Can anyone confirm that the female guards' accents (which are gorgeous) are Icelandic?

if you compare them to Bjork's accent, they seem to be very similar. The link below should help.

By the way, it's a very nice coincidence that in the link, Arvo Part talks about sound being able to kill people (dragon shouts...!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pDjT1UNT3s

i think the actors are american, and i don't think they're trying to sound like they're coming from a certain country. more like imitating a general nordic accent

I read that as "irritating general nordic accent"

I think at least one of them is icelandic, yeah.

They're not all American actors. Hadvar and Ralof/Baalgruff are Scandis. Ralof has a typical accent (which is different than Icelandic). Also, the guy who does Farengar is too natural with it to be put on.. He almost sounds like Skwisgaar from Metalpocalypse.

Max Von Sydow (Esbern) is Swedish, although his accent has been sort of lost over the years.

edit: Wait, interesting. Apparently Ralof's actor is from America. Hadvar isn't though.

Can't answer the OP's question, but just want to register my adoration for the voice of Mjoll the Lioness in Riften.

I agree. It'd be probably really expensive to hire actor/actesses from around the world just to voice one or two charaters. But I can't get over how amazing the nordic accents are!!

There are lots of accents in this game and some of them are very definitely imitating real-world accents. For example, Sheogarath is obviously using a scottish accent.

My 2p: Icelandic accents are THE sixiest accents in the whole freakin world.... followed by Norwegians, Swedes and those loveable folks from Finland.
BUT ... in Skyrim I'm too busy killing stuff to really care about that.

yeah you're right, but then again, scottish is english with an accent. english-speaking people seem to be more familiar with those kind of accents. icelandic is a whole different language.

Just looking at that link again, with Part talking about sound being able to kill people...

(This didn't work - can someone tell me how to post the actual images, if it's possible?)

Arvo Part:

[img]http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTsbQIxenkIgVRBTDxOaUW2rAaofeS7nf7J4U3DQP1MpUDuOjD_Iw[/img]

Arngeir:

[img]http://images.uesp.net/thumb/d/d1/SR-npc-Arngeir.jpg/180px-SR-npc-Arngeir.jpg[/img]

I think the voice actors is americans trying to sound like "nordic europeans"

No Scots and English are not the same thing. Scottish people speaking English and Scottish people speaking Scottish are two different things.


What is this perception that Americans can't do accents? I can imitate virtually any accent to a T, especially Germanic ones.

There`s definitely a couple of Europeans in there!

Oh sorry x) well i think its mostly me being that "uh idont have an accent" but i am just being stupid. I sure do have a nordic/germanic accent. I Like the accents in skyrim.

?i tok det sv?rd ?n sh?vved itt fru his b?kk!

- Peter solberg

It wouldn't be too hard to find actors or actresses with a particular accent, especially in major metropolitan areas. Just put out a casting call and I guarantee you will find about a dozen people with the native tongue you are looking for, especially if they were recording near Bethesda/DC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoE18IgEVf0 epic nordic accent!

That would be Bjorks accent, amirite?


Please, no offense intended to our Viking descendent brethren.

yeaaa you catch my drift

I thought they were trying to sound like Dracula.
Was Dracula a Viking?

The voice actors are overwhelmingly American. The next largest group are Canadians, and there's a Swede or two and a Scot. Of the "main" characters, three are Canadian; Christopher Plummer (Arngeir), Michael Hogan (General Tullius), and Czech-Canadian Vladimir Kulich (Ulfric Stormcloak). Max Von Sydow (Esbern) is Swedish-French, and Joan Allen (Delphine) and Lynda Carter (Gormlaith Goldenhilt and Azura) are both American.

As for the remaining voice actors the only ones who aren't American are Canadian Charles Dennis (Odahviing), Canadian Michael Donovan (Kodlak Whitemane, Malacath), Scotsman Enn Reitel (Delvin Mallory), British-American Jean Gilpin (Boethiah, Elenwen, Meridia), Briton Moira Quirk (Karliah), Briton Robin Atkin Downes (Brynjolf), Swede Martina Lotun, and Swede Johanna Torell (female Nords). Not sure about the others.

Yeah, http://www.michaelgough.com/, but he's very good. I detect a little Slavic every once in a while though. Not that this is a bad thing. I'm fine with a generic "Nord" voice not being any particular RL nationality.

One of the guys doing Nords is named Christian Svensson. If he's not from the old country, he sure sounds like he must be.

http://vimeo.com/28807261 Farengar.

Checked. Pretty sure he's American.

My sister-in-law is icelandic. Her English sounds nothing like what I hear in the game.

The accents in the game sound more Germanic than Nordic. I constantly expect someone to say: "Ve vill all have you shot in ze morning".

I always thought Farengaar Secret-Fired sounded Dutch as [censored]. Sheogorath's accent is all over the place. Sounds like a mix of Scot, Irish & American.