Had to fill out a new form for my psychiatrist's office recently -- pretty standard stuff, including a drop-down for race/ethnicity and another for primary language.
But when I entered "english" in the Primary Language search bar as requested, it offered me some amazing, exciting options.
[ID: A screengrab of the form, where I have typed "eng" in the search bar; three options are visible below. The options are "English", "English, Old 450-1100" and "English, Middle 1100-1500".]
I know it's just because the form autoloaded a preset list of languages from somewhere that included Old and Middle English, but I'm still tickled by the idea that Clarity Clinic Chicago has people onboard who could prescribe Adderall for Caedmon or help Shakespeare sort out his gender issues.
Old Welsh lit: Dave punched Steve. This incurred a fine of twelve cattle and a nine-inch rod of silver and is known as one of the Three Mildly Annoying Blows of the Isle of Britain
Old Irish lit: Dave punched Steve so that the top of his skull came out of his chin, and gore flooded the house, and he drove his fists down the street performing his battle-feats so that the corpses were so numerous there was no room for them to fall down. It was like “the fox among the hens” and “the oncoming tide” and “that time Emily had eight drinks when we all know she should stop at six”
Old English lit: Dave, the hard man, the fierce man, the fist-man, gave Steve such a blow the like has not been seen since the feud between the Hylfings and the Wends. Thus it is rightly said that violence only begets more violence, unless of course it is particularly sicknasty. Amen.
I can't read old english but the second chapter is both a translation and notes on the translation/writing choices which i HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEYRE SO COOL
THE MEANINGS AND CHOICES IN TRANSLATION ARE GETTING TO ME
Also so many of them have these awesome explanations behind them and then there's this:
"The Old English word for “doctor”, læce, literally means “leech”, which he would hate being called so, so much that I immediately had to use it for him."
Lady stems from a compound meaning 'bread kneader'. It consisted of Proto-West Germanic *hlaeb (bread), the ancestor of loaf, and *daigijā (kneader), a derivation of *daig, the ancestor of dough. In Old English, the compound had become hlǣfdiġe, meaning 'mistress of the household'. Click the video to hear how it changed in 2500 years.
I did a Kickstarter campaign a couple of years ago to fund the production of a hand-illuminated insular Gospel book. I'm planning a new campaign for early next year to do a similar illumination project for Beowulf, featuring the Old English and modern English translation on facing pages. I would love some input for reward tier ideas that people would be interested in receiving as part of the project. Some of the ones I have planned already will be a large illuminated art print, the regular hardcover book once it's finished and published, as well as a high-end hand bound leather version. What are some other Beowulf/Anglo-Saxon relevant rewards you would be interested to see?
The dying Beowulf, having just defeated the dragon, is supported by his ally Wiglaf. Illustration by George T. Tobin from Siegfried, the Hero of the North, and Beowulf, the Hero of the Anglo-Saxons by Zenaide A. Ragozin, published in 1909. Now in the New York Public Library.