Guide: How To Swear Like the Vikings
Like the modern time, the Vikings did swear to exclaim or to insult other people. In this blog post, we are to discover how the Vikings insulted other people in their clan in their time. Mind that this is merely a piece of funny piece of writing.
Back to the Viking Age, our fierce warriors had a collection of swearing words for insulting time. Perhaps we can use these words in this day and age too.
- Dunga (DOON-gah) — a useless company or fellow who could not provide you with any help. Fear not a godlike opponent, yet fear pig-like teammates
- Eldhúsfífl (EHLD-hus-feef-uhl) — “hearthfire idiot” presenting an idiot who sits by the fire all day. Probably a good-for-nothing type of man.
- Ergi and Argr are two Old Norse terms of insult, presenting effeminacy or other unmanly behavior.
- Fífl (FEEF-uhl) — Stupid, fool.
- Gløggvingr (GLOHG-ving-uhr) — a mean person. Not generosity was considered to be a coward in the Viking clan.
- Hraumi (HROWM-ee) — A man who also boasted about his personal life and other things about himself. A braggart.
- Níðingr (NEETH-ing-uhr) — villain, vile person. In Norse mythology, there was a dragon whose name was Nidhogg whose name probably came from this word. Nidhogg was the dragon that gnawed at the root of Yggdrasil Tree of Life.
- Slápr (SLAHP-uhr) — a lazy person who was disrespected by the Viking clan. Because the Vikings believed that only those who were studious could do something outstanding. Nothing good awaited a lazy person.
- Vámr (VAHM-uhr) — a disgusting person
- Vargdropi (VAHRG-drohp-ee) — son of an outlawry. An outlawry in the Viking Age was classified into two levels: Half outlawry and Full outlawry. While the former was sent to exile for a few years, the latter was banished away from his clan for the rest of his life. No one could offer a full outlawry a help and he could be killed by anyone.
- Veslingr (VEHS-ling-uhr) — a coward annoying person.
