/lit/ - Literature

WTF happened to english? Why is it so different now than it used to be? I can't think of another romance or germanic language that is as different from its ancestral form.

English is a perverse Franco-Germanic pigeon language, and a mere shell of its Old English roots. Imagine speaking a language where up to 91% (NINETY ONE PERCENT) of the words can be foreign in origin depending on context (academic, legal). Don't believe me?

French: 28%, Latin: 28%, Germanic: 25%, Greek: 5%, unclear etymology: 4%, everything else: 4%.

English is literally a mutt language, and a possible contender for the most raped language in history. Want proof? Attached is a sample of Old English. Mutts will be literally incapable of understanding a single sentence whereas Old Spanish from the same time period is still more or less perfectly understandable for modern day Spanish speakers.

>inb4 hur dur Arabic influence on Spanish!
Only 8% :)

>Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
>þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
>hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
>Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
>monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
>egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
>feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
>weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
>oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra
>ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
>gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning.
>ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned,
>geong in geardum, þone god sende
>folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeat
>þe hie ær drugon aldorlease
>lange hwile. Him þæs liffrea,
>wuldres wealdend, woroldare forgeaf;
>Beowulf wæs breme blæd wide sprang,
>Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in.

Hey senpaitachi, can you please recommend me a good book for learning the core of Old English grammar? I want something concise, but still informative.

Is any of these good?
-A Guide to Old English: Bruce Mitchell, Fred C. Robinson
-Introduction to Old English - Peter S. Baker

>mfw all literature can be traced back to what was escapist fantasy

>>7945717
Here's the first page of Beowulf, in Old English. It's a misnomer to call Shakespeare Old English because early English dialects are already called Old English.

/int/ here. Can you guys recommend me some Anglo-Saxon literature? I've only read Beowulf. Thanks in advance.

How to read a poem? Seriously, I have no idea. Whenever I try to read one, it's like reading a foreign language and it doesn't evoke any emotion. They are words put together in ways that don't normally make sense.

Do you read them slowly or as fast as normal text?

Benefits of learning/taking Old English? I'm thinking of taking a class in it next year as one of my elective requirements. I have intentions of learning eventually and I really benefit from learning in a classroom environment.

What I would like to know is what would that look like to grad schools as opposed to a regular elective English class? I figure another language under my belt can only help, but I have intentions of focusing on more recent literature in postgraduate school. Thoughts /lit/? Both on my situation and learning it in general?

Christian elements in Beowulf: added in after the fact or part of the original story?

Both have their support. I really want this story to be an awesome Pagan story, but I'm not so sure.

Any thoughts from fellow Old English nerds like me?

Beowulf regarded as one of the most important pieces of anglo-saxon literature, and has survived through the centuries for quite some time. In recent years however, it has seen quite a surge of popularity? What elements of the story might account for this?

I'm discussing this with a group of other students in my lit history class, and we are all kind of at a standstill except for how themes from beowulf have survived and find their ways into stories today. Things like personal identity and ancestral identity both conflicting with each other in both beowulf and modern literature.

What else could be accounted for this new dound popularity? what elements of the story do you think modern readers are finding interesting?