[Ansteorra] Pronunciation was Re: "Ansteorran: of or pertaining to the Kingdom of Ansteorra"

[Richard Culver]

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From: HerrDetlef <herrdetlef at gmail.com>


[Wihtric]  I thoroughly enjoy the sounds of all of them.  My bias is toward Old English as for me it is the most natural to speak, rolling much better off my tongue than say Old Norse or even Old Frisian, all three of which I have used liturgically at various times in my religious life.

As a grad student, I was told I should have no trouble reading Old English
since I knew German, but Old English isn't even close enough to Modern High
German to be that easy. Quite a lot of difference separates Old Low German
from Modern High German.

[Wihtric]  Yes some German helps but at others times that expectation leaves one short, though it is great fun to play with Grimm's and Verner's Laws at times.

I had the great fortune in 2005 of hearing part of Beowulf read in Old
English at Trinity Church in Houston. I believe the performer who read it
was Benjamin Bagby. As he chanted the Old English text, Modern English
surtitles were displayed on a screen, but after a while, I quit reading the
titles and listened to the sound of the language. It's quite beautiful, once
you've gotten used to it.

[Wihtric]  Once I got past images of the Swedish Chef for the Muppets in my head, I also enjoyed it so (though part of that was hating the translation out in the subtitles).  I read a text like Chickering's dual-language edition, and my eyes mostly stay on the Old English side, or did when I was much better at it than I am now.  There is a certain peace and serenity that comes from reading originals and not translations...well at least until my OE instructor starts throwing Ælfric at us....then my eyes glaze over. :P


Gódspéde!
Wihtric
Much of Old English is not music to anybody's modern ears...at least, until
you've had a chance to hear a lot of it. Then it becomes quite melodious.
Old English is even more gutteral than Modern High German. If you've ever
had a chance to hear the Hildebrandslied read (in Old High German), or
better yet, "Der Heliand" in Old LOW German, you might get a better taste of
what those old languages sound like.