Graham Scheper

The Writings of the Venerable Bede is available now! Read selections from his History, educational treatises, biblical commentaries, homilies, poems, letters, and even a few riddles, all in facing-page translation. geni.us/LYt4A7

Clue to a book I will be reading this evening. Engelberg, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 47; Omiliae lectionum sancti evangelii Venerabilis Bedae presbiteri numero quinquaginta; 1143 CE-1178 CE; Engelberg; f.1v (e-codices.ch/en/list/one/...)

Yesterday was the 960th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. My chair called last night to let me know my tenure vote was positive. So is that a good or bad omen?

One of my favorite instances of cross-lingual reinterpretation is the Old English treatment of the Numidian king Jugurtha. In the Orosius translation, we see the name spelled as “Ġeōweorða,” which would mean ‘long ago + honored’ in Old English.

The cats approve (thank God)

Soon!

It’s just so exciting to find some random text written by someone a thousand years ago and be able to read it. The great woman humanists of 15th c. Italy? Wrote in Latin. Augustine, Gregory, Ambrose? Latin. Hildegard? Hrotsvit of Gandersheim? Latin! One key unlocks them all!

Old English will always be my favorite language, but Latin man … How cool is it to be able to read, in the same language, the writings of figures as far apart in space and time as Plautus, Cicero, Boethius, Bede, Aquinas, Petrarch, Isabella I, Isaac Newton, and J.R.R. Tolkien?

Ēala Romeo! Romeo! For hwȳ eart ðū Romeo? Wiðsac þīnne fæder and forwiern þīnne naman!

My parents are always telling me to save up for unplanned expenses. By this I assume they mean “what if you walk into the used book store and find five new Loebs that you don’t have” Well, I didn’t save up for this, but I’m buying them anyway

I googled this expression to see if a friend had gotten it from a website, and was unfortunately greeted by an ‘Old English’ response from the unsolicited AI overview. AI is still so so bad at Old English. Most of this is incorrect in some way. Please don’t use AI for OE.

Why is it so hard to judge the quality of Old English poetry? What kinds of things were the poets trying to do? How should we read their work today? I ask these questions and more of Emily Thornbury today, who joins me to talk early medieval poetics. Check it out: youtu.be/2NIch6CqTfM?...

Today’s video is about Bede’s magnum opus: the Ecclesiastical History of the English People. What is this work? Why is it so important? What makes it so good? Why and how should you read it? Check it out here: youtu.be/Y7mJCmu--ho?...

Though the Welsh king Cadwallon gets quite the nasty description in Bede (barbarus pagano saevior - a barbarian, more savage than a pagan), I can't help but feel like he looks like a really friendly guy in this picture. Are those bunny ears on his helmet? And his rosy cheeks!

Local tradition says that Bede was born in Jarrow. But his Old English translator tells us that the monk was born in <sunderlonde> … does this mean Sunderland (i.e., Wearmouth)? Or does it mean “private property” (a common meaning of the OE word ‘sunderland’), i.e., Jarrow??

So. You're off to the Holy Land. Bags are packed. Sword is sharpened. But have you given away your eels? In 1190 a man in Flanders named Eustace did just that. Before leaving for Jerusalem, he gave the "catch of eels" from his properties to his local church in perpetuity. 1/3 🗃️🧪

Woman, drawn in eleventh-century England, peeping through holes natural to the membrane of this densely inhabited manuscript (Oxf., Bodleian Library, MS Barlow 4)

Looking for a name for your daughter? The seventh-century Kentish king Earconbert and his wife Sexberg named their daughter Earcongota; she lived an admirable life and is venerated as a saint. Her name would be “Arkengoth” today. Who has a cooler name than that?

The Greek word for daughter was θῠγᾰ́τηρ. Fun to remember that the gamma in the middle of this word corresponds with the <h> in Old English dohtor and the now-silent <gh> in MnE daughter. It is still pronounced as /x/ in German Tochter 🇩🇪

I recently interviewed Emily Kesling on the Old English medical texts: what we know (and don’t know) about them, how they’ve been received, and what interesting questions they raise. Check it out here: youtu.be/XgfQbrEC9BA?...

