Þas þing synt earfoðe on Englisc to secganne, se we wyllað þurh Cristes fultum hig onwreon, swa wel swa we betst magon, and þas meregrota þam beforan lecgan þe þisra gyman wyllað. Þæs anes dæges wanung, hu he byð geworden binnan nigontyne wintrum we wyllað gecyðan. These things are difficult to say in English, but…
Category: Poetry
In a circle of trees
A tree God set in paradise, and its fruit forbade to Adam and Eve. And him bi twegin beamas stodon þa wæron utan ofætes gehlædene, gewered mid wæstme, swa hie waldend god, heah heofoncyning handum gesette, þæt þær yldo bearn moste on ceosan godes and yfeles, gumena æghwilc, welan and wawan. Næs se wæstm gelic!…
Rereading, retelling, rediscovering Beowulf
A strange creature attacks a warrior hall, killing the men night after night, until a hero comes and slays him. The creature’s mother takes her revenge and is likewise vanquished in battle. But the hero meets his own end when, later in life, he kills a dragon who terrorises his own people. I won’t pretend…
Now open: Anglo-Saxon Exhibition at the British Library
Hwæt! The British Library’s new exhibition, Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, has now opened. I have had the great privilege of working alongside the curators, being one of the first to see the completed exhibition, and of celebrating the official opening. A number of the manuscripts which I have written about in my blogposts are…
Living on loaned time
Autumn has come to London: a mostly hot summer suddenly turned in the final week of September. I like early autumn, the time just before and just after the emniht (or ‘equal-night’, as an Anglo-Saxon would have called the equinox), when there is still some warmth and plenty of sunlight, but a slight nip in…
Loveliest of women, work of God
At the start of June, I took place in a dramatised version of the Old English poem known as Genesis B, staged as part of the conference Down There: Uncovering the Infernal in the Early Middle Ages at University College London. Now that the play is over, I thought it might be time for a…
God bless my epiglottis: why I love the Lorica of Laidcenn
In this blog, I have written a lot about Anglo-Saxon prayer, medicine and poetry. Of course, these aren’t exclusive categories: medicine sometimes involved prayer, and prayers could be in the form of poetry. And sometimes, the same text can be all three. The Lorica of Laidcenn is a good example of this. A lorica is…
‘That change sank into my heart’s root’: Hoccleve’s Complaint
I am rather fond of Stephen Fry, and have enjoyed his books, film and TV work very much, but in one of his books he wrote something that is guaranteed to raise the hackles of many a medievalist. The one in question is The Ode Less Travelled, an introduction to writing poetry. In the chapter…
Onwards I go: may I meet with friends
It’s always interesting to see which words other languages have which are missing from one’s own. Old English, being somewhat similar to modern German, has a tendency to create compound words to a greater extent than modern English does, leading to words such as tidfara – a traveller whose time to journey has come. So…
Anglo-Saxon Riddles
I hope you’re enjoying the summer (or winter)! I’m spending it adapting my doctoral thesis into a book, which is taking up a lot of my writing time at the moment, and I don’t have much left in which to write this blog. Still, I’d hate to miss a fortnightly post date. A couple of…
For the Wynn 