Question about lyrics...?

Need help... What is the language(or the lyrics) in Five Hundred And One between "Where did I come from? Was I already here?
It all seems familiar, yet I have no idea" and "Joy and sorrow we have encountered
Always stood as one..." The internet says it's "New friends
Last night
An offer was made, Nordbrikt
Would leave
Five hundred and one". It doesn't sound right to me. In the song Mathias sounds to me like he he's calling out to someone(think I heard the name Ragnar...). is it an another language or the net has the wrong lyrics??
 
*
Dalk
Osmo *speech*
Kyy
* *speech*
Ragnar < Going by what you've said it sounds similar
*
*

* Just means I have no idea what is being said, however they appear to be names.
The *speech* sections seem to be replies after names being called, much like a register.

Yes this sucks as an answer, but after a lengthy google search acquired nothing, I listened to the track a few times. I'm sure band/mod will help better:kickass:
 
Nygård;8550099 said:
It gladdens me enourmously to see that there is a handful of people who actually take the time and can see beyond the "like OMG.. they sing about drinking and battles and stuff and have like accordions and polka and fucking epic warpaint and shit..." -mass.

Trying to tell a sensible story in only a few lines and almost completely subordinate to rythm isn't always that easy, and this thread has given me more than you could ever imagine.

So thanks. :)

Hey man most people don't really write worth-while lyrics these days so it's good to see someone does. Plus to be honest I learned quite a bit about history looking up some of the things in these lyrics (for both albums). So keep it up for sure!
 
Hiho everyone and greetings from Switzerland.

I am trying to translate the lyrics of "Miklagard Overture" into German. It is about this part of the text:

"The man-made birds in their trees
Out load their paean rings."

I know that the first line has been discussed in this thread before. It was very useful for me because I was able to translate it, but I didn't know that there actually were "fake birds" around in Konstantinopolis around that time. In line two now I have got the same problem. I am able to translate the single words, but I don't get meaning behind it. And since not even my English teacher was able to help me out, I thought it might be helpful to ask here, since you guys did a great job on all the other questions that have been brought up. I would be really glad if somebody was able to explain the meaning of that line in different words for me. And of course I would't say "no" to a translation.

I'm counting on you :worship:
 
Paean (pronounced /&#712;pi&#720;&#601;n/, as in European) is a term used to describe a type of triumphal or grateful song, usually choral though sometimes individual. It comes from the ancient Greek &#960;&#945;&#953;&#940;&#957; (paian) "song of triumph, any solemn song or chant" and it was also used as the name for the physician of the Greek gods and as an epithet of Apollo.

It should be noted that "ring" can either be used to describe a sound or a physical object. Since we're talking about "manmade birds" here, I suppose sound is meant.

So that second line, if I understand correctly, can be loosely translated to "sing their hymns of triumph".

Mathias, please correct me if I am wrong ^^
 
Thanks a lot! I knew that a phone can ring, or a bell, but I did not excpect that word to be used for other sounds. But I guess this has something to do with the birds being mechanic.
Thanks again, you just got me the last piece of the puzzle :)
 
By the way Jiba, on the second line, there's a mispelling, it should say "out loud their paean rings", otherwise it doesn't make sense.
 
quick question about Cursed Be Iron. in the lyric booklet i got with The Varangian Way: Paganfest edition it says

Did thy father, or they mother
Did the eldest of thy brothers
did the youngest of thy sisters
did the worst of all thy kindred
(Give to thee tthine evil nature?)


but while im listening to the album that last part "did the worst of all they kindred' sounds like something else, and i cant tell what it is...
 
weird, I listened to it for a few times because you said it and no, I still understand (without problems and/or doubts) "did the worst of all thy kindred"...
sorry, therefore cannot help you :S
 
I just checked in the English translation of the Kalevala, song IX, The Origin of Iron and these particular lines go like this:

Did thy father, or thy mother,
Did the eldest of thy brothers,
Did the youngest of thy sisters,
Did the worst of all thy kindred
Give to thee thine evil nature?

