@Linfex96 sorry those Britains were Celts. Modern English is different because of influences from Norman French and any other language it runs into. What the Saxons were speaking in 1066 was old english. Middle English is much easier to understand because of the french influences.
@flyfysr This language is Anglo-Saxon much older, as I understand it, because it combines two dialects extant at the time. I read this in UNI in English and Anglo Saxon. I recognize some of the opening text. We had a professor who read a good deal of it to us aloud. This is probably the Seamus Heany Edition, but it could be closer to the first manuscript with less Christian mythology and more pagan.
Please forgive me if I have it all scrambled around. I'm too lazy to Wiki it.
"Gay as fuck," you say? Kid, the sort of men who orignially enjoyed this great epic poem were known to hack open an enemy's ribs while he was still alive and flip his lungs on either side of his body. They called this procedure the "blood eagle."
I had the pleasure of hearing this gentleman in person several years ago. I had to laugh when the line "Drunk with beer" turns out to be the same in both Anglo Saxon and New English.
@archer1949 And also the names of nearly every character, place, etc. And his epic saga was inspired by Germanic epics. Also, Elven runes are inspired by Anglo-Saxon runes. :-)
This is so cool. It makes a bit more sense if you know some German, and then, if you listen to it.. you can pick up some of it, hear the grammar, and know that this is an ancestor to what you speak every day. And if that doesn't turn you on, you should re-evaluate your life.
@tyrelroo Yes indeed. I speak German and English, and I can understand many bits of it. Like the words that sounded like "Koening" (King), or "froh" (merry)... not sure how they're really spelled in OE, but they're cognates to modern German's "Koenig" and "frohlich". Really love hearing these ancient tongues, especially old forms of German/Norse. Hopefully will learn one someday. :-)
Benjamin Bagby is an amazing skald. I'm presently reading Seamus Heaney's translation, and was curious how the original might have sounded. This nearly gave me chills.
@Accisma agreed, like latin biblical hebrew sanskrit and what have you it's basically a dead language, or an archaic form of modern language(s) so hence none of the necessary words we have today for things we need like maybe "Internet" and stuff. And things we don't need that are apparently words like "OMG LOL web2.0 ROFLMAO"
It annoys me that people glorify old English so much. It's a language, just like modern English, German, French, Hindi, and the hundreds of other languages that exist, and nothing more special. Back in those days, people spoke the language every day, it's not like old English was the word of god. Calm down about old English
Btw, the best compromise between the different opinions would be to learn German xD It has 4 cases, lots of works of literature as well as scientific, philosophical and otherwise intellectual ones and is close to English in vocabulary and spirit.
Interesting points of view are expressed here. Mine is, however, that you learn an ancient language in order to read the works that were originally written in it. But then you can't even compare Old English literature, despite great works like Beowulf, to what is written in Latin and Ancient Greek.
Btw, ancient Greek had 5 cases, Latin 6 (Sanskrit 8) and Old English 5. OE is just average in this respect.
@revilo178 Languages aren't about the number of cases. If you fetishize cases, read Sanskrit and nothing else. Oh, and don't ever worry about Chinese then. Also, there are more reasons to learn a language even than reading the literature, such as the history of the language for instance (in which case Old English will aid you immeasurably more than Greek). This is coming from someone who reads classics and OE by the way (not that this matters in my opinion).
I've spent a good amount of time studying the reconstructed phonology of Old English, and have heard numerous attempts at reciting the prologue of Beowulf.
This man's performance hits home. He is a gentleman and a scholar.
have you guys heard of futurese? i dont know whether its made up or not, but it seems legitimate and its supposed to be the english language of the future. it doesnt sound too farfetched at all.. but really confusing.
@BeakyRed of course it's made up to a degree, because no one can know the future. Nonetheless, the 2100 stage is close to modern pronunciations that are coming into existence, and the changes that occur are relatively plausible things that a linguist would not think dumb or impossible (which makes sense, as it was made by an english). There's no reason it'd HAVE to develop that way, but it could and that's the point that it's a possible look at what english could look like in 3000.
@TheRoyalFuzzybug I agree that school kids should be allowed to learn a 2nd language in elementary school, as research shows that this boosts student achievement in other academic areas. I love Old English, but I don't think it advisable to teach a dead language to kids, although I think some exposure would be beneficial. On a more practical level, in terms of a language's influence in international business, perhaps better choices might include Chinese, French, Hindi, Spanish, Russian & Arabic.
@TheRoyalFuzzybug Good idea but I don't think that the teachers would know it.
I'd love to learn this language. They wouldn't have words like what we use today to translate like 'laptop' or somthing like that so you'd have to just add it in like in modern day English.
@TheRoyalFuzzybug I we all spoke old English and it became the new official language of the US and The UK then other countries would probably takes us a lot more seriously.
It would never happen. To be honest there's no practical use for Old English other than Snobbism and interpreting millennium old work (mind you I love Anglo-Saxon). I live in Québec and I'm 3/4 French, I attend an English high-school and believe me, most kids aren't even interested in learning French which is essential in our province considering that 75% of population is French speaking. Believe me it'd be a waste of time and money trying to get kids to learn Old English.
