Myrkviðr

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Myrkviðr (from Proto-Germanic *merkʷjo-widuz) was the name of a forest in Norse mythology. The Old Norse word means "darkwood", anglicized as mirkwood in the fiction of William Morris and J. R. R. Tolkien (mirk is an archaic/dialectal word for "dark", cf. murky).

The expression "dark wood" in Germanic and Slavic is idiomatized to mean "coniferous forest", as opposed to the "light" deciduous forests, compare "Black Forest", Russian chyornyi les.

The localisation varies between the sources.

Meyjar flugu sunnan
myrkvið í gögnum,
Alvitr unga,
örlög drýgja;
þær á sævarströnd
settusk at hvílask
drósir suðrænar,
dýrt lín spunnu.[1]
Maids from the south
through Myrkwood flew,
Fair and young,
their fate to follow;
On the shore of the sea
to rest them they sat,
The maids of the south,
and flax they spun.(Bellows' translation)
Loci qvaþ:
«Gvlli keypta
leztv Gymis dottvr
oc seldir þitt sva sverþ;
enn er Mvspellz synir
ríða Myrcviþ yfir,
veizta þv þa, vesall! hve þv vegr.»[2]
Loki spake:
"The daughter of Gymir
with gold didst thou buy,
And sold thy sword to boot;
But when Muspell's sons
through Myrkwood ride,
Thou shalt weaponless wait, poor wretch."(Bellows' translation)


The Old Norse term was projected by J. R. R. Tolkien into Old English as myrcwudu, and into Modern English as Mirkwood (see there).

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