tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8167606116032558518.post7456730254868229443..comments2023-06-01T04:08:23.369-07:00Comments on Gemæcce: scriþanNicola Griffithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00401940329164370169noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8167606116032558518.post-33315977070765201332008-10-20T21:55:00.000-07:002008-10-20T21:55:00.000-07:00anonymous, I definitely think the assonance thing ...anonymous, I definitely think the assonance thing is in play here: glide, writhe, shrive... The mind loves to play.Nicola Griffithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00401940329164370169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8167606116032558518.post-89543333701641660852008-10-19T01:04:00.000-07:002008-10-19T01:04:00.000-07:00Glide is also suggested by one "Khartoumi&quo...Glide is also suggested by one "Khartoumi" at http://forum.mpacuk.org/showthread.php?t=38175&page=2. <BR/><BR/>"Seamus Heaney is a magnificent poet in the English language... but you cannot judge the Latin of the original through a translation - and a loose one at that. For example, Heaney's version of Beowulf is one of the best; but he freely admits that it is nothing like the original Old English in patterns of alliteration, of kenning, nor in its terrible power:<BR/><BR/>Com on wanre niht scrithan an sceadugenga...<BR/><BR/>Came on a dark night, gliding, a shadow walker<BR/><BR/>But "scrithan" means so much more than "glide" - it is pronounced "shri-than" and is assonant with another word "shrivan" (origin of the English "shrive" and "shrove", as in Shrove Tuesday) which has a sense of something being fated or alloted, something being bound to happen.<BR/><BR/>What is gliding, fatefully, on a dark night? Well, the monster himself, Grendel, towards his death (this time) at the hands of Beowulf and so- finally - Beowulf towards his own...<BR/><BR/>And none of this is revealed or open to being revealed in even Heaney's translation."<BR/><BR/>Looking forward to your work.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8167606116032558518.post-39134149580496736222008-09-11T16:14:00.000-07:002008-09-11T16:14:00.000-07:00I like the rolling r's. Makes me want to thump th...I like the rolling r's. Makes me want to thump the table as I declaim :)Nicola Griffithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00401940329164370169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8167606116032558518.post-28742262657356181572008-09-11T13:47:00.000-07:002008-09-11T13:47:00.000-07:00I can't add anything to what Mike has said, who's ...I can't add anything to what Mike has said, who's right as usual. I just wanted to add though that this is one of those words I encountered in Beowulf and *LOVE* the way it feels, slips, glides off the tongue....one of the reasons I got into Old English as an undergrad (long story, long ago) was the feel of words like this. Anyway, good going.theswainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8167606116032558518.post-70637060592577652112008-09-05T21:24:00.000-07:002008-09-05T21:24:00.000-07:00Ah. Glide. Yes, that works. It has a faint hint...Ah. Glide. Yes, that works. It has a faint hint of otherworldliness, as well as ease of movement, and stealth. Thank you.Nicola Griffithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00401940329164370169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8167606116032558518.post-44686708509576824712008-09-05T19:53:00.000-07:002008-09-05T19:53:00.000-07:00I think that scrithan usually means "to glide," an...I think that scrithan usually means "to glide," and that might work even for the salmon (to indicate the smoothness of the motion). I don't think the passages in Beowulf are particularly about sneaking so much as a sort of inexorable movement.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com