EN047.06 Before
Ott 2025
J. At All Burgs 1
Before the Bad Times
47.05 This is inscribed on all burgs:
Before the bad times came, our land was the most beautiful in Wralda. Sun rose higher and there was seldom frost. On the trees and shrubs grew fruits and nuts which are now lost. Among the grains, not only did we have choice, favored, and blithe, but also sweet,[1] which shone like gold and could be baked in the sun’s rays. Years were not counted, for one year was as joyous as the next.
On one side, we were enclosed by Wralda’s Sea, upon which no folk but us had the means nor skills to fare; on the other side, we were hedged by the broad Twiskland, through which the Finda folk dared not come, on account of the thick forests and the wild beasts. Toward the sunrise, our borders reached to the utmost limits of the East Sea; toward sunset,[2] to the gates of the Middle Sea. Thus, we had — in addition to the smaller ones — no fewer than twelve great freshwater rivers given us by Wralda to keep our land healthy and to show our intrepid folk the way to his sea.
The banks of these rivers were almost entirely inhabited by our folk, [048] as were the plains and the whole Rhine from beginning to end. Opposite the Denmarks and the Jutterland,[3] we had colonies with a burgmaid, whence we obtained copper and iron, plus tar, pitch, and some other necessities. Opposite our former Westland, we had Britannia with its tin mines (Britannia was the land of the banished, who were ‘brit’ away with the help of their burgmaid to spare their lives. But in order that they should never come back, a ‘B’ was first tattooed on their foreheads; murderers with blood-red dye and other criminals with blue dye). Furthermore, our navigators and traders had many warehouses in the Near Greeklands and in Lydia. (In Lydia is where the black people live.)
As our land was so great and extensive, we had many different names: Those who lived in the east of the Denmarks were called Jutters, because almost all they did was to ‘jut’ (or: collect) amber on the shores. Those who lived on the islands were called Lets (or: the Absent), because they mostly lived in remote locations.[4] All inhabitants of beaches and shores, from the Denmarks to the Sandfal — now Scheldt — were called Stiurar (navigators), Seakampar (sea campaigners) and Angelara (fishermen). Angelara was the name given chiefly to the fishermen at sea, because they fished only with an ‘angle’, or pole, [049] and never used nets.[5] Those who lived further off, down to the Near Greeklands, were simply called Kaedhomer (coast-dwellers), because they never fared out to sea. Those who lived in the highmarks that border the Twisklands were called Saxmen, because they were always armed (with a ‘sax’: knife) against the wild animals and savage Brits (banished). Moreover, we had the names Land-dwellers, Lake-dwellers, and Holt- or Wood-dwellers.
Notes
- ↑ We cannot know precisely which grains were meant in each case — KÉREN (lit.: ‘chosen’) and LJAVER (lit.: ‘preferred’) have their modern cognates ‘corn/koren’ (grain – possibly rye) and ‘haver’ (oats); BLÍDE (lit: ‘happy’/‘blithe’) may refer to barley and SWÉTE (lit: ‘sweet’) may refer to wheat or spelt, but a more literal translation was indicated given the uncertainty.
- ↑ ‘Toward the sunrise... sunset’ — lit.: ‘in the morning... in the evening’.
- ↑ ‘Denmarks ... Jutterland’ (DÉNA.MARKA ... JUTTAR LÁND) — meaning: ‘low marks ... land of the beachcombers’.
- ↑ ‘desolate’ (VRLÉTEN) — lit.: ‘left over’ or ‘left behind’ (Dutch: verlaten; German: verlassen).
- ↑ ‘angle or pole’ (ANGEL JEFTA KOL) — or: ‘hook’, ‘angling rod’.
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Chapters G, H and J: Sandbach 1876