@alexpjp Perhaps I am wrong but one of the reasons we learn Latin (I do not care much for Ancient Greek) is because as a language it is very close to Spanish, Italian and French and introduces people at a young age to the case system in a relatively easy language compared to Polish or Russian. Although you could say that one should not bother with Latin and immediately start on modern languages using similar principles but Latin does give a strong foundation and may help more than Old English.
Actually, our language isn't as close to French as people think. Sure, we unfortunately have a large vocab from them, but the fundamentals of our language: it's sound, it's structure, the core vocab, it's history, it's rhythm... ALL come from Old English. I would say learn Latin and Greek too, but OE first. Also, OE has more cases than Latin or Greek, so that's another good way of introducing that. Russian is not at all a difficult language to learn.
@MissAmiTimeLord A far more useful language than Old Engilsh. Far more important works were written in Latin by the Romans and even by individuals who lived a millennium after the fall of Rome. It's a bit fatuous to compare Old English to Latin.
@LoquaciousApe Apologies if I wasn't clear enough. I didn't think it was implied in the original post that we should just "forget" about teaching any modern language. And Latin, while useful, is still as much a dead language as Old English.
Répondre à cette vidéo... And no, we don't learn Latin. I'm yet to hear of a school curriculum in which Latin is taught as an essential primary foreign language.
This guy is incredible, my instructor from Whatcom Community College invited him to do a performance for us at the college and he accepted. It was amazing to meet him and watch him perform this live. It was one of the most incredible experiences that I will never forget.
Mordern England should learn to be more like the Danes, don't give a shit about anyone apart from your own country then no harm will come to you haha :P
Everytime I watch a video of Beowulf being read I always see coments about how it sounds Sandinavian. Of course it does! Old-English (and modern English) and the Scandinavian languages (with the exception of Finnish) all share the same proto-Germanic root!
I had to do this in an English class once, everyone did actually. We had to memorize it and recite it, one by one, but only up to the line "þæt wæs god cyning!". That was like 6 years ago but I still have it memorized. I live in a French-speaking country, so sometimes when I'm speaking English and I see people are looking at me in such a way that I can see that understand and are listening to me, I throw in a line or two of this to throw them off.
@VeganKittensmith wow! I'm an English major, and we still haven't mentioned Old English after 2 years. Funny thing is, I know much more about OE than my native language, Hungarian
The pronunciation sounds alot like Old Norse or old Scandinavian. The words differ alot though and it's a good indicator of this language comes from a time after the proto-germanic when the western germanic (ex. english and german) and northern germanic (scandinavian) were divided. This guy is good
I always love that I can understand a bit of this from knowing Norwegian, English and a Northern German dialect which has close connections to old Saxon: Daut weas goot Kenninj!
A lot of people who claim to "represent" an old English speaker , often pronounce words wrong. A lot of times , the vowels at the end of words are pronounced, when they shouldn't be. And the "g" is often misrepresented as an ordinary "g" , when it should actually found like "y". In fact , Old English is between dutch and Modern English , yet they make it sound like Icelandic or Swedish.
Where did you come up with that conclusion? Is it based almost completely on location? A large majority of Dutch pronunciation and their accent arose about 600 years ago and sounds nothing like it's ancient relative, I'd go more with Frisian or even Flemish over modern Dutch. Also,I would most likely assume that they spoke in a similar manner to Northumbrians or Mercian since many of them in isolated villages speak a less altered form of English which retains the original phonology.
I take the time to study the words of Old English , find their modern usage , their cognates , and find the most accurate way to pronounce them.
I am so sure that I am right , because I compare the syllables with each cognate I find , and I find the median between them.
For example , Old English "Nama" was pronounced like Modern English "Name" , because the second vowel acts with the first one. It's where Modern English gets that system from.
"Old English "Nama" was pronounced like Modern English "Name", because the second vowel acts with the first one. It's where Modern English gets that system from."
No. That changed happened with the "Great Vowel Shift" in the 15th and 16th century. You must remember Old English was a collection of Germanic dialects, and Latin scribes would have wrote it how THEY heard it.
Because unlike philosophy and religion (which are reason derived/self evident beliefs) , I have physical evidence of what I am saying.
That was totally uncalled for , bringing my religion into this. I don't know where you are from , but where I am from , that's a form of discrimination .
"The Great vowel Shift" doesn't actually mean for the spoken vowels. It's actually the written vowels that were shifted. There was hardly any shift of spoken vowels.
No, you don't. No one can be certain about what anyone sounded like before audio recording. All we have to go by is writing and estimation by circumstance. Language as it is spoken changes over time regardless of how it is written. You're comment presented no new point, aside from showing how easily offended you are by a joke.
Well, at least to the extent that one can be certain of a 99/100 chance.
In modern English , we have a system that changes the sound of a vowel from the addition of another vowel. There are a few Germanic languages that partially use that system. From observing modern English words , and comparing to ancestors and cognates , we can make a very educated guess that Old English may also have had that very same system.
