86: On magical phrases, spoken by "trows" on Shetland, published 24/12/2025

Written and published by Linden Alexander Pentecost, published on the 24th of December 2025 (Christmas Eve), published in the UK and only on www.bookofdunbarra.co.uk . The author lives in and is from the UK. No AI was used in this article nor in any of my articles. This article is unrelated to any and all of my other publications, including those many others where I discuss the languages of the Shetland Islands. Note I have been publishing a lot in the past few days and weeks, and not only on the website in front of you. This article contains a total of 1140 words.

As I have commented and discussed much elsewhere, the Shaetlan language seems to (at least in my opinion) have correspondences to pre-Indo-Europea, pre-Germanic languages. Examples of possible ancient poetic metres and words are perhaps especially common in examples of the Shaetlan language which pertain to the unseen, ancient ancestral cultures and beings, whether it be Finns, Pechts or Trows for example. I have discussed a lot on this elsewhere, including recently where I discussed other aspects to this in an article on unrelated website to the one you are on. I give the name of the aforementioned article and its web address later in this article. I have also discussed many other aspects to this in many other publications not mentioned.

An example of this relating to the ”trows” can be seen in that, there is a "Troll's message" recorded in several different forms on the Shetland Islands of Foula and Fetlar (which are not close to each other within the Shetland archipelago). These versions were quoted by Edmondson and Jakobsen, and I will include one of the Fetlar versions below:

Du at rides de rød
and rins de grey
tell tūna [tuəna] tivla
at nūna nivla
is väļna väţna

This rhyme was said to have been spoken by the inhabitents of a (presumably prehistoric) mound, as a man rides past it. The language is described on the nornlanguage.x10.mx website as an example of Norn quoted by Edmondson and Jakobsen, but it could also be said that the intelligible parts of the rhyme can be read as Shaetlan, and that the unintelligible parts, at least in part, are the "prehistoric language" spoken by the mound-dweller who speaks them.

The first line, du at rides de rød is intelligible through Shaetlan as meaning "thou/you singular that rides the pointless talk", that is, assuming that the word rød in this rhyme is equivalent to attested Shaetlan röd, which means something like "pointless talk". The word ride in this example presumably means "ride" in a similar sense to the English, but ride also refers in Shaetlan to an animal being in heat, although this is likely not the meaning in this rhyme.

The second line, and rins de grey likely I think means "and runs the grey", with rins being the Shaetlan equivalent of English "runs". Perhaps this line is in reference to the horse that the man is riding in the folkloric context of this rhyme.

Now, the words start to become less intelligible. The third line: tell tūna [tuəna] tivla- the word tell is probably equivalent to English "tell", tūna [tuəna] tivla could potentially be an address in some form of a prehistoric language of Shetland, as in, an address to one of the trows, with tivla being a word of unknown, likely ancient origin (which I have discussed in detail elsewhere in several unrelated publications), that was used in Shetland to refer to female trows. This word is related to the Shaetlan word fivla of similar meaning. There are also connections between these words in Shaetlan and words for "light snow" and there are connections to other words I have discussed elsewhere, as well as more aspects of these words. A thing I have not discussed before is the similarity to Shaetlan tivlach which can mean "tail of an animal" or a "thick cake of coarse meal". Other versions of the rhyme I am discussing (but versions not included on this page) include the names divla and fivla. This could in-part be connected to different initial consonants carrying different meanings and acting as "classifiers" in a sense, whether in the original nouns or more in the structure of rhyming.

The fourth line: at nūna nivla is also mostly unintelligible, although at likely means "that", so essentially "tell tūna [tuəna] tivla, that nūna nivla". The word nūna may be related to Shaetlan nonie which means a very small person or animal. Could this be in reference to the trows? It is perhaps likely also that nūna nivla is a repeated form of part of the previous line, tūna [tuəna] tivla, and I think it possible that indeed the initial consonants on the words do, or are the remnant of some ancient language in which these initial consonants added meaning.

The 5th line, which reads: is väļna väţna, is pretty unintelligible, other than that is is cognate to English "is", so in other words, this line discusses what nūna nivla is doing. The word väļna is to my knowledge unimtelligible, whilst I am tempted to say that väţna is connected to the Fetlar Norn word for "water", compare Icelandic vatn, Swedish vatten etc, both meaning "water".

I have chosen to look at an individual version of this rhyme rather than all its versions. Personally I am inclined to think that these words, and indeed perhaps the structure of the rhyme, do not entirely relate to Shaetlan or to Norn, but rather to the language connected with the trows in the story. I am unsure whether or not the language of the trows was the same as that of the Finnmen, but I suspect their languages were different. Note that I have discussed other Shaetlan rhymes elsewhere, including in a print-only book published earlier this year. Different, and less detailed aspects of the rhyme discussed in the aforementioned book, were also discussed in my article The Northern European link to language in Northern and Western Scotland, which has been published in several versions, all of which are unrelated to any of my other publications concerning Shaetlan. One version of the aforementioned article can be viewed on the following link: https://sillylinguistics.com/2024/01/16/the-northern-european-link-to-language-in-northern-and-western-scotland/

 

I have also written more unrelated information about the Shaetlan language elsewhere recently (as well as before), including in an article on a new website (not the website you are currently on), the aforementioned article being titled: A new disc. (2ndofDecember 2025) on Barra Gaelic, N. Rona, Gaelic, Shaetlan & connected topics, the link to which is: https://www.languages-of-linnunrata.co.uk/a-new-disc-2ndofdecember-2025-on-barra-gaelic-n-rona-gaelic-shaetlan-connected-topics .

 

For reference purpuses, the URL of this article (in front of you) is: https://www.bookofdunbarra.co.uk/website-articles-78-96/86-on-magical-phrases-spoken-by-trows-on-shetland-published-24-12-2025 .

 

This article is dedicated to those who protect men and all folk at sea.