COT (completely off-topic):-- Beowulf on Steorarume [Beowulf in Cyberspace]

beoram

beoram

Joined
Nov 27, 2001
Messages
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Absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with khukurees (other than the commonality of consuming my time) - but I just put the first version/first phase of my online Beowulf up. Right now it's 'just' the Old English text (with copious notes) - but I'm working on a new translation.

But, if anyone is interested, the page is here:

Online Beowulf/Beowulf on Steorarume

I'd welcome any comments, on any aspect, esp. the overall web-page design.

cheers all, Ben.
 
A great classic tale, though I must admit I have only read the modern retellings.

Andrew Limsk
 
Thanks all.

Originally posted by redvenom
A great classic tale, though I must admit I have only read the modern retellings.
Click to expand...

I'm presently working on a new translation which I'll put up on the site (alongside of the Old English).

B.
 
Got the first 52 lines translated (only 3132 more to go :eek: ;) ).

It's at http://www.cog.jhu.edu/~slade/beowulf.html

under 'Diacritically Marked Text & Translation'.

The poem opens with a funeral of a viking king, who doesn't actually re-appear in the poem (and who also has a son named Beowulf, who IS NOT the Beowulf of the title....). But I think the lines would resonate with many of those here....

cheers, Ben.
 
Originally posted by Bill Martino
I couldn't understand a word. How did we get from there to here?
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partly just normal language change - which is much more powerful than most people realise (Italians don't understand Latin either, unless they've studied it--e.g. my Ph.D. advisor is Italian, born & raised in Torino, having worked there for a number of years at Fiat as an electrian before making the odd leap first into English lit. and then into linguistics--he doesn't know any Latin whatsoever).

Also, there's a little matter of 1066, which is probably then most important recent event (relatively speaking) to have a significant impact on the language.

B.
 
Originally posted by Bill Martino
I couldn't understand a word. How did we get from there to here?
Click to expand...

partly just normal language change - which is much more powerful than most people realise (Italians don't understand Latin either, unless they've studied it--e.g. my Ph.D. advisor is Italian, born & raised in Torino, having worked there for a number of years at Fiat as an electrian before making the odd leap first into English lit. and then into linguistics--he doesn't know any Latin whatsoever).

Also, there's the little matter of 1066, which is probably then most important recent event (relatively speaking) to have a significant impact on the language.

B.
 
1066 - Norman Conquest of England by William The Bastard. Large infusion of Norman/French/Viking into English/Saxon language(?). Normandy means, more or less lierally, Norsemans Land. Area granted to the Vikings to keep them out of France (Gaul(?)).

Mucked-up everything!

JimF
 
And, as Beo probably knows better than I, Olaf the Black, one of the last Norse kings of the Isle of Mann, gave two sons part of the Isle of Skye, and the Hebrides Isles of Harris and Lewis. That led to clan MacLeod. Clan MacLeod, to muddy things worse, had a sept named Caskey to which I trace my lineage that apparently moved to the north shore of Ireland in the town of Balleymoney, ten miles inland from the worlds oldest distillery, Bushmills.

As has oft been remarked of the Scottish: " Ah, and aren't them the worst kind of Irish? " And aren't sleat, slade and slate the same word for the same kind of rock? Ben Slade, meet Russ Slate!
Howdy, cuz!
 
Originally posted by JimF
1066 - Norman Conquest of England by William The Bastard. Large infusion of Norman/French/Viking into English/Saxon language(?). Normandy means, more or less lierally, Norsemans Land. Area granted to the Vikings to keep them out of France (Gaul(?)).

Mucked-up everything!

JimF
Click to expand...

Yes - I thought 1066 was a date drilled into everyone's head (i.e. ask me to pick a number, guess what I'd pick?). 'Norman' is contraction of 'Norse-men', who were 'allowed' by the French to keep the northern part of France (modern Normandy) on the condition that they stopped raiding it and protected it against other viking invaders. Of course, the French are/were a combination of Romanised Germans (Franks, Frankish) and Romanised Celts (Gauls)...

And William (also sometime known by the less appropriate title of 'the Conqueror') really was a Bastard, in both senses of the word....and the Normans, for instance, unlike the Saxons, thought of women as chattel -- so 1066 set back 'women's rights' by about 1000 years....

Originally posted by Rusty

And, as Beo probably knows better than I, Olaf the Black, one of the last Norse kings of the Isle of Mann, gave two sons part of the Isle of Skye, and the Hebrides Isles of Harris and Lewis. That led to clan MacLeod. Clan MacLeod, to muddy things worse, had a sept named Caskey to which I trace my lineage that apparently moved to the north shore of Ireland in the town of Balleymoney, ten miles inland from the worlds oldest distillery, Bushmills.

As has oft been remarked of the Scottish: " Ah, and aren't them the worst kind of Irish? " And aren't sleat, slade and slate the same word for the same kind of rock? Ben Slade, meet Russ Slate!
Howdy, cuz!
Click to expand...


I actually didn't know that man details about the isle of Man and Olaf the Black and the Isle of Skye (the latter of which, by the way, makes some fab whisky).

SLADE however, is not a Scottish name--it's a good Anglo-Saxon word, slaed in Old English, and it means 'valley' or 'glade' (so originally applied to 'those people who live in the valley' I suspect). SLATE ultimately comes from Old French esclate, meaning 'splinter' (descriptive of slate, I suppose). That doesn't mean some branch of 'SLADES' didn't have their name 'corrupted' to SLATE (I suspect it would be this way, rather than the other way round)....

But, in any case, we're still khukuree-kin :) (oh, the alliteration......too much Beowlf for today ;) ).

cheers, B.
 
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