User:Haukurth

My name is Haukur Þorgeirsson and I've taken to using it to sign my posts. I originally chose the username haukurth because it's something I've been assigned in past computer systems and I didn't realize that Wikipedia usernames were not restricted to ASCII.

I'm Icelandic, born in 1980. I have an MS degree in computer science and work as a software developer. I currently live in London with my wife.

My external homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/

Wikipedia carreer

I remember the days when it was an even money bet that clicking on "Random article" would take you to a Rambot generated stub. I've contributed sporadically to Wikipedia since the summer of 2003. I edited anonymously for a while but got a username on July 22 2003 with this as my first edit: [1]. I became substantially more active in January 2005.

Nowadays I mostly work on Old Norse literature, especially Norse mythology. I also stray into history and linguistics, and more occasionally into astronomy. I used to work a bit on current affairs, such as Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, but I've decided my efforts are probably better spent where I have some specialist knowledge. I also like contributing pictures where I can and I've participated in some projects, such as Wikiproject Missing articles. When I'm not feeling very creative I do RC patrol or look at WP:AFD - though I rarely comment unless I happen to know some of the subjects for discussion (like here).

Wikipedia philosophy

I'm somewhere in the middle ground of the deletionist vs. inclusionist debate. I don't mind fancruft since I often read it myself. On the other hand I recognize the need to have a minimum standard for what's notable enough to be included and what's notable and well-known enough to have its own page (see thoughts below). I've proposed pages for VfD and got them deleted. One was on a Baldur Tryggvason, supposedly a famous Icelandic skateboarder but the article didn't establish notability nor could I verify the information. Another was on "Alshander", a bogus mythological character.

Languages

Wikipedia:Babel

is

Þessi notandi hefur íslensku að móðurmáli.

en-3

This user can contribute with an advanced level of English.

fr-2

Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau intermédiaire en français.

fo-2

Hesin brúkarin dugir føroyskt hampuliga væl.

da-2

Denne brugers kendskab til dansk er på mellemniveau.

sv-2

Denna användare har kunskaper på mellannivå i svenska.

no-2

Denne brukeren/brukaren har god kjennskap til norsk.

I added a table with Babel templates here so maybe I should explain what I mean by it. I think I can read and write decent Icelandic and English. I can read French, Faroese and Mainland-Scandinavian with relative ease. I can even produce sentences in these languages and be understood. But I can't write decent prose in them and I usually don't try. I've also studied German, Latin, Vedic, Ancient Greek and Old English but I can't really read those languages without a good dictionary and a lot of effort so my meager knowledge is rarely relevant.

Contributions

Selected creations

I've created a number of pages through my carreer here, the first back in 2003. Here are just a few samples I like.

Hrafnkels saga - Featured article. Thanks to everyone who helped!
Kormáks saga - Where you can hear me read Old Norse poetry...
Old Norse orthography - The second article I created.
Íslendingabók - A short and important historical document I've been summarising.
Martian scientist - I'm absurdly happy with this one, for some reason.
Kvinneby amulette - The height of obscurity. Hope to make this even longer some day.

Rewritten mythological articles

This is the core of the work I do here. The articles in this list may not be FA-quality but they're coherent, accurate, well-referenced and comprehensive. They also contain such images as I've been able to find. My ultimate goal is to rewrite all the Norse mythology articles along these lines - but that will take many years and there's no guarantee that my interests won't shift before then. But if they will others will eventually take up the torch :)

Lofn - Obscure love goddess number 1.
Sjöfn - Obscure love goddess number 2.
Nótt - Goddess of the night.
Lóðurr - A very comprehensive article about a very obscure god.
Ullr - A bow/ski god, maybe an elf.
Heiðrún - An extremely convenient goat.
Búri - A creation-god, reminds me of Mithra with his rock-birth.
Borr - Son of the above.
Auðumbla - Primordeal cattle, got to love it.
Eikþyrnir - A stag, Heiðrún's friend.
Four stags of Yggdrasill - Some more stags.

Images

I like contributing images. Some I've scanned, some I've found on the web, some are photographs taken by me or my wife. I'm currently trying to get used to using Commons more, most of my images I've uploaded directly to the English language Wikipedia. I try to make sure the licensing information I supply is accurate and sufficient.

File:Svipdagr and Freyja by Bauer.jpg File:Gerdr by Theaker.jpg File:Icelandic valholl.jpg File:Manuscript Hermodr.jpg File:Treated NKS sleipnir.jpg

Multi-licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License versions 1.0 and 2.0
I agree to multi-license my text contributions, unless otherwise stated, under Wikipedia's copyright terms and the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license version 1.0 and version 2.0. Please be aware that other contributors might not do the same, so if you want to use my contributions under the Creative Commons terms, please check the CC dual-license and Multi-licensing guides.