Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

Graham Scheper - Medievalist studying Old English (BA: @UofMaryland) and Latin literature youtube.com/@grahamamschep… Joined November 2023

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

11 hours ago

Tacitus tells us that among ancient Germanic warriors, there was no greater shame than surviving a battle in which your lord died. We see this in Old English poems like the Battle of Maldon, in which several warriors announce no intentions of surviving after Byrhtnoð’s death.

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

a day ago

I am teaching two online Old English courses this Fall! One will be geared towards complete beginners, while the other will be for those who already have some knowledge in Old English. Check out these courses (and more!) at habesnelac.com/courses/old-en…

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

2 days ago

Have you ever heard the story of King Ælfred burning the cakes? I asked Ælfredian scholar Daniel Anlezark of Sydney University whether or not that actually happened... youtu.be/AI1InUMCU5k

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

2 days ago

The Old English word for 'translator' is ‘wealhstod’; meaning someone who stands in for a ‘wealh’. What is a wealh? It seems that around the time of the Adventus Saxonum it meant "Roman". Early Germanic tribes would presumably have used wealhstodas to communicate in Latin.…

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

4 days ago

King George VI's declaration of war in 1939 is one of the most important speeches in English history. I wrote and recorded an Old English translation, which you can watch and read along here: youtu.be/wol1TPsi-1U?si…

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

3 days ago

The Swedish King Aun of the Yngling dynasty lived so long that he had to eat baby food (jóðs alað). Snorri tells us that he drank this from a horn ‘like a baby’ (sem lébarn). From this we can infer that instead of bottles, viking babies drank milk out of baby drinking horns!

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

3 days ago

In the LOTR Appendices, Arwen uses the expression "whether I will or I nill"; this is an archaic construction dating all the way back to Old English (wille ic, nylle ic - whether I want, or I don't want). It's also the source of the Modern English expression 'willy-nilly'.

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

4 days ago

And here is the opening of the Illiad, translated (by me this time) into Old English verse:

Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

5 days ago

And here is the opening of the Illiad, translated (by me this time) into Old English verse: https://t.co/h81mkoBO0g

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

5 days ago

We actually have the first line of the Aeneid in Old English verse: “Ic herige þa wæpnu ond þone wer” (I sing of the weapons and the man). This was by the monk Ælfric of Eynsham, in the late 10th century. It's unclear if he translated it himself, and/or if he was referencing a…

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

6 days ago

The poem Beowulf exists in exactly one manuscript, which itself was damaged in the great 1731 Ashburnham House fire. If the fire had burned just a little hotter, we would have no idea that Beowulf even existed!

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

6 days ago

Today I sit down with UVA emeritus professor Peter Baker to talk about his new edition of Alice in Wonderland, translated into Old English. Check out the interview here: youtube.com/watch?v=McEiNl…

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

7 days ago

After Smaug was defeated, five armies converged on the spot to fight over what was left. After the Beowulf dragon is defeated, Beowulf dies, and it's safe to say the enemies of the Geats (the Swedes) aren't far off. Now, Götaland is just a land; the country is called Sweden.

Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

7 days ago

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

7 days ago

The Beowulf dragon doesn't appear to have a name, but does get called "starkheart" (stearcheort) at one point. Starkheart would be a pretty cool name for a dragon.

Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

7 days ago

The Beowulf dragon doesn't appear to have a name, but does get called "starkheart" (stearcheort) at one point. Starkheart would be a pretty cool name for a dragon. https://t.co/26nX09GF8g

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

7 days ago

Smaug, whose name ultimately comes from Proto-Germanic *smūganą (to crawl/creep around), bears many similarities to the Beowulf dragon. They both live on a pile of gold, they both have one particular thing stolen from said pile of gold, and, upon discovering the theft, they both…

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

a week ago

Beowulf at one point describes a perilous adventure he had, in which he swam for over five days straight, and killed nine sea-monsters. At the end, he says that he was finally able to reach land and see the “windy walls” (that is, the cliffs). He set off around what is likely…

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Grǣġhama @grahamscheper

5 months ago

Tolkien at 7 years old once wrote a story about a 'green great dragon'. His mother, however, "pointed out that one could not say 'A green great dragon,' but had to say 'a great green dragon.'" He promptly gave up on stories for "many years" and instead became a philologist.