I love the zen moments where we're just looking at the sky or the birds or a flower. A lot of KZfaqrs tend to portray lifestyles feel almost unattainable, and the history community is definitely not exempt to that. Simon's aesthetic is so simple and relatable. Reminds me of home. :)

I could listen to his voice all day long.....

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anyone who accepts correction so very gracefully!

Simon = ‘I want address a serious element of germanic culture’ Lots of comments here = ‘he’s so lovely, I go to sleep listening to him’ My conclusion = clever is attractive.

As an English language scholar I appreciate your in depth research and presentations.

Oh what the heck, I'll watch it again lol

I just realized he has 100K subs! Last I checked it was at 80k or thereabouts. Simon, if you're reading this, I love your videos! Sometimes the more technical linguistic jargon goes over my head but they're still super interesting!

Hello Simon, I am a new subscriber today. Thank you for sharing knowledge of language. Absolutely amazed at your youthful age, so jealous of how you have absorbed so much knowledge at your age. Unfortunately here in the U.S. education has hit an absolute low. I, as an 70 year aged person can only hope your publish of knowledge will benefit the young. Thank you for you, and best of new years to come.

Tachwedd Is Welsh for November but literally means slaughter

Simon I’ve been exploring my family history which is scottish, english, irish and Swedish/Norwegian - this is so interesting and real even down to the active robin outside my door this morning - gott jull - gott nyy år !

In Finland, the (modern) word for Christmas is joulu, which sounds a bit like yule.

Blot is probably also a cognate to the Swedish adjective blöt and verb blöta meaning soak/pour/stain/souse.

Thank you for re-uploading with the corrections! Love your content as always! 💯

Why would you apologize for "slightly warm attire?"

Thank you for your saying, it's always interesting to learn from what you say!

I love when he explains the etymology of the words! Congratulations Simon, you're a genius!

Thanks Simon. Best wishes for 2021.

i deliriously watched this as you uploaded it at 3 am, so seeing it appear again reminded me to rewatch it lmao this topic is very interesting! i'm always interested in the way concepts from one culture are explained in other cultures, because i guess thats difficult to do without some things being lost in translation.

Never get bored of these videos.

Simon, you should write a book. I don't really care what it's about, I just want to read it lol

You do good work man. Hats off to you!

Fantastic as always, Simon!

Fantastic video as always, thanks for uploading!

I absolutely love your videos.

On the topic of Mothers' night, in Serbia (and neighbouring countries I presume) we have a day in the second week before Christmas on which children bind their mothers' legs and in exchange for being released, the mothers need to pay with a gift/money. Same thing happens with children in the third week and fathers in the week just before Christmas. Coincidentally, today (03.01.2021.) is that day for fathers (Christmas is on the 7th January according to the Julian calendar).

A ritual refers to group of actions performed for their symbolic value. On the other hand, a ceremony is performed on a special occasion. ... The purpose of rituals differs according to the society and the religious beliefs. On the other hand, the purpose of ceremonies is to bring people together on a specific occasion.

This channel is like a young Robert Sepehr before anthropology and mythology started getting more and more entangled. Every video is a topic I see no use for in daily life, but still find so interesting

4:35 ”So I might at some point do a video about pre-Christian horse sacrifice practices ... but that's for a separate video.”

In Dutch, November is known as "Slachtmaand" (literally slaughter-month, but butcher-month would be a better translation in this context). Those designations are probably not (tribal era) old, but the problem they tackled is the same. Cull flocks before winter both for own use as to avoid feeding animals that aren't going to make it anyway. And since butchering leaves you with a lot of blood, so that could be related due to the practical aspect of availability of blood for rituals.

please make a video about the days of the week in anglo saxon and their etymology

There are very few channels where I would re-watch a re-upload - but these 11 minutes feel very well spent. Thank you Simon. I was distracted by the blot (sacrifice) [sorry can't do the accents] and reminded of Swiss-German/Schwäbisch blutt (meaning naked)- the etymology of which seems unclear. Bede and your pronunciation of it reminds me of the modern Beda first-name in Swiss-German, related to Bodo in northern German. All the best for 2021, Rob in Switzerland.

Excellent *Zen* Moments. _Man_ they really work!

