Eald Englisc

“English Fellowship member” Robert Craig has written an  interesting and informative book…… “Zeaxysch vor To-dai”, which is about  how West Saxon, which can still be heard on the lips of  South Country people (Zowdherrychysch/Zo’rrychysch volk), might be developed and brought up to date with an expanded vocabulary derived from West Saxon and written with spelling conventions based on those used by Medieval scribes in monasteries around the Severn.

The Lord’s prayer in Zeaxysch:

Urnustlych ybyddath eow dhus:

Owr vader, dhow who byst on huvfon,

beo dhy name yhalwed,

to-beghum dhy ryche,

dhy wyl beo dun on urth zo on huvfon,

owr dailych lhove iyvf us to dai,

voriyvf owr gylts, zo we voriyvfath

dheo dhat beoth gyltyi aiense us,

lade us not on ordele, ac ghebhe us vrom uvel.

 

Old English/Anglo-Saxon Phrases:

So what sort of things did the Angles and Saxons say to each other? Below are a few day to day phrases (with phonetic help) that you could use in modern conversation.

‘Ic drince beor’ (Itch drink-uh bey-or) – ‘I drink beer’
‘Ic hiere hearpestre’ (Itch hee-air-uh hey-arp-es-truh) – ‘I listen to a harpist’
‘Ic write leoð’ (Itch w-reet-uh ley-oth) – ‘I write a poem’
‘Ic awogie wifman’ (Itch a-wo-gee-uh weef-man) – ‘I woo the woman’
‘Ne Eðel, nimst þu docgan to gaenne’ (Ney eth-el, nim-st thoo dog-an toe gaa-en-uh) – ‘No Ethel, you take the dog for a walk’
‘Hela docgan!’ (hey-la dog-an) – ‘Heel dog!’
‘Scip færð on Frigedæg’ (ship fair-th on Frree-yuh-day-uh) – ‘The boat leaves on Friday’
‘þær ic ne gehyrde butan hlimman sæ’ (there itch ney ye-hoord-uh but-an hlim-an say) – ‘I couldn’t hear a thing except the roaring sea’
‘Cannst þu minne bratt aseowan?’ (Cannst thoo min-ne brrat a-say-o-wan?) – ‘Can you mend my cloak?’

Greetings

The most commonly used Anglo-Saxon greeting was ‘wes hæl’ (pronounced ‘wassail’) or more correctly wes þú hál, meaning literally ‘be thou hale/healthy’.

It is often also used as a salutation during eating and drinking much in the same way that ‘Cheers’ is also used today.

The Angles and Saxons didn’t enjoy the luxuries of modern life that we take for granted; and much of their time was spent enjoying the great outdoors of England.

‘Min nebb is ceald’ (Min nebb iss kay-ald) – ‘My nose is cold’
‘Ond mine fet sindon ceald’ (Ond mee-nuh fayt sin-don kay-ald) – ‘And my feet are cold’
‘þeos fyre is to lytel’ (Thay-oss foo-re iss toe lit-el) – ‘This fire is too small’
‘Hwær cwom hatnes?’ (H-wahr kwom hat-ness?) – ‘Where has the heat (‘hotness’) gone?’
‘Hægl scurum fleag’ (hay-ul skoor-um fley-ag) – ‘Hail showers fell’
‘Luce seo duru!’ (Loo-ke say-oh duh-roo) – ‘Shut the door!’

Runes:

The Anglo-Saxon rune poem (Cotton Otho B.x.165) has the following runes, listed with their Unicode glyphs, their names, their transliteration and their approximate phonetic value in IPA notation where different from the transliteration:

In Britain, runes seem to have been a northern phenomenon confined to the Angles and Frisians (and later the Vikings). There is no evidence that the Saxons used them before converting to Christianity. However, three runic letters, ’thorn’, ‘wyn’, and ‘ash’, along with the Greek letter ‘theta”, known to the Saxons as “thaet”, were added to the Roman alphabet to represent sounds which were found in Anglo-Saxon, but did not occur in Latin, namely [th], [w], [ae] – a sound between [a] and [e], as in American “man” and “bad”. Thaet and thorn represented exactly the same [th] sound and were used indiscriminately, according to the whim of the scribe.

Paradoxically, the Engle (Angles) only used runes for inscriptions during the early Christian period, but not in manuscripts, probably because they were converted by the Irish and not by the Romans, Greeks and Goths who converted the Saxons, the Greeks and Goths already being familiar with mixing runes with the Greek and Roman alphabets to represent sounds found in the Germanic languages such as Gothic and Anglo-Saxon, but not in Latin.

In the North, the Engle expanded the English runic alphabet to thirty two letters before abandoning runes altogether. In the South, the Saxons continued to use thorn and wyn in their writing long after the Norman Conquest. In fact, thorn , representing the sound of th, was used up until comparatively recent times as in ‘Ye Olde Shakespeare  Inn’ and ‘Ye Olde Tea Shoppe’, where Y is stands for the runic letter ‘thorn’.

