Designing A Skyrim Style ACK Campaign - Sidebar: Languages

A very nice gentleman complemented me on the use of names I have been using for this project. Since this campaign setting has a very strong Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Danish, Danish and Germanic themes I have been mining Old English, German and Danish for naming conventions.

I am not a philologist by any stretch of the imagination and I would never claim to be. I am sure most philologists would be appalled at the way I am massacring these languages. I would half expect them to take me outside and beat me with a copy of Bright's Anglo-Saxon Reader.

As for name conventions I sometimes start with Modern English and find the translations into other languages to find the names I come up with. I use Google Translate and Old English Translator a lot

Here is a table I created that I have been pulling my names from.

Modern English	Old English	Danish	German	Final Selection
North Sky Country	Norðrodor	Nordlig Himmel	Norden Himmel	Norðrodor
Men of the Sea	Sælíðenda	Jern sømand	Eisen Segler	Sælíðenda
Fire Dragon Hold (hall)	Fýrdracaheald	Brand Drage Herregård	Feuer Drachen Daheim	Fýrdracaheald
Silver Field (plains)	Sine feldland	Sølvklars	Silber Feld	Silver Feld
Iron Helm	Isenhelm	Jern Ror	Eisen Helm	Isenhelm
East Shore (Coast)	Éastland	Øst Jord	Osten Strand	Ostenstrand
West Land	Westmeet	Vest Jord	West Grafschaft	Westbrerd
Lake Land	Bretenanmere	Sø Jord	See Grafschaft	Bretenanmere
Wolf Country	Wulf Dúnland	Ulv fædreland	Wolf Staat	Wulf Dúnland
Stone Guard	Stán castel	Sten Vagt	Stein Hüten	Stánhold

As you can see I will mix and match to get the right feel. I am almost certain if I use these in games, I will mispronounce them, but it  give the campaign world a certain feel.

For Example using Modern English

"We left the port of Fire Dragon Hold and sailed down the coast of the northern sky island to the port of East Shore."

Nothing wrong with that sentence, it is a fine sentence.

Now using a mixture of languages

"We left the port of Fýrdracaheald and sailed down the coast of Norðrodor towards the port of Ostenstrand."

 Still means the same exact thing, but has a slightly more authentic feel. The fact that Old English, Danish and German words often sound similar to their modern English versions helps alot too.