For a long time now people have spoken, illogically, about ‘translating’ texts from Old English, ie Anglo Saxon, into Modern English. Such an act of linguistic modernisation is not translation, even if there are very clear lexical and grammatical differences in the two phases of the language. How so? This is best illustrated by putting the process into reverse. We can very swiftly recognise that good English prose remains good even if you take it back a thousand years:
Hw\u00e6t w\u00e6s \u00fe\u00e6t \u00feing? Hw\u00e6t woldst \u00feu \u00fe\u00e6t wesan?
\u00de\u00e6r w\u00e6s ic, \u00fe\u00e6t is Alex, and mine \u00fery freondas, \u00fe\u00e6t is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim so\u00felice swi\u00f0e dim, and we s\u00e6ton in \u00fe\u00e6re meduhealle smeagende on urum mode hw\u00e6t we don sceoldon be \u00fe\u00e6re \u00e6fentide, ane deorce winterniht, \u00feeah \u00fee hio dryge w\u00e6re.
Seo meduheall w\u00e6s stow milces, and ge magon, Eala mine gebro\u00f0ra, habban forgiten hu swylce stowa w\u00e6ron, \u00fea \u00f0ing swa micclum on \u00feissum dagum awendende and \u00e6lcman swi\u00f0e hr\u00e6dlice forgietende. Wel, \u00fe\u00e6t \u00fee hi \u00fe\u00e6r sealdon w\u00e6s meolc mid sumum o\u00f0rum.
Hi n\u00e6fdon nan riht ealu to sellanne, ac \u00fe\u00e6r w\u00e6s gyt nan lagu ongean \u00fe\u00e6t man gemengde sume \u00feara niwra drenca \u00fee hi gewunodon to donne on \u00fe\u00e6t ealde meolc, swa \u00fe\u00e6t ge hit drincan mihton mid hr\u00e6dnesse o\u00f0\u00f0e anum twam o\u00f0rum \u00feingum \u00fee eow sealde ane f\u00e6gere stille fiftene minutan God and Ealle His Halgan Englas and Halgan on eowrum winstran scoe behealdende mid leohtum burstande eall ofer eower ansyn. O\u00f0\u00f0e ge mihton drincan meolc mid seaxum on, swa swa we gewunodon secgan, and \u00feis wolde eow hwettan and gearwe macian to sumere d\u00e6l fulre uncl\u00e6nnesse, and \u00fe\u00e6t w\u00e6s \u00fe\u00e6t we druncon on \u00feissere \u00e6fentide \u00fee ic \u00feas gereccednysse mid onginne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For a long time now people have spoken, illogically, about ‘translating’ texts from Old English, ie Anglo Saxon, into Modern English. Such an act of linguistic modernisation is not translation, even if there are very clear lexical and grammatical differences in the two phases of the language. How so? This is best illustrated by putting … <\/p>\n