[ml1201]

That's kind of creepy but cool at the same time. XD

[Lawtan]

Yep, it was. I just like little things like that. Keeps things in a more positive light - that cool things can happen.

[ml1201]

Well, after seeing someone play Soma I might play that even though its horror.

[Lawtan]

On another note...

Lay of Beowulf

(Hallows Eve to me is sort of the opening of the season to share, create, retell, and learn various folklore and legends...)

[ml1201]

OMG! I LOVED reading that in Old English back in high school, everyone thought I was crazy. :x

[Lawtan]

Wait, ml can read Old English?

*Is one of the 12 or so languages I want to learn before I die...*

[Lawtan]

On another note, I have 62 candies that i don't have a use for.

[ml1201]

Well, original Beowulf wasn't really written in English, so the 'Old English' as I call it is basically what was used during like the medieval era. Like the old ballads and poems from back then. The English from back then was different from modern English, but I was actually able to understand the story better that way than what we were doing in the class. Which had been just reading the 'important' sections. I tries to look for the edition the school had that I read, but I can't find it. I know it was a very simply designed blue book though. :/

[Lawtan]

I know about Old English, but for you to teach yourself the language is quite impressive.
(In the "I haven't fully been able to do that yet" way)

[ml1201]

If you do a search of it in 'old English' you actually get the language it was originally written in, which is more Germanic as far as I can tell.

HWÆT, WE GAR-DEna in geardagum,
þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon!

This is what it was originally written in.

Listen! We --of the Spear-Danes in the days of yore, of those clan-kings-- heard of their glory.
how those nobles performed courageous deeds.

This is basically like what I read it in, just missing accents on some words. See? A lot of my classmates actually had trouble reading that, the one the school wanted us to read was basically the more simplified version where it didn't have things like:

many riches were there,
from far-off lands ornate armour and baubles were brought;
I have not heard of a comelier keel adorned
with weapons of battle and war-dress,
bill-blades and byrnies;

Majority of my classmates didn't know that its basically talking about their war spoils and some of the wondrous things they obtained. Like armor from their fallen foes, or that 'bill-blades and byrnies' is talking about a blade like a sword. (a blade with two edges for bill-blades, byrnies is obviously another kind of blade weapon but I have no clue what it looks like). And they are also talking about how much spoils they had on their ship and how they'd never heard of a ship to ever have that much. And of course baubles are little trinkets like figurines and jewelry of all manner.

I went to school with kids who's main source of reading is usually from something like 'Stars' which is a magazine about famous people, or other such things. Kids caught on very quickly I learned things quickly and would always try to use me to increase their grades. Like copying my work or trying to get me to help them with worksheets and such. Kind of didn't help when the class found out in seventh grade that I had a reading score of an 11th grader. >>; Needless to say I was no longer required to taking reading classes after that year, and I got to take Spanish instead, which I'm horrible at. ^^;

I believe the reason why I'm so good at reading such things is because I liked playing games like Diablo, Baulder's Gate and Loom where the way they speak is similar to what was in those verses for Beowulf. Which is also the reason why people can never tell where I'm from, because I don't have an accent of the area I grew up in. And its a good thing, people around here tend to hate that accent. ^^; And I've even had someone thing I was from Boston because of my accent and was shocked that I was born in the very same county as him and has been there my entire life. ^^;

Also, I picked up on Mole Speech very quickly as a kid. XD It's always amusing trying to understand what they say and compare to how the other characters spoke in the Redwall series. Each species had a different way of speaking, the Hedgehogs making me think of Irish folk, Hares like Scots, Mice I'd probably say as British. Moles I'd probably say German because it seems like how they pronounce things is sounds like some German I've heard. Badgers make me think of the Vikings with how they talk, but they definitely don't act like Vikings. XD And most of the other species that make up the villains I tend to see as speaking like peasants since most of them don't know how to read, except for some of them because some are Pirates. So the ones that speak better would be similar to Captain Jack Sparrow if I could place it, but with a meaner tone. The exception to this I'd say foxes and the 'royal' villains that are in the stories. Foxes I oddly enough see as being similar it mice where they speak like they are British. And serpents when they do speak people obviously tend to draw out the 's' sound.

...Sorry for the babbling. ^^;

[Lawtan]

...I guess the thing is: I know that Old English is a Germanic language used by Anglo-Saxons. I have done that kind of research on many things. (I am a history/culture geek first, an Astronomy/Mechanics/Nuclear geek second)

I just need time to learn it, I guess. And time that my mind isn't shouting "Learn Tagalong/Python/Nuclear Physics/How to play Guitar or harp or drums/write and draw/read"...generally followed negative thinking...

...really wish I just had a plan where I can say "I'll learn X after I learned Y"

(I want to know almost everything in my Library before I am old)

[ml1201]

I'd actually like to learn it too, if only to at least be able to read it. There's no way that how I pronounce it would be anything like it had been back then, if we were to travel back in time that is. XD

[Lucid:]

I always did like medieval English. I love Shakespeare and never had trouble reading medieval literature in school. Often times, though, I tend to "check out" while reading some of it and while I understand it if I'm paying attention, sometimes it just doesn't register, haha. Old ballads and poems and stuff were really meant to be recited and performed, not read by an individual, as the literacy was terrible back then.

[Lawtan]

Depends. Literacy was always terrible in one sense. In another, it still is.

As I study cultures, I tend to find the "unlettered backwards or barbarian culture" something largely fiction.

[Lawtan]

The Wind-walker casts a shadow,
The Attic doors have closed,
The Leaves have now fallen,
The Frost covers the branches,
The Long Night is now dwallin,
With the Winter's Day return!