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  • Feast Day of St.Caedmon (11 February)

    From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to All on Sun Feb 11 13:45:41 2024
    "the first English poet of known name"
    Everything we know about his life (and his poetry) comes from Bede.
    Died 680 (Oxford Dictionary of Saints)
    A stable boy (Crystal) or herdsman (ODS) at Whitby, Yorkshire.
    He was at some festivity where everyone was expected to take a turn
    singing. He left, for shame that he couldn't sing. Went home, fell
    asleep, had a dream where someone asked him to sing.
    "I can't"
    "You can sing for me"
    "What shall I sing?"
    "Sing me creation"

    Thus the poem, of which we have nine lines in Bede:

    (in Northumbrian dialect, here "The Moore Version", from Sweet's
    Anglo-Saxon Reader, 15th ed.)

    Nū scylun hergan hefaenrīcaes Uard,
    Metudæs maecti end his mōdgidanc,
    uere Uuldurfadur, suē hē uundra gihuaes,
    ēci Dryctin, ōr āstelidæ.
    Hē āērest scōp aelda barnum
    heben til hrōfe hāleg Scepen.
    Thā middungeard moncynnæs Uard,
    ēci Dryctin, æfter tīadæ
    fīrum foldu Frēa allmectig.

    (Crystal's ModEng version)

    Now we must praise the guardian of the heavenly kingdom
    the might of the creator and his mind’s purpose
    the work of the Father of Glory, as he for each of his wonders,
    the eternal Lord, established a beginning.

    He shaped first for the sons of the earth
    heaven as a roof, the holy shaper;
    then the middle-world, mankind’s guardian
    the eternal Lord, afterwards made,
    solid ground for men, the Lord almighty.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to HenHanna on Tue Feb 13 22:50:44 2024
    On 13/02/2024 11:06 a.m., HenHanna wrote:
    On 2/10/2024 4:45 PM, Ross Clark wrote:
    "the first English poet of known name"
    Everything we know about his life (and his poetry) comes from Bede.
    Died 680 (Oxford Dictionary of Saints)
    A stable boy (Crystal) or herdsman (ODS) at Whitby, Yorkshire.
    He was at some festivity where everyone was expected to take a turn
    singing. He left, for shame that he couldn't sing. Went home, fell
    asleep, had a dream where someone asked him to sing.
    "I can't"
    "You can sing for me"
    "What shall I sing?"
    "Sing me creation"

    Thus the poem, of which we have nine lines in Bede:

    (in Northumbrian dialect, here "The Moore Version", from Sweet's
    Anglo-Saxon Reader, 15th ed.)

    Nū scylun hergan     hefaenrīcaes Uard,
    Metudæs maecti     end his mōdgidanc,
    uere Uuldurfadur,     suē hē uundra gihuaes,
    ēci Dryctin,     ōr āstelidæ.
    Hē āērest scōp     aelda barnum
    heben til hrōfe     hāleg Scepen.
    Thā middungeard     moncynnæs Uard,
    ēci Dryctin,      æfter tīadæ
    fīrum foldu     Frēa allmectig.

    (Crystal's ModEng version)

    Now we must praise   the guardian of the heavenly kingdom
    the might of the creator    and his mind’s purpose
    the work of the Father of Glory,   as he for each of his wonders,
    the eternal Lord,     established a beginning.

    He shaped first     for the sons of the earth
    heaven as a roof,    the holy shaper;
    then the middle-world,     mankind’s guardian
    the eternal Lord,     afterwards made,
    solid ground for men,    the Lord almighty.



    are you writing these from scratch?


    See my first post of the year. I'm working my way through a day-by-day
    book by David Crystal (A Date with Language). The subjects are
    Crystal's. I'm quoting Crystal here and there, adding bits of
    information and sometimes my own opinions or experiences.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Adam Funk@21:1/5 to Ross Clark on Wed Feb 14 12:19:49 2024
    On 2024-02-11, Ross Clark wrote:

    "the first English poet of known name"
    Everything we know about his life (and his poetry) comes from Bede.
    Died 680 (Oxford Dictionary of Saints)
    A stable boy (Crystal) or herdsman (ODS) at Whitby, Yorkshire.
    He was at some festivity where everyone was expected to take a turn
    singing. He left, for shame that he couldn't sing. Went home, fell
    asleep, had a dream where someone asked him to sing.
    "I can't"
    "You can sing for me"
    "What shall I sing?"
    "Sing me creation"

    Thus the poem, of which we have nine lines in Bede:

    (in Northumbrian dialect, here "The Moore Version", from Sweet's
    Anglo-Saxon Reader, 15th ed.)

    Nū scylun hergan hefaenrīcaes Uard,
    Metudæs maecti end his mōdgidanc,
    uere Uuldurfadur, suē hē uundra gihuaes,
    ēci Dryctin, ōr āstelidæ.
    Hē āērest scōp aelda barnum
    heben til hrōfe hāleg Scepen.
    Thā middungeard moncynnæs Uard,
    ēci Dryctin, æfter tīadæ
    fīrum foldu Frēa allmectig.

    Nice example of the now nearly defunct "-ric" morpheme.


    --
    If hard data were the filtering criterion you could fit the entire
    contents of the Internet on a floppy disk. ---Cecil Adams

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)