Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Norse mythology)/Archive 1

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Contents

Proposal

In articles dealing with Old Norse mythology the spelling of names should be that of standardized 13th century Old Icelandic as found in, for example, the Íslenzk fornrit edition of Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla.

In accordance with the English Wikipedia convention to use forms familiar to English speakers the following exceptions are made:

1. The English familiar form Thor should be used instead of the Old Icelandic form Þórr.

2. The English familiar form Odin should be used instead of the Old Icelandic form Óðinn.

3. In other cases when someone proposes that a familiar English form exists, this can be discussed on an individual basis on the relevant talkpage.

Due to current technical limitations the letter oe-ligature (œ) cannot properly be used in article titles. For purposes of article titles it should be replaced with 'oe' while œ can used throughout the article. Since o-ogonëk will not display correctly on many systems it should be replaced throughout with 'ö'. This is unambiguous since 'ö' does not otherwise occur in standardized Old Norse spelling, and it is a common replacement for o-ogonëk.

Reasoning

As described in Old Norse orthography there is currently no generally accepted standard for the use of Old Norse names within an English text, inside or outside Wikipedia. One source may use the anglizised form Balder while the next employs the modern Icelandic form Baldur and the third uses the standardized Old Icelandic form Baldr. The mainland Scandinavian languages have their own familiar forms of the names and those sometimes also make their way into English prose. Current examples on Wikipedia include the Swedish form 'Väderfölni (seen on Norse mythology) and the Norwegian form Vêrfolne (seen on Vêrfolne) for the being known in Old Norse as Veðrfölnir.

It is the hope of the authors that this standard establishes a consistent and accurate convention to use within Wikipedia.

Examples

  • Loki
  • Baldr
  • Freyja
  • Freyr
  • Heimdallr
  • Angrboða
  • Svaðilfari
  • Höðr
  • Þrymr
  • Veðrfölnir
  • Hoenir as article title, Hœnir within the article

Activation

This standard was proposed by Wiglaf and Haukurth on May 21st 2005. It will become active one month from that date if no objections have surfaced by then.

I strongly oppose this proposal. Not only is it contrary to explicit policy, there is no sign it has ever been polled. Being faulty both in substance and in process, I would like to see reason why it should not be summarily proposed for AfD. Septentrionalis 16:38, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
Best thing to do is to help us hash it out here, then, yes?
-P.MacUidhir (t) (c) 17:42, 8 October 2005 (UTC)