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...
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...
‘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...
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,...
‘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...
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...
‘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,...
‘To reave’ is an archaic verb meaning to carry out raids for plunder, or to rob somebody by force, with the past tense of ‘reft’.  There is a vestige of this in the still current words ‘bereave’ and ‘bereft’, used mostly...
Another structure you would hope could keep the Grendel gremlins out, ideally providing a ‘dry-stone vault’ underneath. Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf (London: Faber & Faber, 2000), p. 86 and...
This reminds me of some of the pointed and upturning gables and eaves in traditional Chinese and south-east Asian architecture. Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf (London: Faber & Faber, 2000), p....
A door to keep enemies at bay?  Except perhaps Grendel who would have torn it off by the hinges. Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf (London: Faber & Faber, 2000), p....
The sea as a wave-frothing vat! ‘He fell beneath his shield, / in the same gem-crusted, kingly gear / he had worn when he crossed the frothing wave-vat.’ Source: Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (London: Faber & Faber, 2000 (1999)), p....
Relating to dreams or dreaming; Greek origin: oneiros, meaning ‘dream’. ‘He is at once a stratum of the earth and a streamer in the air, no painted dragon but a figure of real oneiric power.’ Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf,...
