Posted by Racer on May 13, 2006, at 2:06:08
In reply to Let's see...who did I miss?, posted by curtm on May 12, 2006, at 20:42:22
> Caedmon (a genus of insect)?
>Caedmon's Hymn was one thing we had to read -- aloud -- in linguistics. It's one of the oldest existing examples of written Old English, as well as one of the earliest examples of poetry written in any Germanic language.
In my Linguistics class, we all had to read one line aloud, so I not only feel warm and fuzzy whenever I see Caedmon's name on a post, I also think of the comforting blue cover of my linguistics text, and
Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard
metudæs maecti end his modgidanc
uerc uuldurfadur— sue he uundra gihuaes
eci dryctin or astelidæ
he aerist scop aelda barnum
heben til hrofe haleg scepen
tha middungeard moncynnæs uard
eci dryctin æfter tiadæ
firum foldu frea allmectigWhich I won't torture you with. I found a bunch of different rescencions, and can't remember how to pronounce much of that at all, but here's the link to the Wikipedia entry if you want to read more, and the English translation I got there, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caedmon
Now [we] must honour the guardian of heaven,
the might of the architect, and his purpose,
the work of the father of glory
— as he, the eternal lord, established the beginning of wonders.
He, the holy creator,
first created heaven as a roof for the children of men.
Then the guardian of mankind, the eternal lord,
the lord almighty, afterwards appointed the middle earth,
the lands, for men.(OK, my husband didn't know about it either. Surely I'm not the only one who remembers it?)
poster:Racer
thread:643097
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060505/msgs/643358.html