Speak like an Anglo-Saxon

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Speak like a Saxon: hair colour

on March 23, 2013

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Blondenfeaxe ('grey haired' - from Beowulf, l. 1594)

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What a mess!

There are many occasions which might cause you to shout this - a burglary, a bedroom floor, a naughty puppy. But for the Anglo-Saxons, who had much less stuff than us to worry about, there was only one cause: pigs! Hw æt! Hlosstede! [Hwat! Hlos-stay-duh] Indeed! A Pigsty! Try shouting that in anger and see if it makes you feel better. Image by Pascal Debrunner via Unsplash Disclaimer: these pigs are actually probably quite tidy

Bath time

A couple of weeks ago I watched a tiny robin having a bath just feet away from me. It was cold. It was wet. But the little bird was happy. When your Old-English ancestors went for their annual* wash I bet they were just as cold and wet, and probably less happy about it than our feathery friend. But we have the Anglo- Saxons to thank for our word 'bath' ( bæþ ) at least. And they even got quite poetic about it. The sea was 'the seal's bath' ( seolhbæþ ) Gif me þone sāpe [Yif me tho-nuh saa-puh] Pass me the soap (please) And how about this for the end result... Eart þu sȳferlīċ nu? [Ey-art thoo soo-fer-litch noo?] Are you clean now? *I'm guessing there was none of this modern daily shower malarky...

A starry, starry night

Photo by Kristopher Roller on Unsplash I think some of the best words in Old English relate to the heavens. You can imagine our Anglo-Saxon ancestors gazing at the beautiful night sky, no air pollution in sight. Well, apart from the smoky smoky hall fires... Ic eom tungolwitega ond ic seo þæt tungolgim [ itch ay-om tung-ol-wee-tay-ga ond itch say-oh that tung-ol-gim] I'm an astrologer/star prophet and I behold that bright star There's also tunglen - starry and Steorgleaw - clever at astrology

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