The Battle of Brunanburh (Old English Reading)

This is a native language reading of the epic poem, The Battle of Brunanburh, composed in the 10th century and found in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. It is the sole entry for the year 937 AD and relates the great battle which saw the defeat of a northern alliance of Scots, Strathclyde Britons, Celts and Vikings by the Mercian/West Saxon forces of King Athelstan. A fictional account of this battle is related in the book, The Raven & the Wolf: Blood Oath, by author Christopher Spellman.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• anglo
• saxon
• brunanburh
• vikings
• old
• english
• poems
• beowulf
• maldon
• ancient
• language

[jagdpanther1944]

I'm proud to be English and a mongrel

[hombrerelents]

@flyonthewall37 It's not that clear cut. My father is typically Nordic in appearance with platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, and my mother a porcelain skinned, dark haired, short, Celtic 'type'.

I'm 6'2, have my father's face, but am dark-skinned, and with tight, black curly hair, whereas my 4 sisters are all platinum blondes with v.white skin.

English people seem to have the most varied looking people in Europe, with many of the pigeon-holed types turning up within a single family.

[PaveLowPat01]

Reminds me or Grendel from Beowulf (^^)

[azboomer1950]

i'm just guessing, but i would venture to say the pronunciation might have sounded a little softer and less gutteral (with the rolling r's) than michael has rendered here. but because there's no audio or written records of the actual pronunciation, it's hard to say what early saxon, or any germanic language for that matter, really sounded like. i think he's done an outstanding job!

[bathysphere1]

I wish English was still spoken like this! Sounds awesome.

[t1t296]

@kdelg001, don't be jelous now, it's true that the West Saxon (Wessex) blood has hardly changed in over 1400 years.

[InstructaMic]

@kdelg001 what you think i guessed that shit lol they found skeletons in my village from the migration period..we aqll got bloodtested in my village...they said the same familys have been living here for up to 1450 years....the originals were of a mixed saxon jutish descent

[kdelg001]

@InstructaMic LOL, ur descendant from those people. Never in the hundreds of years did anyone mix with anyone? You're dumb...btw, I've seen people taller than you in Austria. Best of luck in your delusional world.

[kdelg001]

i hate seeing videos like this because how do you know they rolled their Rs? You dont, common German doesn't swedish and Norwegian doesnt...danish doesnt...why roll the rs? I dont understand...

[Jeansieguy]

@InstructaMic Wow!

[MrBrendanRizzo]

Some of these individual words are actually understandable, but for some reason when you put them together they become completely incomprehensible.

[InstructaMic]

im of mixed saxon and jutish descent being from wessex....the saxons angles and jutes were taller than the british longer limbed fairer of hair. im 6 2 brown haired blue eyed saxon build and look....our ancestors described the welsh as being small dark and swarthy sweorthe. ireland has pure celtic stock with some morse proof theres more blonde fairer haired people in england than other parts of the isles