August 7, 2020 ice


coming back once in a while to OE: the ice riddle, which is number 69 in the exeter book:

                  wundor wear� on wege         w�ter wear� to bane

nicely balanced there, the two alliterated half-lines and the positioning of the two wear�s. the lines so clean - pared down to the bone [bane], one might say. wear�, from the verb that means to be, to become, to happen, where our modern word weird” comes from, and reflected in the translation. intermediary form also wyrd, fate, which can be thought of as that which does come to pass. and how the two wear�s need separate translation in modern english but the same verb in the old english comprises both senses at once.

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renobarroom i’ve taken a vicious and irremediable dislike to the supreme court bar room, which looks twice as big as the one in the state court and smells of