 

Rune Image	UCS	Old English name	Name meaning	Transliteration	IPA
	ᚠ	feoh	“wealth”	f	[f], [v]
	ᚢ	ur	“aurochs“	u
	ᚦ	þorn	“thorn”	þ, ð	[θ], [ð]
	ᚩ	ós	“[a] god”	ó
	ᚱ	rad	“ride”	r
	ᚳ	cen	“torch”	c	[k]
	ᚷ	gyfu	“gift”	ȝ	[ɡ], [j]
	ᚹ	wynn	“joy”	w, ƿ	[w]
	ᚻ	hægl	“hail (precipitation)”	h
	ᚾ	nyd	“need, distress”	n
	ᛁ	is	“ice”	i
	ᛄ	ger	“year, harvest”	j
	ᛇ	eoh	“yew”	eo
	ᛈ	peorð	(Unknown)	p
	ᛉ	eolh	“elk-sedge”	x
	ᛋ	sigel	“Sun”	s	[s], [z]
	ᛏ	Tiw	“Tiw”	t
	ᛒ	beorc	“birch”	b
	ᛖ	eh	“horse”	e
	ᛗ	mann	“man”	m
	ᛚ	lagu	“lake”	l
	ᛝ	ing	“Ing (a hero)”	ŋ
	ᛟ	éðel	“estate”	œ
	ᛞ	dæg	“day”	d
	ᚪ	ac	“oak”	a
	ᚫ	æsc	“ash-tree”	æ
	ᚣ	yr	“bow”	y
	ᛡ	ior	“eel”	ia, io
	ᛠ	ear	“grave”	ea

The first 24 of these directly continue the Elder Futhark letters, extended by five additional runes, representing long vowels and diphthongs (á, æ, ý, ia, ea), comparable to the five forfeda of the Ogham alphabet.

William Blake’s poem ‘Jerusalem’ in Eald Englisc

(notice the use of the runic letters – thorn = th [looks like 'p' but taller], aesc = a/e, wyn = w [also looks a bit like 'p']  - see also the panel above; and two letters borrowed from Greek thaet/theta = th [looks like a curly 'd' with a line through it, and pronounced exactly the same as thorn], and upsilon, written ’y’ and pronounced like ‘u’ in French.)

And ƿas fet on ealdum tidum
Stæppon uppan Englalandes beorgum grenum
And ƿæs ƿat hælig lamb godes
On Englalandes ƿynsum hammun gescaƿode
And se godcundlic ondƿlita
Scan for uppan uram ƿolcendum dunum
And ƿas Hierusalem her getimbrode
Betƿeonum pissum deorcum deofullicum mylen

Bring me min bogum bærnendes goldes
Bring me min giernendlices flannas
Bring me min gar, oh ƿolcnum tofariaþ
Bring me min fyreliende cræt
Ic sceall ne linnan fram modiglic gefeoht
Ne sceall min sƿeord slæpp in minum hand
Oð ƿæt ƿe habbað Hierusalem getimbrode
On Englalandes grene and ƿynsum lande

William Blake’s Jerusalem in Common (international) English - Engas (English associate language) – Badek (Broadcast, accessible, demotic English koine) – Engkoine (English koine).

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear. Oh clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.

Days of the Week

Monandaeg: A celebration of the Moon that would have been celebrated every full moon, Monday.

Tiwesdaeg: Tiw was the  God  of  courage  and  war, and would have been important to a warrior,  Tuesday.

Wodenesdaeg: Named after Woden the ruling God of Death, Wisdom and Battle, Wednesday.

Thunresdaeg: This is as thunder day, Thunor the protector of Gods, against the giants (the personified forces of nature) being very popular with crop farmers, his weapon was the hammer,  Thursday.

Frigedaeg: This is the Goddess known as the wife of Woden representing the Earth mother, Tiw was once the father of air,  Friday.

Saternesdaeg: Saturn was a Roman God of Agriculture of Innocence and  Plenty, Saturday

1. Sunandaeg: Mithras the  Sun God was worshipped by the Romans,  Sunday

These days, the days of the week end at midnight and another day begins, however in Anglo Saxon times the day would end and begin at sunset and sunrise. For example, on Monandaeg at sunset the it would become Tiwesniht (meaning Tiw’s Eve), then at sunrise would become Tiwesdaeg, and at sunset would become Wodnesniht (Woden’s Eve) and so on. Days seem to be counted in nights and this can still be seen in the word fortnight (fourteen nights)

Byrhtnoth’s famous reply to the Danish demand for tribute before the Battle of Maldon

Byrhtnooth mathelode, bord hafenode,

wand waacne aesc, wordum maelde,

yrre and aanraed, aageeaf him andsware:

“Gehyyrst thuu, saelida, hwaet this folc segeth?

Hii willath eeow too gafole   gaaras syllan,

aettrynne ord  and ealde swurd,

thaa heregean the eeow aer hilde ne deeah.”

The Prosography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE)

The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE) is a database which aims to
provide structured information relating to all the recorded inhabitants of
England from the late sixth to the late eleventh century. It is based on a
systematic examination of the available written sources for the period,
including chronicles, saints’ Lives, charters, libri vitae, inscriptions,Domesday Book and coins; and is intended to serve as a research tool suitable for a wide range of users with an interest in this period.

The current edition of PASE was published online on 18 August 2010. Among
other   enhancements, this offers a new web interface providing enhanced access
to the database, www.pase.ac.uk together with a new dataset linked to mapping facilities designed to facilitate the identification of  English landholders in Domesday Book.