiritus-Holy Ghost to Holy Spirit transition. One assumes that a translation really talks about the same thing and is supposed to function as the same. But it isn't. Your videos always seem relevant. The distinction between mod and sawol and your deft handling of subject/object in self perception is right on. I just finished Charles Taylor's Sources of Self. He doesn't spend much time talking about Anglo-Saxon theories of self. From what you just posted, I'd say that is a major deficiency. Surely the old cosmology enters into the picture as much as Western philosophers.

Have you ever looked into the anthropological outlook of Fredrich Engels? And if so, how would he compare to contemporary anthropologists?

“Mod” suggests German “Mut” or “courage.” I can see that as related to “spirit” “soul power.” 11:54

It is so interesting though how you are talking about this social dimension of belief. Sometimes we make the mistake of trying to understand belief only as an objective happening instead of a social construct that's deeply woven in our life. I seriously love how you conclude, that, of course, our ancestors were not stupid. They knew what they did as much as we think we know what we do. This of course doesn't mean that every belief is objectively adequate to reality, or that science has nothing to say about the world we live in. But sometimes we tend to think of older beliefs as naive, and acquire a moral highground that is based on our own cosmological beliefs and constructs. I think we need to be very careful with these matters in history (and, naturally, how history influences the rest of human knowledge). It is very often that I hear comments regarding how life nowadays is so much better, how everybody was unhappy in the past and how we are peaking in every single matter, and that is honestly so biased. It needs to be biased, but trying our best to give a thought to these matters is truly important, and can give us an opportunity to better understand history. I just love it.

Subscribed, loved the video!

Cosmology- needed that word. Thank you. Interesting, the degree it was claimed that elves were experienced in medieval times. Perhaps similar to the Jinn/ Djin in Arabic culture, believed in since ancient times. Many progressive Arab scientists still believe in Jinn existence.

You have a solid baritone voice, by the way. Makes your content easier to listen to. Based on your observations on Elves, this is precisely the reason why we can't dismiss mythology or folklore as "fake" or "imaginary" if it's something that the Ancients wrote about and recorded. I don't believe it is due to "hallucinations" or "overactive imaginations". I certainly believe in the supernatural and the unexplained. I might as well not believe in The Bible, then, if I don't believe in anything that does not conform to "science".

Most people in Europe have heard of elves, or "the little people," leprechauns, etc. Some of that was acquired from parents and other adults, but a lot came from children's stories. Not just the old tales, in Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm, but also modern children's authors like Enid Blyton speak of them. Children also learn about religion through stories, but there is sometimes more insistence that the stories are TRUE, or that they have a defined MORAL, which is usually left undefined in the fairy stories. We gradually lose our feeling that stories and the characters in them are real. This happens to Santa Claus despite the conspiracy of adults and business. Most of us also lose our belief in the religious stories and the associated world-view. I wonder how much a "willing suspension of disbelief" accounts for belief in elves today. We need to suspend disbelief while reading fiction, and some people seem to maintain that suspension with regard to the supernatural. "Potterheads," Lord of the Rings enthusiasts and Goths enjoy treating their fictional universes "as if" they were real, but they know that they are not. Do all Americans know that Superman is imaginary? After the religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, murderous beliefs seems to have faded in Europe, and many people started to parody religion with made-up cosmologies and rituals such as those of Freemasonry (back when Freemasons were dangerous radicals), the Odd Fellows, the early Ku Klux Klan and even college fraternities like Skull and Bones. After religion lost its sting these began to seem quaint and outmoded. Elves, pixies, etc may once have been a way to explain random events in a non-threatening way (without blaming witchcraft or evildoers) but now they are more recreational beliefs, which one can pick up or put down.

The Ollie Read look is coming on well. Keep up the English pastoral videos and great content.

Hey! Thought the "mōd" example was really interesting. I think we may have a version of the word still around in Swedish thats a little closer to the older sense. The meaning is still largely the same as in modern English, with "gott mod" ≈ "good mood". But then there's also stuff like "modig" (brave, courageous), "högmod" ("high mood", arrogance, haughtiness) and "tålamod" ("enduring mood"?, patience), with all of them being more deliberate and external in meaning than the modern English "mood". Greetings from fellow linguistically interested archaeologist :)

This title attracts a very specific kind of audience. I’ll see you all on the next Sepehr video

Simon can you do a video on how Christianization either helped or hurt our knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon (or more broadly Germanic) past?

You've given me something to chew on. I always find other people's reaction to death sort of strange, but your first example of society 1 and society 2, and then of the two girls got me thinking. As a Catholic, our belief in death is more akin to society #2, where the people can still have an active role in our world and lives after death, and we can interact with them on some level (what we refer to as the Communion of Saints, or sometimes the Church Triumphant). Our funeral rites fulfill a very different role than most of Christendom and secular society - they are a prayer FOR the dead, not for us. It's not as much a goodbye as a helping hand. It's ingrained in us as a work of mercy for that person, and while it doesn't delineate the transition from life to death (only physical death does that), it becomes part of the extended process of death (new life?) as we try to help them shorten their time in Purgatory. Anyway, fascinating discussion, as always!

Interesting video. Anthropology helps give one a context for other things.

Modig means brave in Swedish

A (former) u tuber, Carolyn Emerick, who has researched folkloric traditions of the Anglo Saxons and the Germanic tribes, has stated that ancestor veneration was part of their cosmology. She said the elves were the male ancestors and the fairies, the female ancestors.

Please explain Green Man and beings of the forest

Smashed it 🌞 new fave

I'm loving the beard!

If we are thinking about language, it could be advantageous to move way away from the idea, that communication between individuals is the core function. It makes much more sense to consider language as a new propagation technique of the brain. It sounds really strange, but think carefully! The movements of the mouth and larynx are final stages. Prior is the flow of physical gestures and these gestures are an aftermath of finegrained inner movements. George Wilson‘s talk about „An Intuition for Propagators“ made me thinking this way. So I don‘t believe Anthropology will take us very far. We have to use Math and especially the Category Theory of Semilattices to avoid circular reasoning. The Universal Grammar of Chomsky is much more universal than we thought, because it was there, before we even started to speak out loud. The obviousness of aquisition of vocabulary and a secondary grammar hinders us to take the idea of language as an internal propagation technique into consideration.

interesting video! cheers

Hey, I'd be interested to know which translation of Beowulf is believed by others to be the 'best'? I've read a couple but there are many and always intrigued. Wæs þu hæl 🌿

What do you use for filming your videos? I mean is it a camera perhaps?

I am pretty sure many of you know this already, but I would like to mention the following: the fact that older cultures believed in elves can be noticed in some expressions like the Danish/Norwegian word "elveblest" (elf breath) (hives/urticaria) comes from the belief that elves have used their breath (blown) on you to cause that illness.

Yes do it! How well would we communicate with Captain Cook?