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Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel
22 Jan 2026 14:52Old English can be pretty fatalistic 😅
Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel. = Fate ever goes just as it must. (Beowulf line 455)
I suspect all the Germanic tribes' belief systems probably were similar, although I have never read any Old Norse or others.
The Beowulf reading is going pretty well, although it is hard reading -- not always easy to decipher both because it is poetry, and also there are so many new words/phrases! And there is an understood context that I'm not necessarily familiar with.
As a twist in class 1, the instructor asked us to memorize the first 19 lines of the poem and recite in class. We are taking it in chunks, with the next class going through line 11. I'm actually enjoying it, and it has not been as hard as I thought it might be.
When I'm reciting it in class, I close my eyes because I find vision to be distracting. One thing that surprised me is how my mind is working during the recitals. I might have mentioned before how much I see images in my head as I read Old English poetry. Each half line very often generates an image for me.
When reciting the poem in class, one part of my brain seems to be keeping track of the story -- "what comes next after this" -- and it often feeds me the next piece of the story as an image. Example: line 8 has the half line "weox under wolcnum" - "grew under the heavens". As that line is approaching, I see an image of a large grove of trees and a meadow and a beautiful sun -- a good place to "grow under the heavens."! When I see that image, the other part of me supplies the text. It's why I have to close my eyes -- my mind is pretty much fully occupied.
***
Today was a warmish day before the next arctic blast hits us along with snow and ice, then deep freeze temps for a week. I took advantage of the warmth to go down to the river, and happily enough, a Blue Heron landed on the rocks not far from me.
Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel. = Fate ever goes just as it must. (Beowulf line 455)
I suspect all the Germanic tribes' belief systems probably were similar, although I have never read any Old Norse or others.
The Beowulf reading is going pretty well, although it is hard reading -- not always easy to decipher both because it is poetry, and also there are so many new words/phrases! And there is an understood context that I'm not necessarily familiar with.
As a twist in class 1, the instructor asked us to memorize the first 19 lines of the poem and recite in class. We are taking it in chunks, with the next class going through line 11. I'm actually enjoying it, and it has not been as hard as I thought it might be.
When I'm reciting it in class, I close my eyes because I find vision to be distracting. One thing that surprised me is how my mind is working during the recitals. I might have mentioned before how much I see images in my head as I read Old English poetry. Each half line very often generates an image for me.
When reciting the poem in class, one part of my brain seems to be keeping track of the story -- "what comes next after this" -- and it often feeds me the next piece of the story as an image. Example: line 8 has the half line "weox under wolcnum" - "grew under the heavens". As that line is approaching, I see an image of a large grove of trees and a meadow and a beautiful sun -- a good place to "grow under the heavens."! When I see that image, the other part of me supplies the text. It's why I have to close my eyes -- my mind is pretty much fully occupied.
***
Today was a warmish day before the next arctic blast hits us along with snow and ice, then deep freeze temps for a week. I took advantage of the warmth to go down to the river, and happily enough, a Blue Heron landed on the rocks not far from me.