Not much to do with this but I was looking at a Scottish document that had the word "hathil" meaning noble. I just realised instantly that matches with "Æthelstan" with stan bein stain in the Scottish spelling. I just found it interesting that the word "Hathil" was preserved so long as that book was printed on 1500.

When I lived in Germany, you could witness the selection of a Christmas tree that was ceremoniously hauled through town in a parade-like spirit. Displayed somewhere in town, maybe in a central square, they told us the origin of the practice was from ancient times (don’t remember the approximate date), when the practice was thought to encourage good harvests during the coming growing season.

Love this kind of content!

This is fascinating 💛

Fascinating. I will never feel the same about Christmas Blessings ever again :)

Great to see KZfaqrs reading comments. The reupload was a bit of an overreaction, though. Mistakes happen all the time.

The long pole and goat head sounds a bit similar to the "julbock" of medieval scandinavia. I think there is a mentioned of the Varangian guard celebrating yule by dressing up in animal masks and skins somewhere?

I wonder if anyone else has wondered why some people pronounce words such as 'stronger' or 'frustration' with a 'sh' - i.e. shtronger or frushtration. I've always associated this with 'younger' speakers emphasising the importance of a specific word through this mechanism. Again, in my limited experience, this affectation is sometimes accompanied by a wince or similar facial expression as if to further reinforce this emphasis. I've only recently discovered your channel, Simon and I'm gradually working through the 'back-catalogue'. Thanks for taking the time to share your passion with us.

just great....!

The flicking animal blood on people links very well to Christian giving their community wine / the "blood" of Christ. The holy water is of course a separate but encompassing act that seems to symbolise those pre Christian traditions in some way. Very interesting, thanks for enlightening us all. Good to know where we came from so we can better determine where we are going!

Just found the channel and loving it. I'm from Stoke originally and have now returned here, its an accent that doesn't get much airing on TV and is pretty unique. There is an older Stoke dialect which is reproduced in the cartoon strip ' May un Mar lady' in the Sentinel newspaper which still has a following even if in a semi ironic way now. Totally selfish request but if you find time to have a look into the accent I'd be interested in learning more and you may find it interesting yourself.

Resubmission of my comment on your last video... :-D I always assumed, that those bonfires were an older indo-european substrate, since there are all kinds of such ceremonies around winter- and summer solstice (like the Nevroz, Easter Fires, Saint Martins celebrations etc.). There is also the Serbian tradition of burning a tree on christmas eve (I also know of other fire related ceremonies at other slavic people, but I don't know how widespread they are). People pick up branches of that tree and keep in their homes in order to keep luck in their households. Last years branches are thrown into the bonfire. And interestingly the tree has to be.... *drumroll* ... *OAK-TREE*! (The oak tree is linked with an old slavic god which is often named Perun, Svarog or Radegast and his son, which is often personified as fire emerging from a split tree) Link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badnjak_(Serbian) Thank you for your very informative and interesting videos :-)

nice one simon 👍 happy new year

Birbs! The video is both informative and wholesome.

Could you do a review of the Old English in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, set in the 870s onward? There's mountains of NPC Old English dialogue and each time I hear it I wonder what you'd make of it.

merry Christmas!

A great video. I have always been highly interested in yule time fact as opposed to fantasy. Mr. Roper you have the very charisma of a rock star. Your look, your manners, every aspect of your being almost forces people to listen to your words. For goodness sake, you are only talking about linguistics and such. I would dare to consider what the outcome might be if you were speaking on weightier subjects. I truly enjoy hearing you speak. Your voice is a tranquilizer for the mind. I feel that I must thank you for taking the time to do such a kindness as to share your abundant knowledge.

Ceremonial rather than ritual! Like it.

God (reuploaded) Jul, from us in Sweden!

i cant believe I just watched both versions lmao, either way, time well spent, also dude make a discord server or something that would be epic

Good 2021!

Hey Simon, love the video. Just wanted to know if you'll ever look in to the Jeriais language? I've tried to wrap my head around it once or twice but I just can't. You tend to have a fantastic way of explaining things!

I love your voice and your accent.

I been enjoying your videos, thank you. It seems to me there's so much of the Old Norse still in use in modern Icelandic. I know there are not a lot of Icelandic speakers in the world, compared to many other languages, so I understand why it is not as well-studied outside of Iceland. I was wondering, since it has not changed much in the last 1100 years, have you ever found it useful or interesting in your research?

