Fornnorrænt

Fornnorrænt is the Danish term for Old Norse, the North Germanic language spoken by Norse communities during the Viking Age and the Middle Ages. It is the ancestral language of the modern North Germanic languages, including Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Faroese, though the modern forms have diverged considerably from the medieval stage.

Historically, Old Norse is often described as having two primary dialect continua: East Norse and West Norse. East Norse includes the varieties that contributed to Old Danish and Old Swedish, while West Norse includes Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian. These dialects influenced the development of their respective modern languages, with Icelandic and Faroese retaining many conservative features, and Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish evolving more rapidly.

Evidence for fornnorrænt comes from a range of sources. Medieval Icelandic manuscripts preserve the Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, sagas, and skaldic poetry, which together provide rich linguistic data. Runic inscriptions in the Younger Futhark also attest to earlier forms of the language, and Latin-script chronicles from the Christian era record later stages. The language is characterized by features common to early North Germanic, such as a four-case noun system with gendered nouns, a complex verb system with strong and weak verb classes, and inflectional endings that gradually declined into the later medieval languages.

Scholarly study of fornnorrænt focuses on philology, historical linguistics, and medieval literature. It remains essential for understanding the linguistic roots of the Scandinavian languages and the literary culture of the Norse world.