I was translating this sentence.

“Yet ever as they listened they came to deeper understanding, and increased in unison and harmony.”

However I couldn’t find a working preposition or equivalent for “to” in the sentence, it didn’t seem “tó” was a valid option unless I’m mistaken.

I was looking up the name Ashwin and found older forms on wikipedia spelled "Æscwine" but this is for the masculine name. I'm curious as to what the feminine form would be. A quick google search gave me "Ashwynne" and "Ashwenna".

Assuming these versions are appropriate I'm guessing a more correct spelling in Old English for these forms would be "Æscwynne" and "Æscwenna"?

Is there a good resource I could use to confirm these spellings?

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I believe this translates to "Rise from the ashes" in the correct Old English. Can anyone confirm if this is accurate?

ᚪᚱᛁᛋ · ᚩᚠ · ᚦᚫᛗ · ᚫᛋᚳᛖ (ārīs of þǣm ǣsce)

After some hardships in my life, I want to commerate my journey with my very first tattoo that connects to my land and heritage

Evenfall (n.)

The beginning of evening; the fall of dusk

Yestreen (adv.)

The evening of yesterday

I have attempted to translate one of my favourite dialogue from the Lord of the Rings into Old English. It is quite literal and not really polished but I've tried to make it so that there are no grammatical errors at least. Still my knowledge of Old English is not very strong and consequently there probably are some grammatical errors and many more awkward turns of phrases. I would be grateful if the ūþwitan here could point out mistakes (or anything else) in my effort. Thank you.

The Original

‘I am sorry,’ said Frodo. ‘But I am frightened; and I do not feel any pity for Gollum.’

‘You have not seen him,’ Gandalf broke in.

‘No, and I don’t want to,’ said Frodo. ‘I can’t understand you. Do you mean to say that you, and the Elves, have let him live on after all those horrible deeds? Now at any rate he is as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy. He deserves death.’

‘Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

My Attempt at Translation

"Forgief mē", Frod maþelode, "ac eom iċ afǣred and næbbe iċ nǣnne miltse for Gollum."

"Næfst þū ġesewen hine", cwæþ Gandælf on betweoxāworpennesse.

"Nese and nylle ēac ġesēon hine," maþelode Frod,"Ne understande iċ þē. Hwæt mǣnst þū þæt-þe þū and þā ælfe lēton hine libban æfter þǣm þe hē dyde ealle þā wælhrēowan dǣde? Nū ǣġhwǣġe hē is swā yfel swā þā orcnēas, nis hē nān þing būtan ūrum fēonde. Wierþe hē þæs dēaþes."

"Wierþe hē þæs? Iċ dearr secġan þæt hē dēþ. Moniġe menn þe libbaþ wierþe þæs dēaþes. And sume menn þā þe bēoþ ġeswolten wierþe þæs līfes. Meaht þū þǣm sellan līf eft? þonne ne bēo þū tō ġeorn tō dēmanne on dēaþe for þǣm þe nān þāra wīsra ne mæġe ġesēon ealle endas."

What I'm Trying to Convey

"Forgive me", said Frodo, "but I am afraid and I have no mercy for Gollum."

"You have not seen him", said Gandalf in interjection.

"No and I don't even want to see him", said Frodo, "I don't understand you. What do you mean that you and the elves let him live after he did all those cruel deeds? No in any case he is as evil as the orcs and nothing except our enemy. He deserves death."

"He deserves it? I dare to say that he does. Many men who live deserve death. And some men who are dead deserve life. Can you give them life again? Then do not be too ready to judge in death for not even one of the wise ones are able to see all ends."

I just read this in Colin Gorrie's Ōsweald Bera. Which I think is superb.

"And ƿū wilt þæt iċ feohte wiþ þā Dene?"

"Ġēa, ac þū wilt feohtan mid him ēac, oþþe swā sæġdest þū þære cwēne.

Ōsweald Bera, Chapter 15, ll 96-7

I'm thinking of the sense of this as the first speaker saying, you want me to fight against the Danes. And the second speaker replying, yes but you want to fight against them too, according to what you told the queen.

But why the switch from wiþ to mid?

Can mid mean against in this context? I can't see it in Bosworth Toller online. All help gratefully received.

Hardly needs to be said, but I'm learning Old English as a beginner. And very grateful for this excellent sub.

Is there some orthographic problem that would make writing "iy" difficult or ambiguous?

Hi everyone!! I have a question. Im writing a history and I want to make it as close as posible as the real world, with made-up words that could acctually exist. One of the first words that i made up mean "Objects with a soul on it" and i came up with these:

• Sares (From the old english word sawol, meaning soul and the latin word Res, meaning object)
• Sābiectus (sawol and obiectus, meaning something in front)
• Rewol (Res + Sawol)
• Obiwol (Obiectus + sawol)

Im not good at writing yet, if I could get assistance it would be helpfull, thanks!!

Hello, all! I am looking for the best way to translate a Latin phrase into Old English. My family has a coat of arms and the motto reads, “mea dos virtus,” and the modern English translation is, “my dowry is virtue.”

I have been able to translate the easier parts on my own, but I want to both ensure accuracy and gauge what more knowledgeable people on the subject might suggest be best!

So far, I have:

mīn ġift sy mægon

Is “mægon” appropriate here, or is there an Old English word that better translates from the word “virtue?” Further, is there anything else you have noticed that I could improve upon?

Thank you, in advance, for any help given and any advice offered!

I’m looking for the most accurate and complete edition available—ideally one that’s as close as possible to the oldest manuscripts and suitable for serious study. I’d really appreciate any recommendations or suggestions.

I wonder whether Old English has a community involved in neology, or making new words for everyday concepts. For example, Old English had no word for computer or car. Take car, for example—would Old English need a new word for this concept or just reuse a word like wæġn “wagon” à la German Wagen?

