Hoping this off-topic thread hasn't gotten _too_ long yet (at least
it's not a flamey thread)...
John Coyle:
> What you have to remember is that the real English (the
> Anglo-Saxon-Romano-British-Viking-Celtic-Pictic blend that preceded the
> Normans) never stopped speaking Anglo-Saxon: that's where so many of our
> rudest cuss-words come from.
True. And as Graywolf quoted an author's characters pointing out, the
words for food animals that haven't been turned into food yet, too.
(When I tell the story of the time I had to defend myself with a
bastard sword [hand-and-a-half sword][*] against an attacker wielding
a baseball bat, at one point I describe how we "proceeded to have
a charming conversation full of short, Anglo-Saxon words.")
> Interestingly, Glenn's snippet of Middle English included the two words 'thi
> senn', which I understood to mean 'yourself'. The expression 'thisen' is
> still used in many parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, as in the motto:
Actually, in this case it means "thy sin[s]". Thi => thy; thu => thou.
> On Saturday, March 16, 2002 8:30 AM, T Rittenhouse [SMTP:trittenhouse@caroli
> na.rr.com] wrote:
> > Yep, yep, yep William the Conqueror that's it.
I deliberately left off the "the ___" to see what others would fill in.
Most of my friends call him "William the Bastard". :-)
BTW, a fascinating look at the early part of the transition period
is in Parke Godwin's retelling of the Robin Hood story, which he
sets under William the [Bastard|Conqueror] instead of in the time of
Richard the Lion Hearted the way most people do. Two volumes:
_Sherwood_, and _Robin_and_the_King_. He explores the collision
and blending of Norman and Anglo-Saxon cultures.
(He also shifts Arthur to an earlier period than most people do, in
_Firelord_ and _Beloved_Exile_, putting him in late Roman (or just
post-Roman) times. There, the tensions between the Celts and the
Britons play a role.)
Man, I *hated* history in high school...
Anyone interested enough to continue the Celtic/Angle/Saxon/Viking/
Norman/Who'd-I-Leave-Out invasion/migration/language thread off-list?
I know I'm learning things here, despite already knowing the basics.
Gotta say that medieval and renaissance re-enactment events are a lot
of fun to photograph though. :-) Got a lot easier to shoot the
feasts once I discovered TMZ and Delta 3200. (Flash breaks the mood
for everyone else, and doesn't capture the mood of a candle-lit feast
anyhow.) Fortunately the battles happen in daylight.
> > > Weilawei! Nis king ne queene thet ne ssel drink of deathes drench.
> > > Man, er thu vall of thi bench, thi senn aquench.
In case anyone's curious:
Alas! Neither king nor queen that shall not drink death's draught.
Man, ere you fall from your seat, repent your sins.
Not terribly cheerful, I know. The title, "Man mai longe lives weene",
means "Man may wish for long life", and the opening lyric continues,
"But the trick often escapes him". Another song from roughly the same
period, "Edi be thu, heven queene" ("Blessed be thou, queen of heaven"),
is much perkier. Transcribed, at
http://www.access.avernus.com/~glenn/edi-be-thu.pdf
if you're interested.
-- Glenn
[*] Same sword I'm holding in my submission to the August 2000 PUG,
http://pug.komkon.org/00augu/00Aug/kilt-axe-and-sword.html
The sword's name is "Letter Opener".
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