Aha I just saw the reupload and your mention of my comment therein! If you found it an interesting note to discuss, I'm happy to re-post it if you send it, or happy for you to simply post it in the comments!

Great sideboards

Just finished watching, and learnt quite a few new things. You referred to not knowing the origins of father Christmas? A: The Wild Hunt, Odin (or take your pick) in {disguise?}, travelling through the sky (sound familiar?), and his Scandinavian hunt supporters (raindeer - you couldn't make it up). Be interested to know your thoughts Simon. Ps. Many thanks for the work. And I *really* do love those Zen moments.

fascinating

Happy New Year Simon. Another brilliant and fascinating upload. Christmas time is called "juletid" in Norwegian which is pretty close to "yuletide". Maybe a coincidence given that Norse and Anglo-Saxon traditions are originally different (as you say) but I am unaware of anything similar to "yuletide" in German. Maybe we adopted the Norse word without the Norse tradition?

youre previous video blew up, simon. Congratulations

Seems silly of me to go to the trouble, but here's the comment I made on the original Yule video: As is often the case, your video has made me think about a lot of things in a short period of time. I have a story in my head which played itself out while you were making that "grasping at straws" [edit: "clutching … "] comment - a story in which old specific rituals (cultural structures), now remembered only in patches, developed with the idea at their core that blood was sacred or holy, and so the idea of painting or flicking blood on people or objects "came into fashion" (for lack of a better or perhaps not better term) and these rituals were popular and psychologically powerful, so the culture of it expanded, and people became, in a way, overzealous about the ideas - the "blood is holy" idea got taken too far, and the community leaders (clergy, elders, etc.) saw violence and the degradation of social cohesion, so they devised altering the rituals to take some of that power away from the "blood" part, and started using blessed water (and wine? and beer? and … ?) and these newer traditions carried over into altered rituals and filtered into other belief systems to what we see today. Just a thought. And I love the animal stuff you're adding - I assume you're using an app with motion detection to capture the video of the critters? Might be interesting (if this is the case) to clip a small mirror very close to camera to see what some of those birds might do when they come to have a tasty breakfast and see their reflection. [edit] By the way, thank you, and the structure of this video is so good. You're really developing a style, and it is superb.

In Dutch there is this common word `joelen` and means shouting, making noice and shares the same etymology. I think Dutch in general is conservative. I often find your pronunciations of old English words strangely close to Dutch in its pronunciation. Much more often then German or English. I know you speak very well German my suggestion would be to learn some Dutch and find out for yourself. Thank you for your videos. Happy Newyear.

God damn it I thought the *REUPLOAD* was to remove the rodents but no.

The Indo-European oak god is one of the most consistent through different cultures. The Hittites called him "Tarhuntassa", the Gauls, "Taranis". The Celts don't seem to have made such a fuss about Winter Solstice in pre-Christian times as the Saxons and Norse, focusing more on Samhain and Beltaine, but there are similarities in the veneration of trees.

They have evidence of a great gatherings and feasting, pigs, at durrington walls in Wiltshire. By the age of the pigs it happened late in the year. We have been having this tradition/ceremony for thousands of years. 🤔

What camera is this filmed with? The shots are so damp and beautiful

Wassail and Good Yule !

The word ‘jol’ is in common use in Afrikaans and means ‘party’ or celebration. Given that Afrikaans is derived from Dutch, this word could have the same root as the Old Norse word, which is spelt the same way

Yer cute ☺️

“Blot” is very close in sound and spelling to “blod,” which is the Scandinavian word for blood. However, it is also close in sound and spelling to “blöt,” meaning wet. Could this possibly have to do with some sort of libation?

Can you do one on the British Celtic winter celebrations

guess I’m watching it again then

Can't wait for 'horse sacrifices' episode. Thankfully you appear not to be into [much] experimental archaeology ;-) HNY, and well done.

Re: medieval cosmology, I encountered Old Norse "Drømde mik en drøm ..." and perhaps wrongly interpreted as "It dreamed me a dream..." which made me wonder if there was any suggestion that the people in those days might have felt that dreams were imposed by something or someone external to the person. In English and German, we have "It's raining," etc. and while it is taken as the equivalent of "rain is falling," it still could suggest that some agent is causing it rather than a simple statement of fact. Would that be a reflection of a very old cosmology?

