Mountain Grill

Wilfried Schuesler Wilfried at MUENSTER.DE
Wed Feb 23 06:37:39 EST 2005


Hi,

I am German, but can't read a word. Though some parts sound a bit German.

A quick look on Wikipedia explains that Anglo-Saxons are a mixture of Saxons
(German = Sachsen), Anglo (German = Angeln), Jüten and Friesen (no idea about
the English word for them). All of them came from the north of Germany except
for the Jüten who came from Jütland, Denmark.

Here is another example of old english (a prayer - from Wikipedia as well):

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum
si þin nama gehalgod
tobecume þin rice
gewurþe þin willa
on eorðan swa swa on heofonum
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dæg
and forgyf us ure gyltas
swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge
ac alys us of yfele soþlice

I can read that a bit, but maybe just because I know the german version!

What follows is an example for Altniederdeutsch (an old German):

Thô ward fon Rûmuburg rîkes mannes
bar alla thesa irminthiod Octaviânas
ban endi bodskepi obar thea is brêdon giwald
cuman fon them kêsure cuningo gihuilicun,
hêmsitteandiun sô wîdo sô is heritogon
obar al that landskepi liudio giweldun.
Hiet man that alla thea elilendiun man iro ôdil sôhtin,
helidos iro handmahal angegen iro hêrron bodon,
quâmi te them cnôsla gihue, thanan he cunneas was,
giboran fon them burgiun. That gibod ward gilêstid
obar thesa wîdon werold

Unfortunately I can't read that!

Wilfried

>  Hi Eric, Would the Saxon part of Anglo-saxon, not be German? I'm no
> historian, but weren't alot of the Romans that occupied Briton of Sarmatian
> and German descent, rather than Italian? Cheers Stephe
>
> ---- Eric Siegerman <erics at TELEPRES.COM> wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 22, 2005 at 02:44:57PM +0000, Carl Edlund Anderson wrote:
> > > Wrætlic is þes wealstan; wyrde gebræcon, burgstede burston, brosnað
> enta
> > > geweorc. Hrofas sind gehrorene, hreorge torras, hrungeat berofen,
> > >            hrim on lime, scearde scurbeorge scorene, gedorene, aeldo
> > > undereotone.                   Eorðgrop hafað waldendwyrhtan,
> > > forweorone, geleorene heard gripe hrusan,                   oþ hund
> cnea
> > > werþeoda gewitan. Oft þæs wag gebad, ræghar and readfah,
> > >  rice  æfter oþrum, ofstondem under stormum; steap geap gedreas ....
> >
> > So, can the German-speakers here read this stuff?  I sure can't,
> > though it mostly makes sense when I compare it to the
> > translation.
> >
> > What makes me ask is that the Anglo-Saxon King Aelfred the Great
> > had a ring, whose inscription said something like "Aelfred mec
> > haet gewyrcan", "Aelfred had me made".  Well, "wyrc" must be
> > "work", but the rest -- word order, affixes, the "ae"s, the "c"
> > in "mec" -- is all far more Deutch than English.  That ring gave
> > me quite a shock when I saw it (on my one trip to England when I
> > *didn't* get to see HW, and so settled for the British Museum
> > instead :-)
> >
> > --
> >
> > |  | /\
> > |-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        erics at telepres.com
> > |  |  /
> > The animal that coils in a circle is the serpent; that's why so
> > many cults and myths of the serpent exist, because it's hard to
> > represent the return of the sun by the coiling of a hippopotamus.
> >         - Umberto Eco, "Foucault's Pendulum"
>



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