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....
by beatriceotto | Aug 23, 2016 | triologisms |
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...