Happy Black Cat Appreciation Day to all the ghoulies celebrating! Illustration from a 13th-century Bestiary, now @bodleian.ox.ac.uk MS Bodl. 533, f. 13r 🐈‍⬛🖤

The Old English name for the Milky Way was Īringes weġ (Iring’s Way). The hero Iring famously killed two kings (Hermanfried of Thuringia and Theodoric of Metz) and then escaped “carving a road with his sword.” In the Nibelungenlied, he duels (and is killed by) Hagen.

Remember, don’t let the Odyssey discourse distract you from what’s really important in life: Old English! Today’s video is all about the singular appearance of Odysseus (called “Aulixes”) in the Old English corpus, in a poem about the Circe episode. Check it out here: youtu.be/eaiV9ngYqQQ?...

The word “tired” is from Old English ġetēorod, which literally meant ‘exhausted.’ Two more commonly used synonyms in Old English were wēriġ (weary) and mēþe,which would have been ‘*meethe’ in Modern English. Hēo dyde stæflīċe nāwiht tōdæġ (She did literally nothing today)

As an Old English scholar, I feel left out of the Odyssey discourse. So, here is the Meters of Boethius poet alternating alliteration on Au- and -li- in the name Aulixes (Odysseus). I’ve always loved this as an example of the options at the poet’s disposal when using Latin words and names.

Richard Methley was a fifteenth-century Carthusian mystic and visionary, whose works were largely forgotten after the dissolution of the monasteries. Today I talk with Barbara Newman about this fascinating character. Check out the episode here: youtu.be/95cguJUg05o?...

Was Thomas Jefferson the worst Old English enthusiast ever? Contractually, I'm not allowed to say "yes" but

Thomas Jefferson might rightly be considered the first American Old English scholar … and also the worst. Check out today’s video on the bizarre things he had to say about the language: youtu.be/1a2wqLExfbE?...

It’s so nice to see someone translating “rād” as “riding or journeying” and not “road.” Tolkien’s vengeance is coming!!

The Carthusian monk Richard Methley occasionally got so excited while composing his meditations on Christ that he would just start writing Jesus’s name over and over again. “O Jesu! Jesu Jesu Jesu Jesu Jesu Jesu Jesu Jesu!” Bedroom of the beloved Beloved, 21 trans. Barbara Newman:

In speech, Cicero says that "magis offendit nimium quam parum." That is: 'too much is worse than not enough.' Seneca as well: "non minus magnam virtutem esse scire desinere quam scire dicere." That is: 'knowing how to stop is just as important a skill as knowing how to talk.'

Cicero’s Crassus describing glossophobia: “in me ipso experior ut exalbescam in principiis dicendi, et tota mente atque omnibus artubus contremiscam.” “I experience it myself; I turn white at the beginning of a speech, and begin shaking throughout my mind and in every limb.”

Would you pass an Old English exam from 1920? In today’s video, I put myself to the test by taking the practice exam that Tolkien sent to an inquiring Somerville student, as she studied for the end of her school year. Check it out here: youtu.be/KCaBBSNDhRA?...

In her preface to George Hickes, Elstob writes of those who treat Old English as a "barren" and "barbarous" language: "these gentlemens ill treatment of our mother tongue has led me into a stile not so agreeable to the mildness of our sex." !!!

Norway vs. England 1000 years ago: a World Cup faceoff in Old Norse and Old English between Erling Alfs-Yngvason of Rogaland and Hereweald “Harry” Cana. Longer version with our commentary on @grahamscheper.bsky.social’s Youtube: m.youtube.com/watch?v=dwWj...

Whoever constructed the entry for 'hwæt' in the DOE deserves a lot of credit. The amount of time and research that went into carefully assigning interpretations for such a controversial word cannot have been easy. Such an amazing resource already. (but let's update the hranrād entry 😉)