I'm always happy to reply to snippy snippets, But word for word isn't the sense of a story. Reading is for meaning, translation is for detail.
"Hw�t! We Gardena in geardagum, �eodcyninga, �rym gefrunon, hu �a ��elingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing scea�ena �reatum, Hear this, the (Danish warriors) of olden days and their kings had bravery and prowess. There existed a Scyld Scefing the bane of peoples. (Scyld is translated into English as shield, and a varient is used in the military descriptions of the Scot's tactics against the English, (can't remember how to spell it, something like Skyldron meaning shield wall - a rather less organized parallel to the ancient phalanx of the Greeks and Romans). BTW, where did you find that font, is it a standard on M$ or an add on? And that 4th line is normally inset in modern format as it is the beginning of a new thought. 5 monegum m�g�um, meodosetla ofteah, OK, here we get into the fact that this was one bad lad, he broke up the bars and messed with the troops. I'll not claim I can read this without a dictionary, nor can I read old Gaelic without one. Come to think of it I need a dictionary to read French or German (which I didn't need fifty years ago). The real point was that languages change, but there is a consistancy within the change. Chaucer is easy if you know both English and French, plus a little Briton, he was an early combiner in writing. The Old English of Beowulf contains may of the root words so one can find constructions (as in Gardena in the first line) that can be sorted out. I called it Danish warriors, others have been more literal with "sword Danes". But we see the similar root of guard and the nation of Danes (dena). All the Indo European languages have similar roots, one just needs to sort them out - sometimes a very difficult process. Best, Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
