Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Anglo Saxonisming

This was (part of) one of my speeches in a performance I did in a class last year. 50 points if you can guess the language, what it means, and what book/movie "borrowed" it.
Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago? Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa?
Hwær cwom symbla gesetu? Hwær sindon seledreamas?
Eala beorht bune! Eala byrnwiga!

Eala þeodnes þrym! Hu seo þrag gewat,
genap under nihthelm, swa heo no wære.

5 comments:

Blake said...

Old English (c. 10th century)

from The Wanderer:

Where is the horse gone, where the young rider?
Where now the giver of gifts?
Where are the seats at the feasting gone?
Where are the merry sounds in the hall?
Alas, the bright goblet! Alas, the knight and his hauberk!
Alas, the glory of the king!
How that hour has departed, dark under the shadow of night,
as had it never been!

used by Tolkein in The Two Towers to describe Eorl the Young in "King of the Golden Hall,"

Lapsura said...

you're not supposed to cheat!!!

Blake said...

pphhh. everyone knew that one.

Anonymous said...

i'm proud of the fact that i knew it was old english just by looking at it, and didn't 'cheat'. so there.


wouldn't have known the tolkien link though, as i have not read his, nor haven't seen all of the movies. yes, yes, flay me, i'm not a tolkien fan. so there.

Lapsura said...

*gasp*!

If I were to do grad studies in English, my thesis would be about Tolkien. But I admit, LOTR is full of dry and tedious descriptions.