cmad...{at}hiwaay.net (Chris Adams) wrote:
> Carl  said:
>
> >Most of the books I have on Norse mythology spell it Mjollnir.
>
> Yeah, that's how NetHack spells it. :-)

Standard deal when transliterating from one alphabet to another
is use the phonetic rules of the source to pronounce it, use a
native speaker to correct the pronunciation, then use the phonetic
rules of the destination to spell it.  Not having any native speakers
of Old Norse on hand makes this an iffy process.  Also none of
the runic systems had rules like "a double consonant implies a
short vowel".

So is it Mjolnir or Mjollnir?  When I asked Thor his answer was
that he likes darker beer than what was in my hand.  Not much
help there.  Thor's always around but he's not particularly
talkative, at least not to me.  So in the end I go with the NetHack
answer.  I've played NetHack on and off since the 1980s.

The closest easy pronunciation is "Mule-near" so that could
well be the best way to spell it anyways.  Mannaz jera osa
lagaz nerthus isa raidho just doesn't work in English.  Shrug,
Mjolnir is way cooler than Mule-near anyways.


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