johan: (dragon)
Johan ([personal profile] johan) wrote2007-05-30 11:59 am

He has been laid in his barrow

Swá hit gedéfe bið þæt mon his winedryhten wordum herge
ferhðum fréoge þonne hé forð scile of líchaman laéded weorðan
swá begnornodon Géata léode hláfordes hryre, heorðgenéatas:
cwaédon þæt hé waére wyruldcyning manna mildust ond monðwaérust
léodum líðost ond lofgeornost.

Yep, I'm done. Ding-dong, the King is dead.

I feel like I should get started both on Heaney's other œuvre and on other recordings of Germanic epics.

[identity profile] hanspersson.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 10:52 am (UTC)(link)
That is, unfortunately, too far away from modern English in order for me to be able to read it at any useful pace and/or level of understanding.

[identity profile] jophan.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 10:55 am (UTC)(link)
For me too, I just put it in because it felt appropriate. I can make my way through it slowly and understand most of it, I have enough Old English for that, but not for anything that can be called "reading". Text explication is a different thing.

[identity profile] bara-fantasier.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 10:54 am (UTC)(link)
He said: "Eh, I know you and you cannot sing."
I said: "That's nothing you should hear me play piano."

[identity profile] jophan.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 10:56 am (UTC)(link)
Exactly!

[identity profile] time-freak.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
If only I knew what the hell any of that meant...