ok a bit odd, but can anyone read late medieval english?

[TheArmadillo]

Am reading through document. Can read most of it but cannot understand what 'stoonis' is or 'schulen'

talking about heathen men worshipping 'stoonis' as a god? adn the phrase 'stoonis schulen crie'?

COuld schulen be children?

Anyone know?

[ruty]

loving this thread and the Bill Bailey links Pruni. Brilliant. Going to a college gaudy for the first time this weekend, bloody hope no one talks about Anglo saxon - the memories are far too traumatic.

[RosaLuxembourg]

DD has done Beowulf in class recently. Year 5. I got her Rosemary Sutcliff's version, not a translation, but a retelling for children which is absolutely fab.

[Pruni]

Message withdrawn

[Marina]

Back to the topic, I agree totally about the Heaney. It is loved by acting students who come all over faint when confronted with the unmistakeable black spine of an unadorned Penguin Classic

[Marina]

Oh, yes. Honestly I'd sooner snog Tamsin Greig! But it makes me happy to know that he gives two of my Mn pals great pleasure, so to speak
Now, Jeremy Northam anyone?

[Swizzler]

Seamus Heaney's Beowulf is inspired. So much better than the translation by Michael Alexander that we used - sadly the Heaney was published after I graduated

[JackieNo]

Oh yes, Dylan Moran. And Eddie Izzard.

[Pruni]

Message withdrawn

[Marina]

Another queue forms with Pruni and marina tussling it out with others, but Tamum goes straight to the five fanciers or fewer checkout with dough-faced Dylan

[Pruni]

Message withdrawn

[JackieNo]

Marina - yes, 'curiously sexy' - I'm with you on that one.

[Marina]

I think the man is a national treasure, and curiously sexy. Anyone remember the old sketch of the Civil War Reenactment Society in the pub car park?

[JackieNo]

Brilliant - thanks Pruni. Also had to watch him doing the Hokey Cokey in the style of Kraftwerk - also v funny.

[Pruni]

Message withdrawn

[JackieNo]

I applied to do the Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic degree at Cambridge, but wasn't accepted.

[Marina]

Pruni that sounds like a wonderful degree and I adore Bill Bailey
I'm afraid we call gloves mitaynes and pillowcases pilwe beers in this house in homage to the dirty old Pardoner's Tale. (Dh is the owner of the proper English degree though).

[DrDaddy]

The Seamus Heaney version is excellent in my opinion...

[Fillyjonk]

at A level english chaucer

and thus endeth my knowlege thank god

[Swizzler]

Remember the Wanderer and the Seafarer - is the W about the exiled chap?

[kiskidee]

loved doing the Battle of Maldon. i felt all emotional reading it. very moving.

the Wanderer is also OE. Anyone else a fan of it?

[Aloha]

You can get a children's Beowulf - ds has it, bought it in a jumble sale. Might read it tonight, actually, after Stuart Little (currently my favourite literary character - so brave! so inventive! so poetic!)

My old English teacher was so old that we speculated that he'd learned it as his mother's knee. The overhead projector fell on him during one lecture. I think that was my favourite bit.

[Swizzler]

Hadn't thought about reading to DS - chance to try out my dodgy ME accent

[Swizzler]

I remember the Battle of Maldon - one of the first OE texts we did. Not a great choice for your first tortuous translation though, as I could never figure out who was hitting who

[funnypeculiar]

So good to hear people slagging off Piers Ploughman ... not a conversation I have often anymore

I read Beowulf to ds - but would never ever admit to that in RL

[Greensleeves]

I can a bit, did some with my degree (am out of practice, brain has turned to organic peach melba yoghurt)