Grǣġhama

@worldreads Tanz Der Vampire!!!! I love this musical, I probably have the entire thing memorized. It was a huge help in learning German. The music is so good; Graf Von Krolock’s solo at the end of the first act is one of my favorite male solos ever

even more Tanz Der Vampire

Many 18th century Old English 'scholars' attempted to explain the idiosyncracies of the language with pure illiteracy. Thomas Jefferson saw metathesis in words like 'bridd' (bird) and 'gærs' (grass) as the scribe being "not even particular in arranging them in the order in which the sounds composing the word followed each other." That is, he thought scribes were sounding out words like 'bird', thinking "hmm, there's a b, i, r, and d in there somewhere", and then mashing them together indiscriminately, ending up with words like 😂😂😂

If I won the lottery, I wouldn't tell anyone, but there would be signs ...

Interestingly enough, he also suggested pronouncing Old English as if it were Modern English (i.e., 'geogoþ' becomes 'youth'). That would have paralleled the Traditional English Latin pronunciation of the time, in which saying words like 'regina' aloud might have made you blush.

In 1798, Thomas Jefferson suggested "reducing the infinite diversities of [Old English's] unfixed orthography to single and settled forms." Nowadays, many educational resources follow that very same advice, and standardize their reading selections to 10th century West Saxon.

To celebrate the impending match between England and Norway, Jackson Crawford and I got together to test the intelligibility of 11th century English and Norwegian. We also had a bit of fun boasting 😏 check it out: youtu.be/dwWjL9nBgcI?is…

@fakehistoryhunt Sure, I’ll take a look if you send it over!

Hello @grahamscheper, this might be your cup of tea :)

Oi, which of you are very good at translating 13th century Latin into AD 2026 English? I've got some text that people keep interpreting differently and could use some help. My brain hurts. Respond in the comments, I'll DM you with my request.

Even more beautiful in person. My wife and I strongly considered having our wedding reception here before we settled on Annapolis instead.

Cicero on the difference between oratory and poetry: “Poeta numeris astrictior paulo, verborum autem licentia liberior.” That is, “The poet is slightly restricted as regards rhythm, but has a much longer leash in terms of word choice.”

The Old English word for 'duel' was ānwīġ, which literally meant 'singular war.' To challenge someone to a duel was ānwīġes biddan or ānwīġ ġecweðan; here is an example from Orosius: Hē ðā Brutus ġecwæð ānwīġ wið þone cyning. Brutus then challenged the king [Tarquin] to a duel.

@grahamscheper Looks excellent and like the cover! Engelberg, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 47; Omiliae lectionum sancti evangelii Venerabilis Bedae presbiteri numero quinquaginta; 1143 CE-1178 CE; Engelberg; f.1v (e-codices.ch/en/list/one/bk…)

What did the early medieval English think about hell? About guardian angels? About wizards? I talk about these topics and more in today’s interview with UVA’s @phil_lol_ogist on his recent book about medieval apocrypha. Check it out ⬇️

Excited to announce that my first ever book will be releasing later this year! The Venerable Bede is such an interesting figure, but I have always lamented how few of his works were well known or accessible. Hopefully this new facing-page anthology will counter that!

We are delighted to announce that "The Writings of the Venerable Bede: A Bilingual Anthology," edited and translated by Graham Scheper (@grahamscheper), with a foreword by Tom Shippey, will be published by Uppsala Books later this year. This book is the first of its kind to exist! For more information, visit: uppsalabooks.com/bede

Wilhelm Müller’s ‘Rückblick’ poem has the line “da war’s geschen um dich, Gesell!” My Gen Z heart is warmed to know that even 19th century German lyric poets were saying “it’s over for you, bro”

Worth noting, however, that most of our Old English sources referred to Cicero as "Tullius," which probably would have developed into the same "Tully" we get from the Norman pronunciation.

Our Modern English pronunciation of Latin names (Cicero, Vergil, Caesar) comes from the Norman tradition, which explains why e.g. C- is pronounced like /s-/. If we had preserved the Old English pronunciation instead, we would say "Chichero," "Fereyill," and "Cozer."

@aelfred_D Prologue Paradise Lost when?????

Part One: The Harrowing of Hell Part Two: The Empty Tomb Part Three: The Ascension Maybe?

“Part One”???