Again, the use of examples really helps you not look like an idiot. You keep saying, "I know for a fact," "I am so certain," and you've not produced one example to prove any of your points. You can't say, "I know for a fact" when you simply "remembered reading a few articles on the internet."
I just left out English of the languages that I do not expertly know , so I can imply that I know English to the extent that someone who was was born and raised would know English. I can't say I am an expert in Old English either , because I don't know everything about it. The only thing I have been learning is it's pronunciation . And it astounds me how many people can come across the same things that I do but do not see them as I do.
old english is very similar to icelandic or old norse. icelandic has changed less than any other nordic language, thus still sounding like its ancient counterpart
Don't get too angry at the Normans for doing what everyone did at the time. By-the-way, The Normans were of the same stock as the Anglo-Saxons, Normans = North-Men. The Anglo-Saxons defeated the native Celtic populations, who moved west and became the Welsh. People migrate all the time, everyone came from somewhere else, just the way of history.
@mendesana You mean Sir Christopher Lee, the badass actor who played the badass character created by the there-are-no-words J.R.R. Tolkien, who published a groundbreaking paper on "Beowulf" long before LotR hit the shelves and would probably thumbs-up this video? Na, not quite. Listen to Lee singing on Rhapsody of Fire's "The Magic of the Wizard's Dreams." 'Cause just when you thought Lee couldn't get any cooler, he turns up a metal fan with his own album.
@yurismir1 hes being a skald dude calm yourself, old English was essentially Scandinavian, and Skalds would tell this and making it dramatic would make it interesting
@yurismir1 Don't even try to say make your point, "Old English was a West Germanic language not a North Germanic one (like Old Norse)," a terribly significant one. Old Norse and Old English share very, very much in common. And you do not know that people didn't sound like this back then. You are being fallacious, man. Besides, it's an epic poem: it must be read in an epic manner.
@yurismir1 People probably didn't talk to each other at the market like this, but I'll bet Beowulf was read with just as much vigor and inflection. No one alive today has heard a native Old English speaker, so you can't say with such conviction that they didn't speak this way. And calling me a "twat nugget" really fortifies your scholarly credibility. I could call you a succulent swan snatch but I'm not. The truth is that you don't know. None alive do. It's all speculation. Educate thyself.
@JTAG37 Actually, that would have been a scop, and Anglo-Saxon poet. The type of poetry is different. For one, scaldic poetry is created once and learnt by heart. Old English poetry is formulaic and reinvented with the same building blocks every time it is recited, like serbo-croatian poetry today and Homer before.
@mendesana LOL-- We're watching the DVD at home and I just said that to my daughter!! SHe thought I was nuts, so it's nice to get some validity from you, whoever you may be! :D
Looks amazing but I'd think that it would get boring after a while. I mean, most of us have no idea what he's saying right?
iamOnimal 5 days ago
51 pages of comments so far, wow!
curvycom 1 week ago
erm....... Q'pla!
ghosterdude 1 week ago
You can really hear how modern German and English came from in this! :D
YanSui01 2 weeks ago
Love it! Where can I find a full-length version instead of just snippets like this?
1101millie97 2 weeks ago
The audience looks spellbound.
rhall4th 2 weeks ago
Brilliant performance. Now I have a better sense of the language that inspired Tolkien's languages of Middle Earth.
msjonimoto 2 weeks ago
What is he saying!
thecurlyfry1123 2 weeks ago
did he say something about an arrow to the knee?
WaxingRadiance 2 weeks ago
Modern english is different than ancient because modern has been a lot influenced by latin with romans in 300 ac
Linfex96 2 weeks ago
@Linfex96 sorry those Britains were Celts. Modern English is different because of influences from Norman French and any other language it runs into. What the Saxons were speaking in 1066 was old english. Middle English is much easier to understand because of the french influences.
DrKorn5 2 weeks ago
@DrKorn5
Yes, infact I said that Modern english has been influienced a lot by latin and nordic languages
Linfex96 2 weeks ago
@Linfex96 Latin and Greek.
Antiks72 1 week ago
Bh
Linfex96 2 weeks ago
I did not understand a word of that..
but I still felt the power and majesty of it.
AngelusDlion 2 weeks ago
AND MY AXE!
scribblevillage 3 weeks ago
I just had an eargasm
UnbrokenCheese 3 weeks ago
did anyone else hear the 'that was a good king' part? :D
CodeDarkBlue 1 month ago
I TOOK YA MEAD BENCH NIGGA IM KING OF SCHYTHLINGS
TheShaolinScholar 1 month ago
gay as fuck
UserName0043 1 month ago
This is how a Swede pronounces Old English
Se Gerefasunu
flyfysr 1 month ago
@flyfysr This language is Anglo-Saxon much older, as I understand it, because it combines two dialects extant at the time. I read this in UNI in English and Anglo Saxon. I recognize some of the opening text. We had a professor who read a good deal of it to us aloud. This is probably the Seamus Heany Edition, but it could be closer to the first manuscript with less Christian mythology and more pagan.
Please forgive me if I have it all scrambled around. I'm too lazy to Wiki it.
curvycom 1 week ago
WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!?!
