Learn about Anglo-Saxon poetry. Understand the history of the Anglo-Saxons, examine the characteristics of Anglo-Saxon writing, and view examples...
Popularly, classifications of living organisms arise according to need and are often superficial. Anglo-Saxon terms such aswormandfishhave been used to refer, respectively, to any creeping thing—snake,earthworm, intestinalparasite, ordragon—and to any swimming or aquatic thing. Although the termfis...
(minuscule scripts were usually smaller than majuscule and had projections above and below the body of the letters, as in modern lowercase letters), scribes to whom the Latin language was no longer as well known as it had been—especially Irish, Anglo-Saxon, and German scribes, to whom it ...
"Young children loveriddles. So do non-literate peoples. Riddles show up the playful nature oflanguagein an easily manageable form. They are the earliest examples of literature in Anglo-Saxon England. Here is riddle number 65 from the Anglo-Saxon Exeter Book manuscript: Quick, quite mum; I d...
A writ is a document or order that directs any form of action from a court. It provides directions from an entity with jurisdictional or administrative power to another party. Writs were developed as part of the Englishcommon lawsystem and were primarily issued by Anglo-Saxon monarchs. These ...
of Anglo-Saxon words. Computer analysis of the language has shown thatthe 100 most common words in Englishare all of Anglo-Saxon origin. The basic building blocks of an English sentence—the, is, youand so on—are Anglo-Saxon. Some Old English words likemann, husanddrincanhardly need ...
Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word? What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'? Popular in Wordplay See All Terroir, Oenophile, & Magnum: Ten Words About Wine 8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments ...
Old English developed from Anglo-Frisian, and Ingvaeonic dialects spoke by Germanic tribes. It had four main dialects as it developed: Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish, and West Saxon. The latter became the most important in the development of the language later on. Old English was first written...
The Beowulf epic poem had been in circulation, through oral storytelling, for many years before the Beowulf poet put the words to paper (around 700 AD). This means that the original storyteller has long since been lost. The Anglo-Saxons believed in the importance of the oral tradition, as...
“Poem Written in a Copy of Beowulf” by Jorge Luis Borges ”At various times, I have asked myself what reasons moved me to study, while my night came down, without particular hope of satisfaction, the language of theblunt-tongued Anglo-Saxons.” ...