Two comments from Behornedhorse and Marcovje made me wonder how they are connected:- "Tachwedd Is Welsh for November but literally means slaughter. In Dutch, November is known as "Slachtmaand" (literally slaughter-month, but butcher-month would be a better translation in this context)." Thanks

Fact: Yule was Not celebrated on the the Winter Solstice. It was celebrated on the the Full Moon following the first New Moon After the Winter Solstice. King Haakon changed the celebrated day to the Winter Solstice so pagans would have to celebrate the same day as Christians. Christmas was celebrated on the Winter Soltice according to the old Julian calander, this was changed to the 24/25 with the Gregorian Callender. Yule was a 3 day holiday, not 12.

Very well argued (blessing/blood-sing). Thank you. Like your tentative toe-dipping into Robert Graves as well, even if your academic overlords might raise an eyebrow.

Warm attire = dressing gown outside

✌️

I wonder if the men who wrote the books that we now use to learn about past cultures knew how curious we all are, would they have written more about things like Mother's Night instead if just saying that heathens celebrated it...

Bello

i found a random video on your channel called « nicoll cheis reaction video » can you explain what it is about? i watched it and im confused

You don't have to apologize for your fashion choices

Saw an interesting discussion on a religious discussions board which reminded me of this video and the approaching season. Perhaps study of linguistics can help humanise and therefore demythologise and desectarianise the divides of the modern Abrahamic faiths , though I wonder as to the veracity of the following: The man who some call 'Jesus': Gaelic is the original language of Ireland (and much of Europe) spoken thousands of years ago , and to this day is still spoken in rural parts of Ireland. In Irish Gaelic the name of the man who some call "Jesus" is: Íosa pronounced Eesa Interestingly the name of the man who some call "Jesus" also in Islam is: عِيسَىٰ ʿĪsā pronounced Eesa Also remarkably similar to the modern Hebrew version Yeshua , which apparently which became Joshua some say its Greeks and Romans who say J instead of Y and add 'us' onto names eg Markus Lucus etc so Yeshua -> Joshua became the label "Jesus" Did the man who some call 'Jesus' and therefore the first Christians call God 'Allah'? ref: 'Eloi' Matthew 27:46 / 'Eli' Mark 15:34 Eli / Eloi / Allah etc These are all approximate transliterations by Greeks. 1st Century Aramaic: ܐܠܗܐ

What about "blot out" as a possibility?

💭 If they only buried the head (horse), might they have feasted on the horse's body? 💭

I listened only to the audio of this. Does anyone know which parts of it he corrected?

You should do a video on the britons in age of empires 2 & the British in aoe3

Err, Im interested in Norman lang as well as pre-Conquest English, err, do you plan on expanding youre content to some Norman as well?

Mr Roper - could you maybe record a few more texts in old English (or point out some resources you consider good)? Learning by analytical grammar is tricky, but having the text to read while hearing it feels useful. (Also, for my daughter, could you record the Lord's Prayer?)

It is my understanding that Christmas was for a long time not celebrated in Britain because it had become too much like the Roman Saturnalia, i.e. all about drinking and getting drunk. And that it was re-popularized quite recently by Dickens and his _A Christmas Carol._

Could you make a video about the accents of medieval peasants compared to knights/nobles? Apologies if youve already done this and ive missed it.

PIE reconstructions often end up sounding more "complex" to my ear than the modern equivalents in whichever languages. Has language simplified over the eons or am I just mishearing, maybe due to familiarity with modern european (but not indo-) phonemes?

did I miss something? why was beginning of the year 25 december when solstice is 21?

I would have thought Jupiter was equivalent to Tir/Tiw. Dyaus Pter→Tiwaz→Tiw.

Simon, OFF TOPIC: Good, better, best. But why? Why not good, gooder, goodest? On the other hand, Deutsch: Gut, guter, beste. And then on the foot: Bon, buon, bene, buen. Have the Germanic comparatives and superlatives been affected by the Latinates? Or do they all stem from an ancestral indo-yurpean? Or what? I’m no linguist. Just curious.

Survive the Jive recently uploaded a great video about IndoEuropean horse sacrifices, you should watch it if you haven't. Both of your channels have a lot of crossover, it would be great to see you collaborate, although you could get kicked out of your uni for associating with the "far right" in today's political climate.

Would love to watch an Indo-European horse sacrifice video