PurrimofLeir 1 month ago 3
Is there a recording or video anywhere of him playing that lyre?
obach16 1 month ago
this is absolutely epic!
gangsterelmoman 1 month ago
How does the audience not look more excited?! I would be sat on the edge of my seat, or joining in...
:-)
Thanks for uploading this video - it's brilliant.
C
MissClareCharlotte 1 month ago
"Gay as fuck," you say? Kid, the sort of men who orignially enjoyed this great epic poem were known to hack open an enemy's ribs while he was still alive and flip his lungs on either side of his body. They called this procedure the "blood eagle."
tneveca 2 months ago 5
Comment removed
tneveca 2 months ago
I had the pleasure of hearing this gentleman in person several years ago. I had to laugh when the line "Drunk with beer" turns out to be the same in both Anglo Saxon and New English.
cprokopp1 2 months ago
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gay as fuck
UserName0043 2 months ago
@UserName0043 As we (you included) speak Modern English, with all of its French influence.
The French language isn't exactly "manly", by the way.
TheSaucyAuto 1 month ago
Tolkein based the Rohan Language on Anglo Saxon.
archer1949 2 months ago
@archer1949 And also the names of nearly every character, place, etc. And his epic saga was inspired by Germanic epics. Also, Elven runes are inspired by Anglo-Saxon runes. :-)
ATCWARE 2 months ago
I could be speaking this language . . . fuck the Normans.
rotcbrad 2 months ago 4
It sounds like elf language
maadikid1 2 months ago
@maadikid1 And well it should. Tolkien spoke Old English.
salvagebar 2 months ago
This is so cool. It makes a bit more sense if you know some German, and then, if you listen to it.. you can pick up some of it, hear the grammar, and know that this is an ancestor to what you speak every day. And if that doesn't turn you on, you should re-evaluate your life.
tyrelroo 2 months ago 9
@tyrelroo it makes more sense if you know Anglo-Saxon :) hah
OdinIsMyGuide 2 months ago
@tyrelroo Yes indeed. I speak German and English, and I can understand many bits of it. Like the words that sounded like "Koening" (King), or "froh" (merry)... not sure how they're really spelled in OE, but they're cognates to modern German's "Koenig" and "frohlich". Really love hearing these ancient tongues, especially old forms of German/Norse. Hopefully will learn one someday. :-)
ATCWARE 2 months ago
@tyrelroo Turn u on lol ? ur mad
LCKLooney 1 month ago
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Wanna see the most epic Beowulf/Grendel fight scene? A simple search for
Beowulf Parkour
will suffice. Prepare to be baffled
codysilc 2 months ago
CHILLS.
redredshoes 2 months ago
weird
TheWhatadon 3 months ago
If you want to see Beowulf in all its awesomeness, look up Beowulf Parkour. To see how it really happened!
codysilc 3 months ago
I don't agree with all of this guys pronunciation, but he does a good job
austpom333 3 months ago
i wish space marines talked like this, instead of in a lame british accent
TheMindRobber42 4 months ago
This language bears as much (superficial) similarity to Modern English as Latin does.
LoquaciousApe 4 months ago
Þæt wæs god cyning!
Ryak1234 4 months ago
Benjamin Bagby is an amazing skald. I'm presently reading Seamus Heaney's translation, and was curious how the original might have sounded. This nearly gave me chills.
zenfox6 4 months ago
@Accisma agreed, like latin biblical hebrew sanskrit and what have you it's basically a dead language, or an archaic form of modern language(s) so hence none of the necessary words we have today for things we need like maybe "Internet" and stuff. And things we don't need that are apparently words like "OMG LOL web2.0 ROFLMAO"
75egcg 4 months ago
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I don't want to offend anyone but..
This is the most epic language ever.
drumstickNL 4 months ago
It annoys me that people glorify old English so much. It's a language, just like modern English, German, French, Hindi, and the hundreds of other languages that exist, and nothing more special. Back in those days, people spoke the language every day, it's not like old English was the word of god. Calm down about old English
srs32896 4 months ago
We watched this in my English class the other day and we laughed at how the audience gave him those blank stares. XD
AzureClarity 4 months ago
Beautiful. As an Englishman I'd love to learn Old English one day.
JackyB92 4 months ago
i love how every once in a while I understand what he said 100%
THAT WAS GOOD KING! xD
darris321 4 months ago 12
Btw, the best compromise between the different opinions would be to learn German xD It has 4 cases, lots of works of literature as well as scientific, philosophical and otherwise intellectual ones and is close to English in vocabulary and spirit.
revilo178 5 months ago 3
Interesting points of view are expressed here. Mine is, however, that you learn an ancient language in order to read the works that were originally written in it. But then you can't even compare Old English literature, despite great works like Beowulf, to what is written in Latin and Ancient Greek.
