Thursday, December 31, 2020
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I only just learned of Prof. Smith's death, and I'm so very sorry. As an English PhD candidate in medieval lit, I studied Old Norse with him back in the early 1980s, and it is still one of the most memorable courses I took at UNC. He was a terrific teacher, a superb linguist, full of great anecdotes, and I remember him laughing heartily at linguistic limericks and even Hagar the Horrible comic strips I would bring to class. I discovered the news tonight, because I was actually looking for his e-mail address on the list of emeritus faculty in the German department so I could e-mail him about something quirky I just learned about the development of the Norse word for "angry," which has taken on the opposite meaning in Dutch while still having its original meaning in Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish. I knew he'd be interested, because maybe the most common phrase in all the Norse sagas that he taught me is "Then Thor became angry!" Thor is always getting angry When in recent years I have taught those sagas in translation, I reveled in reciting that line in Old Norse with its rolling thunder tones, and every single time I did it, I thought of Sid Smith. I know I'm only one among many medievalists who have benefited from his influence through the years and paid it forward to our own students. My deepest condolences.
Prof. Alan Baragona
