Hwæt! Reading Beowulf in the Original Anglo-Saxon
Unlocking the power of *Beowulf* requires going back to the source: the Old English text. From the commanding opening cry of "Hwæt!" to the rhythmic heartbeat of alliterative verse, we…
Tag: anglo-saxon
Wit and Git: The Lost Dual Pronouns of Old English
Old English possessed a grammatical rarity called the "dual number", using specific pronouns—*wit* (we two) and *git* (you two)—to refer exclusively to pairs. This article explores how these lost words…
Runic Roots: From the Futhorc to the Letter Thorn
While modern English relies on the Latin alphabet, our language was originally written in the angular, 33-character runic system known as the Futhorc. This article explores the linguistic ingenuity of…
A Time Traveler’s Guide to Old English
Forget Shakespeare. If you traveled back to 1000 AD, you'd find a language that sounds more like German and has more in common with Viking sagas than a sonnet. This…