Btw, ancient Greek had 5 cases, Latin 6 (Sanskrit 8) and Old English 5. OE is just average in this respect.
revilo178 5 months ago
@revilo178 Languages aren't about the number of cases. If you fetishize cases, read Sanskrit and nothing else. Oh, and don't ever worry about Chinese then. Also, there are more reasons to learn a language even than reading the literature, such as the history of the language for instance (in which case Old English will aid you immeasurably more than Greek). This is coming from someone who reads classics and OE by the way (not that this matters in my opinion).
jmgoldman1 4 months ago
Comment removed
revilo178 4 months ago
@jmgoldman1 It's other people who pulled up the "number of cases" argument. It happens they got it wrong, so I was just correcting it.
As to the rest of your reply: fair enough.
revilo178 4 months ago
Imagine the president's speeches if this were the US's new official language
Liddlelegrande 5 months ago 2
:D :O
BeakyRed 5 months ago
out of all of that, i understood like 2 words haha! too bad english has changed so much!
ItsEmmalicious 6 months ago
The mythical Legend of Germany is Siegfried, a warrior who killed dragons.
TheTheMetaphysics 6 months ago
THAT WAS GOOD KING
chaosbringer127 6 months ago
Kids barely learn the language they now speak! But, yes, Old English must be part of "A" level English.
nkadambi 6 months ago
@selatik1 I will not disagree, I just have a delusion that one day it might make a comeback. Hey, Hebrew did it.
TheRoyalFuzzybug 6 months ago
Our language has descended from one of warrior poets to the bastardised form we have today. This is a tragedy.
AusMarkus 6 months ago in playlist Beowulf Intro
I've spent a good amount of time studying the reconstructed phonology of Old English, and have heard numerous attempts at reciting the prologue of Beowulf.
This man's performance hits home. He is a gentleman and a scholar.
LuJoTu 6 months ago
þæt wæs god cyning!
selatik1 6 months ago 3
I'd like to learn whatever instrument that is he's playing - is it a lyre?
coramunroe 7 months ago
@coramunroe
Yes.
Vovk3 7 months ago
ancient literature. you gotta love it!
LiteratureNow 7 months ago
why isn't the whole story up??
sierra043 8 months ago
what 's this language ??
MrDsNo7 8 months ago
@MrDsNo7 Old English.
spackhollogay 8 months ago
@MrDsNo7 old english/anglo-saxon
fudgysister 8 months ago
that was good king sounded like normal
rrf745 8 months ago
@rrf745 "þæt wæs gōd cyning!" My favorite part! =D
evilmick66 7 months ago
@evilmick66 0-22 is point less though and yeah that was a good part
rrf745 7 months ago
whoa.
angelofdeath275 8 months ago
Hundreds of generations? lol, thats a bit of an exaggeration.
neil73 9 months ago
have you guys heard of futurese? i dont know whether its made up or not, but it seems legitimate and its supposed to be the english language of the future. it doesnt sound too farfetched at all.. but really confusing.
around 3000 AD by the way
BeakyRed 9 months ago
@BeakyRed of course it's made up to a degree, because no one can know the future. Nonetheless, the 2100 stage is close to modern pronunciations that are coming into existence, and the changes that occur are relatively plausible things that a linguist would not think dumb or impossible (which makes sense, as it was made by an english). There's no reason it'd HAVE to develop that way, but it could and that's the point that it's a possible look at what english could look like in 3000.
doomduckie 9 months ago
One of the most beautiful things I have ever heard.
Adschi2010 9 months ago 8
Old English should be taught as a second language in primary schools in the English speaking world.
TheRoyalFuzzybug 9 months ago 55
@TheRoyalFuzzybug second i say first
stealth1692 9 months ago
@TheRoyalFuzzybug I agree that school kids should be allowed to learn a 2nd language in elementary school, as research shows that this boosts student achievement in other academic areas. I love Old English, but I don't think it advisable to teach a dead language to kids, although I think some exposure would be beneficial. On a more practical level, in terms of a language's influence in international business, perhaps better choices might include Chinese, French, Hindi, Spanish, Russian & Arabic.
selatik1 6 months ago
@TheRoyalFuzzybug students would hate it :( but it's very beautiful (i'm a hungarian linguist)
levako05d 6 months ago
@TheRoyalFuzzybug Good idea but I don't think that the teachers would know it.
I'd love to learn this language. They wouldn't have words like what we use today to translate like 'laptop' or somthing like that so you'd have to just add it in like in modern day English.
So, yeah, good idea !!
seccikid6 6 months ago
@TheRoyalFuzzybug
REALLY?
Jammed9000 6 months ago
@TheRoyalFuzzybug I we all spoke old English and it became the new official language of the US and The UK then other countries would probably takes us a lot more seriously.
Liddlelegrande 6 months ago
@TheRoyalFuzzybug
It would never happen. To be honest there's no practical use for Old English other than Snobbism and interpreting millennium old work (mind you I love Anglo-Saxon). I live in Québec and I'm 3/4 French, I attend an English high-school and believe me, most kids aren't even interested in learning French which is essential in our province considering that 75% of population is French speaking. Believe me it'd be a waste of time and money trying to get kids to learn Old English.
