"Hwǣr cwōm mearg? Hwǣr cwōm mago? Hwǣr cwōm māþþumgyfa?"It roughly means "Where now the horse? Where now the rider? Where now the hoard-sharer/ring-giver/giver of treasure?" and is pronounced with scottishy vowels and a lot of rolling Rs. Allow me to indulge for a minute in imagining a conversation...
"Hrrrrothbob, thou goat! Wherrre now the horrrse?"Awesome, right? But awesomer still is a thing called "cognitive hooks," which in this context seems to mean "changing Old English phrases to similar sounding Modern English phrases." This concept resulted in our class interpreting the quoted line as "Where comes mare? Where comes mango? Where comes math and gouda?"
"I could do nothing, my fatherrr. It was taken by a scylding-thief underrr the helm of night."
"Well then, wherrre now the rrrider?"
"Overrr the land-bump, forrrsooth."
"Eala! How that the horrrse has passed away! How that the steed-trrreasure has vanished, as if it had neverrr been."
Between Old English and Japanese, this should be an interesting semester. (I've already been thinking about forming a group in Japanese 101 called "the Knights who say に")
Sounds like a great class :)
ReplyDeleteWHAAHAHA the knights who say に ... that made me laugh (in case you didn't realize).
ReplyDeleteevery time you talk about your old english class i am SO MAD that i'm not in it!!!
@Julia: thanks for clarifying :)
ReplyDelete@Brian: yep!