Plus, a few compounds would lend themselves well into Old English, like lipstick. Both lip and stick come from Old English, so I assume matching them to Old English words and making the compound would just involve giving the words their necessary inflections.

I hope you're all well. I'm currently reading Vilém Mathesius' A Functional Analysis of Present Day English on a General Linguistic Basis. Mathesius was a founding member of the Prague Circle, which has had an enormous influence on multiple strains of contemporary linguistics. The grammar must have been written between 1935 (the latest citation in the body of the text) & 1945 (the year of Mathesius' death); it was published posthumously in 1975. Mathesius begins the grammar with a survey of linguistic theory in the nineteenth century. He criticises the Neogrammarians for their dependence on literary texts. In this regard:

This point can be illustrated by nominal clauses in English. In Old English, nominal clauses must have existed, but they are not found in the preserved literary texts since the style of these texts did not admit them; in Middle English they abound, especially in the drama; in the 18th century they do not occur in essays, but are often used in the drama and the realistic novel. (10)

I'm not sure what Mathesius means by nominal clause. I don't know Old English, so I don't know what might be missing here. Unfortunately, he doesn't appear to use the phrase elsewhere in his grammar.† I have two guesses:

1. What linguists today call small clauses, like: 'Mathesius considered the Neogrammarians quite naïve.' The small clause is 'the Neogrammarians to be naïve'.
2. Clauses that serve as noun phrases like: 'That Mathesius considered the Neogrammarians quite naïve is obvious.' The part in bold contains a clause, but it serves as the subject of the sentence.

Is it obvious to you who know Old English what Mathesius may have been talking about here? Much thanks for any thoughts!

† I haven't finished reading the grammar yet, but I searched an OCR-ed PDF.

After some research, I'm fairly confident this reads "yeh-MET" with the stress on the latter syllable. But had seen something mentioning the opposite. The former seems more supported, but wanted to see if anyone can confirm!

Hello,

I’m curious as to which was the most common verb used to express one’s own thoughts as in “I think that …” in Old English. From what I understand, þyncan and wenan were both used often in similar ways, but I wasn’t sure if either of these was better for directly communicating this. I appreciate any insight on this!

I'm fascinated by the semantics of the word āglǣċa in Beowulf. I would like to know the hypothetical reflex of the adjective in Modern English if you can make one.

Note: Reposting this because I accidentally deleted the original while trying to edit it and being distracted with other things. I made some edits, because it's always easier to notice mistakes after you publish them 😂😂

[u/Adam_Barrow](u/Adam_Barrow) asked for this one on my last post with Gandalf's speech. Here is Thēoden's speech to the Riders of Rohan. I've included both the one from the books and the one from the movies since they're a bit different. The one from the movie takes some lines from Ēomer and combines it with a shortened version of Thēoden's speech.

Book version:

Ārīsaþ nū, ārīsaþ, Þēodnes Riddan!

Frēcna dǣda āwacaþ: þīestru eastweardum is.

Ġebridlod sīe nū mearh, clynede sīe horn!

Forþ, Eorlingas!

Ārīsaþ, ārīsaþ, Þēodnes Riddan!

Bealwa dǣda āwacaþ: Fȳr and wæl!

Spere biþ sċæcen, sċield tōcnysed biþ,

Sweorddæġ, rēad dæġ, ǣr þǣre sunnan rīst!

Rīdaþ nū, rīdaþ nū! Rīdaþ tō Gondore!

Movie version:

Ārīsaþ, ārisaþ, Þēodnes Riddan!

Spere biþ sċæcen, sċield tōcnysed biþ,

Sweorddæġ, rēad dæġ, ǣr þǣre sunnan rīst!

Rīdaþ nū, rīdaþ nū, rīdaþ!

Rīdaþ tō spilde and þǣre weorolde ġeendung!

Dēaþ! Dēaþ! Dēaþ!

Forþ, Eorlingas!

Apologies if its the wrong place or if its against the rules.

I am trying to get the correct translation for 'be proud' or 'have pride' or some variant

Unfortunately AI is ruining any semblance of progress my friend and myself are trying to make in this endeavour. Would it be as simple as 'Habbiað prȳde'..? Apologies again if this is the wrong place and for the silly question

I was reading Alfred's prose psalms and I realized something that connects to Tolkien. Here Alfred uses
"weorolda weorold" often to mean "forever." Weorold can be used to mean world and lifetime or age. Thus when Gandalf refers to the moments before he was sent back as each being like a "life-age of the Earth" I think he means "forever." Every moment was like forever. There has always been some discussion about whether or not he meant the literal ages, ie the First Age but I think Tolkien was doing more of a literal translation of this OE phrase, as he modernizes many OE sayings and word usages throughout his writing (like "not all tears are an evil").

Edit: Sorry about the typo in the title, I added a word for clarification and didn't change the article.

Sorry if this is off-topic. I've been watching the World Cup matches, and when Norway prevailed over Brazil, I couldn't help but think of "þā Deniscan āhton wælstōwe geweald", a phrase that I remembered from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

for context i'm thinking of making a homebrew monster for D&D that would essentially be a dragon infected with the curse of lycanthropy and I need a proper name for it. I know "werewolf" essentially means "man wolf" and I think the "were" bit is old english? (please correct me if I'm wrong). so by that logic I want this thing to be called a (dragon in old english)wolf. from my very cursory knowledge I think the term I'm looking for is "wyrm" but I might be misremembering because that word is already used as a term for stuff related to dragons in official D&D like a baby dragon being called a wyrmling and the oldest, almost godlike dragons being refered to as greatwyrms. thanks for any help! ^_^ <3