by beatriceotto | Dec 21, 2018 | a quote to note
In the countdown to a major gift-giving season, I liked this ancient reference to a human presents. May you give and receive gifts in a spirit of open-hearted affection, bringing real pleasure all round. And if you celebrate it, have a wonderful Christmas, enjoying...
by beatriceotto | Aug 29, 2016 | metaphors
Many who have seen hope return and fears dissolve under the bright light of morning may appreciate this notion of a ‘bright guarantee of God’. ’Light came from the east, / bright guarantee of God, and the waves / went quiet.’ Source: Beowulf, Seamus Heaney...
by beatriceotto | Aug 24, 2016 | put in a good word
‘Thole’ is an Old English word for ‘to suffer’ or to endure without complaint. It also refers to a pin, typically one of a pair, fitted to the gunwale of a rowing boat on which the oar pivots, a ‘thole pin’. ‘He knew what they had tholed, the...
by beatriceotto | Aug 24, 2016 | put in a good word
A small mountain lake, originally Middle English from old Norse: tjorn. In Beowulf, it refers to the watery home of Grendel’s mother: ‘the tarn-hag in her terrible strength’. Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf,...
by beatriceotto | Aug 24, 2016 | put in a good word
‘Wyrd’ originally referred to fate or personal destiny, and relates to the modern word ‘weird’. As a Middle English adjective it meant ‘having the power to control destiny’ and the Weird Sisters, later Shakespeare’s witches, originally referred to the...
by beatriceotto | Aug 24, 2016 | collective nouns
A sight we no longer see: a group of sheaves or grain stood on end in a field. Also ‘to stook’, meaning to arrange (sheaves or grain) in a stook. It comes from Middle Low German stüke. I like Heaney’s adoption of this to describe warrior’s...
by beatriceotto | Aug 24, 2016 | put in a good word
‘Swingeing cuts’ usually refer to sharp budget cuts – note the ‘e’ making it a soft ‘g’ (like a ‘j’), not like the hard ‘g’ of ‘singing in the rain’. To swinge means to strike hard, or beat,...
by beatriceotto | Aug 24, 2016 | put in a good word
To reave is an archaic word meaning to carry out raids for plunder, or to rob somebody by force. The past tense is ‘reft’. Deliver us from reavers. ‘Nobody knows / where these reavers from hell roam on their errands.’ Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, p. 7...
by beatriceotto | Aug 23, 2016 | triologisms
This reminds me of the French word for basking in the sun, based on the word for a lizard: se lézarder. Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf (London: Faber & Faber, 2000), p....