FANADICALCOWHEAD 5 months ago
@TheRoyalFuzzybug I've been saying this for YEARS. It's only natural that we learn our ancient language BEFORE Ancient Greek or Latin.
alexpjp 5 months ago
@alexpjp Perhaps I am wrong but one of the reasons we learn Latin (I do not care much for Ancient Greek) is because as a language it is very close to Spanish, Italian and French and introduces people at a young age to the case system in a relatively easy language compared to Polish or Russian. Although you could say that one should not bother with Latin and immediately start on modern languages using similar principles but Latin does give a strong foundation and may help more than Old English.
tommie997 5 months ago
@tommie997 I've never said any of this.
Actually, our language isn't as close to French as people think. Sure, we unfortunately have a large vocab from them, but the fundamentals of our language: it's sound, it's structure, the core vocab, it's history, it's rhythm... ALL come from Old English. I would say learn Latin and Greek too, but OE first. Also, OE has more cases than Latin or Greek, so that's another good way of introducing that. Russian is not at all a difficult language to learn.
alexpjp 5 months ago
@alexpjp I do indeed learn something new everyday, perhaps we should start implementing it into our school systems. Surprisingly convincing...
tommie997 5 months ago
@TheRoyalFuzzybug
hahaha that would be interesting
Marictdude 4 months ago
@TheRoyalFuzzybug Yes, forget French, German, Chinese, or Spanish, let's teach a dead language!
LoquaciousApe 4 months ago
@LoquaciousApe We learn Latin, don't we?
MissAmiTimeLord 4 months ago
@MissAmiTimeLord A far more useful language than Old Engilsh. Far more important works were written in Latin by the Romans and even by individuals who lived a millennium after the fall of Rome. It's a bit fatuous to compare Old English to Latin.
LoquaciousApe 4 months ago
@LoquaciousApe Apologies if I wasn't clear enough. I didn't think it was implied in the original post that we should just "forget" about teaching any modern language. And Latin, while useful, is still as much a dead language as Old English.
MissAmiTimeLord 4 months ago
Comment removed
QCIC56 3 months ago
Répondre à cette vidéo... And no, we don't learn Latin. I'm yet to hear of a school curriculum in which Latin is taught as an essential primary foreign language.
LoquaciousApe 4 months ago
This guy is incredible, my instructor from Whatcom Community College invited him to do a performance for us at the college and he accepted. It was amazing to meet him and watch him perform this live. It was one of the most incredible experiences that I will never forget.
loveliesdiva 10 months ago 3
HWÆT! :O
Kunowalos 10 months ago 71
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@Kunowalos Ϧƿæτ! Ƿe Gaɼdena ɩn ᵷeaɼdaᵷum, þeadcýnınᵷa, þɼým ᵷeϝɼunon, hu ða æþelɩnᵷas ellen ϝɼemdon. Oϝτ Scýld Sceϝɩnᵷ ſceaþena þɼeaτum, ...moneᵷum mæᵷþum, meodoseτla oϝτeah, eᵷſode eoɼlas. Sýððan æɼeſt ƿeaɼð ϝeaſceaϝτ ϝunden, he þæs ϝɼoϝɼe ᵷebad, ƿeox undeɼ ƿolcnum, ƿeoɼðmýndum þah, oðþæτ him æᵷhƿýlc þaɼa ýmbſɩττendɼa oϝen hɼonɼade hýɼan ſcolde, ᵷomban ᵷýldan.
CeluiEtSeul 3 months ago
@CeluiEtSeul That was amazing.
TheSaucyAuto 1 month ago
wow if we talk like this during class now our teacher will think we are crazy shouting weird language
joesr31 10 months ago
Could anyone post the torrent for this?
RonaldR2007 11 months ago
That was good king!
JediHobbit89 11 months ago 3
My jaw hung ajar when I heard this.
VZerda 11 months ago
Mordern England should learn to be more like the Danes, don't give a shit about anyone apart from your own country then no harm will come to you haha :P
masterlowsferatu 11 months ago
He is not accompanying himself on 'a harp' but rather upon an Anglo-Saxon lyre. Thank you for the video!
VelikyUstyug1 11 months ago
MARCH NOW TO HELMS DEEEEEEPP
jackvamp1 11 months ago 4
I cant make it out.....Sorry for my ignorance , but is he speaking in Old English?
Acting out Beowulf in Old English?
If so , how does the audience understand it?
horneyman85 11 months ago
@horneyman85 The subtitles are also running in the audience, I believe. They have the same experience that you have here on screen.
Sagahwaetichatte 11 months ago
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apolloshezmu 11 months ago
1:14 "þæt wæs god cyning!"
iwpoe 1 year ago 3
Everytime I watch a video of Beowulf being read I always see coments about how it sounds Sandinavian. Of course it does! Old-English (and modern English) and the Scandinavian languages (with the exception of Finnish) all share the same proto-Germanic root!
Tomgar18 1 year ago
@Tomgar18 Ffinnish is a ural asiatic language ... simiiarities to Japanese and Hungarian...
regards
Fitvideo
Fitvideo 1 year ago
@Tomgar18 Finnsh is a ural asiatic language ... simiiarities to Japanese and Hungarian...
regards
Fitvideo
Fitvideo 1 year ago
As a Norwegian wich speaks all the scandinavian language + dutch i understand this perfectly...
