HN

Comments (101)

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  pouwerkerk
  Of course the article is about the archaeological discovery, but if you're curious (as I was) what the poem is, it's "Caedmon’s Hymn":"Now we must praise the protector of the heavenly kingdom the might of the measurer and his mind’s purpose, the work of the father of glory, as he for each of his wonders, the eternal Lord, established a beginning. He shaped first for the sons of the earth heaven as a roof, the holy maker; then the middle-world, mankind’s guardian, the eternal Lord, made afterwards, solid ground for men, the almighty Lord."via https://imagejournal.org/article/caedmons-hymn-the-first-eng...
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  rubzah
  This is the text in Old English for anyone looking: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47296/caedmons-hymn-5...Actually, here is the full text with the modern English inserted: Nu scilun herga hefenricæs uard Now let us praise Heaven-Kingdom's guardian, metudæs mehti and his modgithanc the Maker's might and his mind's thoughts, uerc uuldurfadur sue he uundra gihuæs the work of the glory-father—of every wonder, eci dryctin or astelidæ. eternal Lord. He established a beginning. he ærist scop ældu barnum He first shaped for men's sons hefen to hrofæ halig sceppend Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator; tha middingard moncynnæs uard then middle-earth mankind's guardian, eci dryctin æfter tiadæ eternal Lord, afterwards prepared firum foldu frea allmehtig the earth for men, the Lord almighty.
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  cyocum
  My degree is in Celtic Studies. This kind of discovery may be surprising to those not versed in it but not those who have studied these languages. Some of the best preserved Old Irish, for instance, is in St. Gallen in what is now Austria and Milan.There is still an entire Medieval European world out there in the archives still waiting to be discovered. Sadly, there are not many of us who have the skills to do this and we are not paid very well or often not at all.
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  conartist6
  Here's the old English poem! https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47296/caedmons-hymn-5... Should be in the public domain by now eh? Nu scilun herga hefenricæs uard metudæs mehti and his modgithanc uerc uuldurfadur sue he uundra gihuæs eci dryctin or astelidæ. he ærist scop ældu barnum hefen to hrofæ halig sceppend tha middingard moncynnæs uard eci dryctin æfter tiadæ firum foldu frea allmehtig I couldn't make hide nor hair of it without the translation, but with the translation I see quite a few more words than just "and his" that have stayed around: hefen: heaven uerc: work uard: guard/ward hrofæ: roof æfter: after middingard: Earth, to Marvel allmehtig: almighty
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  saltmate
  1,3k years ago is such a weird way to write it. Makes sense if we are talking millions of years, but why not write "in 700" or just "1300 years ago"
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  alex-moon
  I absolutely love post-Roman, pre-Norman British writing because it's so rare it gives the era a sense of mystery. This is of course the time when King Arthur is supposed to have lived. In the absence of contemporary records, the impulse to fill it with wizards and dragons is understandable.
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  Agingcoder
  For those interested in learning old English, I’ve been going through Oswald Bera by Colin Gorrie -https://colingorrie.com/books/osweald-bera/Basically it’s a full blown story/graded reader with no modern English apart from vocabulary. You build an understanding of the language as you read the book and what is initially gibberish becomes quite clear as you progress . It does help if you’ve had a lot of exposure to German ( vocab and grammar), or barring this any case inflected language.What’s noticeable is that it’s about 200 pages long, so the story gets quite sophisticated , and rather unexpectedly the book is a bit of a page-turner !
• KPGv2
  It's absolutely amazing to me that we're still discovering things that are held by major libraries. This wasn't discovered in a limestone tomb, accidentally preserved. It wasn't in the basement of some hoary building that was once the personal library of the Medici.This was in a modern library that was built recently (1975), by historical standards. This book would have been, at minimum, catalogued, packed, and unpacked to verify it made the trip. It was't missing. It wasn't unearthed. It was just never read.https://www.cenl.org/library/the-central-national-library-of...
• thewanderer1983
  Here is the translation from the article. Which is slightly different from what is listed below in the comments.Now let us praise Heaven-Kingdom's guardian, the Maker's might and his mind's thoughts, the work of the glory-father—of every wonder, eternal Lord. He established a beginning. He first shaped for men's sons Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator; then middle-earth mankind's guardian, eternal Lord, afterwards prepared the earth for men, the Lord almighty.
• ChrisMarshallNY
  I wonder if it starts "There once was a man from Londinium..."- I'll get my coat...
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  deafpolygon
  It really baffles (and amazes) me that Old English is practically unintelligible to modern day English speakers.
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  dboreham
  Article could benefit from some editing: the poem is from variously the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries! After reading a few times I get that one date is the supposed composition date, the second is the publication date of Beade, and the last is the date of transcription for the copy in Rome.
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  satisfice
  I bet it starts "Roses are red, violets are blue..."
• makeryi411
  [flagged]