Then I listened to the song, and I heard the exact same words, except for the fact that the "all thy kindred" part is a bit slurred, but still recognizable... :]
 
Nygård;8109186 said:
We used a step in singer for a couple of parts on the album - mainly for conceptual reasons - of which this "Russian" part is one. The other is the "Andrew Lloyd Webber" -part in Five Hundred And One. It's a guy called Antti Paranko, and he's credited in the liner notes. However, this is not Russian, but some pseudo-slavonic language we had him make up in the studio while we were helping him out in finding the right mood by doing cossack-dancing on the other side of the window. I wanted it to sound Slavonic without bearing through any clear message. Actually, if you listen carefully, you can hear something that sounds like "vodka" a couple of times in that short snippet, ...even if in a historical perspective this word and drink is obviously of a much more modern era.
I have always thought that there is a part in Five Hundred and One which reminds me of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals. In the lyrics, it's this part: "Joy and sorrow we have encountered, always stood as one... Your heart will follow, and maybe tomorrow you will find wha you seek..." Something about it, maybe the singer's voice or the melody itself or just the feeling in it, reminds me of the character "Old Deutoronomy" in the musical Cats. It's so cool to read that Nygård himself calls that part "The Andrew Lloyd Webber -part"!

I'm a big fan of musicals, and I guess that is one reason why I have been so thrilled with the Varangian Way. The beautifully built storyline makes the album feel like a great musical in itself, filled with interesting characters, beautiful melodies and inspiring lyrics. Among some other things, the massive choirs in the end of Miklagard Overture remind me of Webber's musicals as well. I absolutely love it! And can't wait for Stand Up And Fight... ;)
 
I don't have anything to add to the reviews so far, but there was a thing that really bummed me.

I found it very interesting, as a Greek, to see the songtitle &#914;&#941;&#957;&#949;&#964;&#959;&#953; - &#928;&#961;&#940;&#963;&#953;&#957;&#959;&#953;! But in Greek, &#959;&#953; is pronounced as -ee (unless written &#959;&#970;)

So the words are pronounced Venet-ee and Prasin-ee (blues and greens), and not Venet-oi and Prasin-oi, as Warlord sings it.

Nevertheless, kudos for correctly pronouncing &#914;&#945;&#963;&#953;&#955;&#949;&#973;&#962; (Vasilephs, and not Basileus)!!!

Thanks Warlord!
 
i have no clue about greek language and stuff, but could it be possible it´s some ancient form of it?
i somehow cannot imagine that mathias has messed up with something...he´s a perfectionist.

edit: or maybe the print fucked up the dots over it?
 
i have no clue about greek language and stuff, but could it be possible it´s some ancient form of it?
i somehow cannot imagine that mathias has messed up with something...he´s a perfectionist.

edit: or maybe the print fucked up the dots over it?

Yeah, it sounded weird to me, too, given that he twitted that he was studying different Greek accents, but, yup, there is definitely a mistake there. The words for the greens and blues have never changed through the years...

Meh, who cares, it's a good album all in all. Still, Battle metal remains my favorite, but SUaF is a very good effort, and I like all the additions to their sound. I just find it very short. It is listened-to very easily, but it flies by too quickly...
 
&#932;his is weird. While it states that &#959;&#953; is a diphthong (meaning that it is NOT pronounced as it is written), it goes on to say it's pronounced as in "coin".
That is wrong.

&#923;&#972;&#947;&#959;&#953; is pronounced "loyi" in Greek, and is the plural of the word "logos" (speech). That particular word is part of words like cardiology, neurology, apology...

&#921; don't know who made this guide, but they should be shot :p

&#927;&#953;, &#949;&#953;, &#951;, &#953; and &#965; are all pronounced -ee. There is speculation that in really ancient years they weren't but that's just speculation, and we are talking thousands of years ago.

Are we getting a bit off-topic? :p
 
I always believed a Diphthong was just a combo of 2 vowels, for all I know it has nothing to do with a different pronunciation, you just combine the 2 written vowels into one sound. A lot of on-line sources back me up on this, as I quote:

"A diphthong (pronounced /&#712;d&#618;f&#952;&#594;&#331;/ or /&#712;d&#618;p&#952;&#594;&#331;/;[1] from Greek &#948;&#943;&#966;&#952;&#959;&#947;&#947;&#959;&#962;, diphthongos, literally "two sounds" or "two tones"), also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. In most dialects of English, the words eye, hay, boy, low, and cow contain diphthongs."

Secondly, all info I get while googling for ANCIENT GREEK (not talking about modern-day Greek) claims "&#959;&#953;" should sound like "oi" in the English word coin.

Most languages have evolved a LOT over the years (try reading archaic German or English, for instance!), so it wouldn't surprise me. And I spoke with two people who have studied ancient Greek in their time, showed them the Turisas CD and asked them about the title, they both read it as something between "oi" and "ai" but surely not "ee".

My question is, Crucifier, have you actually studied ancient Greek? or are you purely basing your opinion on modern-day Greek?