Lub0ff 1 year ago
It definitely sounds Scandinavian. It's not as wispy sounding as its spelling made it appear.
bhujikop 1 year ago
also, I dare you to recite it, in this manner, in English class, standing on top of the table
spinakker14 1 year ago 3
@spinakker14
I had to do this in an English class once, everyone did actually. We had to memorize it and recite it, one by one, but only up to the line "þæt wæs god cyning!". That was like 6 years ago but I still have it memorized. I live in a French-speaking country, so sometimes when I'm speaking English and I see people are looking at me in such a way that I can see that understand and are listening to me, I throw in a line or two of this to throw them off.
VeganKittensmith 1 year ago 4
@VeganKittensmith wow! I'm an English major, and we still haven't mentioned Old English after 2 years. Funny thing is, I know much more about OE than my native language, Hungarian
spinakker14 1 year ago 2
@spinakker14
[Show] thin weorth. :)
MaBu888 1 year ago
I expected the guy to recite the poem on that bridge, in that coat - that would have been even more awesome
spinakker14 1 year ago
The pronunciation sounds alot like Old Norse or old Scandinavian. The words differ alot though and it's a good indicator of this language comes from a time after the proto-germanic when the western germanic (ex. english and german) and northern germanic (scandinavian) were divided. This guy is good
RealityChickRCRU 1 year ago
i wish this was the official language of england
firevorm 1 year ago
Norman sont nord gens trop. norman donnent lieu à moyen anglais.
wiglaf1000 1 year ago
I want this guy's job
mammers11 1 year ago
I always love that I can understand a bit of this from knowing Norwegian, English and a Northern German dialect which has close connections to old Saxon: Daut weas goot Kenninj!
HojoOSanagi 1 year ago
this is neat
Applgrl91 1 year ago
Jesus this sounds like a blend of Swedish and English.
mikkoyay 1 year ago
@mikkoyay I know what your saying. I can pick out different words, do you know what the actual language is?
easycure007 1 year ago
@easycure007 I think it's called just Old English. At first it was written with runic alphabets and afterwards translated into Latin alphabets.
mikkoyay 1 year ago
that is nuts
Icix1 1 year ago
Old English was so awesome. Damn the Normans!
TheRoyalFuzzybug 1 year ago 7
Hwæt we Gardena (Pronounced Gar-Dane) in geardagum (Pronounced Year-dayum)
theodcyninga (pronounced thede kining) Þrym (thrum) gefrunon (Pronounced ye- frunen).
Old English sounds very close to Early Modern English , more than they give credit for.
alexross8 1 year ago
@alexross8
Yeah? And how would you know that?
MothmanCometh 1 year ago
A lot of people who claim to "represent" an old English speaker , often pronounce words wrong. A lot of times , the vowels at the end of words are pronounced, when they shouldn't be. And the "g" is often misrepresented as an ordinary "g" , when it should actually found like "y". In fact , Old English is between dutch and Modern English , yet they make it sound like Icelandic or Swedish.
alexross8 1 year ago
@alexross8 Then again, the story itself takes place more or less in Southern Sweden, so it could be excused as local accent?
TotallyNotAlex 1 year ago
@alexross8
Where did you come up with that conclusion? Is it based almost completely on location? A large majority of Dutch pronunciation and their accent arose about 600 years ago and sounds nothing like it's ancient relative, I'd go more with Frisian or even Flemish over modern Dutch. Also,I would most likely assume that they spoke in a similar manner to Northumbrians or Mercian since many of them in isolated villages speak a less altered form of English which retains the original phonology.
HojoOSanagi 1 year ago
@HojoOSanagi
I take the time to study the words of Old English , find their modern usage , their cognates , and find the most accurate way to pronounce them.
I am so sure that I am right , because I compare the syllables with each cognate I find , and I find the median between them.
For example , Old English "Nama" was pronounced like Modern English "Name" , because the second vowel acts with the first one. It's where Modern English gets that system from.
alexross8 1 year ago
@alexross8
"I am so sure that I am right"
Of course, you do. You're a christian.
"Old English "Nama" was pronounced like Modern English "Name", because the second vowel acts with the first one. It's where Modern English gets that system from."
No. That changed happened with the "Great Vowel Shift" in the 15th and 16th century. You must remember Old English was a collection of Germanic dialects, and Latin scribes would have wrote it how THEY heard it.
MothmanCometh 1 year ago
@MothmanCometh Christian? What does that have to do with this?
FireRupee 1 year ago
@MothmanCometh True, that is why we can tell so much of the pronounchiation ^^
Samething goes for old norse.
RavenofDenmark 1 year ago
@MothmanCometh
Because unlike philosophy and religion (which are reason derived/self evident beliefs) , I have physical evidence of what I am saying.
That was totally uncalled for , bringing my religion into this. I don't know where you are from , but where I am from , that's a form of discrimination .
"The Great vowel Shift" doesn't actually mean for the spoken vowels. It's actually the written vowels that were shifted. There was hardly any shift of spoken vowels.
alexross8 1 year ago
@alexross8
"I have physical evidence of what I am saying."
No, you don't. No one can be certain about what anyone sounded like before audio recording. All we have to go by is writing and estimation by circumstance. Language as it is spoken changes over time regardless of how it is written. You're comment presented no new point, aside from showing how easily offended you are by a joke.
MothmanCometh 1 year ago
@MothmanCometh
I can be certain.
Well, at least to the extent that one can be certain of a 99/100 chance.
In modern English , we have a system that changes the sound of a vowel from the addition of another vowel. There are a few Germanic languages that partially use that system. From observing modern English words , and comparing to ancestors and cognates , we can make a very educated guess that Old English may also have had that very same system.
alexross8 1 year ago
@alexross8
"There are a few Germanic languages that partially use that system. "
Um, can you name one, perhaps with a few examples that illustrates your point?
MothmanCometh 1 year ago
@MothmanCometh
I can't really say for sure , because I am not an expert in languages other than English.
But I remembered reading a few articles on the internet.
But I do know for a fact that Germanic languages all do share similar systems.
alexross8 1 year ago
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@alexross8
Again, the use of examples really helps you not look like an idiot. You keep saying, "I know for a fact," "I am so certain," and you've not produced one example to prove any of your points. You can't say, "I know for a fact" when you simply "remembered reading a few articles on the internet."
Idiot.
MothmanCometh 1 year ago
@alexross8
And you're not an expert in English, either.
MothmanCometh 1 year ago
@MothmanCometh
I didn't say I was.
I just left out English of the languages that I do not expertly know , so I can imply that I know English to the extent that someone who was was born and raised would know English. I can't say I am an expert in Old English either , because I don't know everything about it. The only thing I have been learning is it's pronunciation . And it astounds me how many people can come across the same things that I do but do not see them as I do.
alexross8 1 year ago
can i find his text anywere?
Einherier1994 1 year ago
The translation is mediocre, especially for the first 3-4 lines, and he's overacting by a lot.
UrogHai 1 year ago
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UrogHai 1 year ago
Quf mon sen molta puba?
logitechnc 1 year ago
old english is very similar to icelandic or old norse. icelandic has changed less than any other nordic language, thus still sounding like its ancient counterpart
managarm1349 1 year ago
Fuck! hearing this makes me wish I could speak Old English and truly experience this.
ajb7876 1 year ago
Master storyteller. þæt wæs god cyning!
curtisrunstedler 1 year ago
hwæne ðæt déaþsele wæs þæs‽
marocon60 1 year ago
Don't get too angry at the Normans for doing what everyone did at the time. By-the-way, The Normans were of the same stock as the Anglo-Saxons, Normans = North-Men. The Anglo-Saxons defeated the native Celtic populations, who moved west and became the Welsh. People migrate all the time, everyone came from somewhere else, just the way of history.
memikell 1 year ago 2
he sounds like saruman
mendesana 1 year ago 49
ahahahaahahahahahahaahahaha it really sounds so!!!!
wildgnap 1 year ago
@mendesana You mean Sir Christopher Lee, the badass actor who played the badass character created by the there-are-no-words J.R.R. Tolkien, who published a groundbreaking paper on "Beowulf" long before LotR hit the shelves and would probably thumbs-up this video? Na, not quite. Listen to Lee singing on Rhapsody of Fire's "The Magic of the Wizard's Dreams." 'Cause just when you thought Lee couldn't get any cooler, he turns up a metal fan with his own album.
durendal314 1 year ago 2
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yurismir1 1 year ago
@yurismir1 hes being a skald dude calm yourself, old English was essentially Scandinavian, and Skalds would tell this and making it dramatic would make it interesting
JTAG37 1 year ago
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yurismir1 1 year ago
@yurismir1 Don't even try to say make your point, "Old English was a West Germanic language not a North Germanic one (like Old Norse)," a terribly significant one. Old Norse and Old English share very, very much in common. And you do not know that people didn't sound like this back then. You are being fallacious, man. Besides, it's an epic poem: it must be read in an epic manner.
apolloshezmu 11 months ago
@apolloshezmu You were wrong and I corrected you. Obviously you don't like being wrong :)
yurismir1 11 months ago
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@yurismir1 People probably didn't talk to each other at the market like this, but I'll bet Beowulf was read with just as much vigor and inflection. No one alive today has heard a native Old English speaker, so you can't say with such conviction that they didn't speak this way. And calling me a "twat nugget" really fortifies your scholarly credibility. I could call you a succulent swan snatch but I'm not. The truth is that you don't know. None alive do. It's all speculation. Educate thyself.
apolloshezmu 11 months ago
@JTAG37 Actually, that would have been a scop, and Anglo-Saxon poet. The type of poetry is different. For one, scaldic poetry is created once and learnt by heart. Old English poetry is formulaic and reinvented with the same building blocks every time it is recited, like serbo-croatian poetry today and Homer before.
Sagahwaetichatte 11 months ago
@mendesana LOL-- We're watching the DVD at home and I just said that to my daughter!! SHe thought I was nuts, so it's nice to get some validity from you, whoever you may be! :D
frithar 8 months ago