As I read Paul Kingsnorth's: The Wake, a post-apocalyptic novel that takes place around a thousand years ago, I have found myself creating a glossary for the Kingsnorth's shadow tongue. His language mirrors Old English in a modern, updated manner, and uses many variations of words that one would have found during the novel's era. While much of the language begins to flow as you read it, a list of terms can help. Thus, this what I have so far (updates will flow):- Beornan: Burning People (the invaders)
- Bodigs: Bodies
- Brocs: Badgers
- Cenep: Neck
- Cepan: Keeping
- Circe: Church
- Cyng: King
- Deoful: Devil
- Eages: Eyes
- Efry: Every
- Folc: Folk
- Freondscipe: Friendship
- Fugol: Bird
- Geburs: Landless Peasant Farmers
- Gerefa: Sheriff
- Holt: Countryside
- Ingenga: Foreigners
- Lytle: Little
- Oxgangs: 20 acres
- Preosts: Preists
- Regn: Rain
- Sceolde: Should
- Scramsax: Knife
- Seolfor: Silver
- Thegn: Thing
- Thrall: Viking era slave
- Wealsc: pre-anglo Brits
- Weodmonth: weed month (July)
- Wyrmfleoge: Dragonfly
- Wyrst: Worst
This is great.
ReplyDeleteI'll add some - best guesses
hwit - white (lic hwit silc ofer my land)
ham - hamlet or town
mergen - morning
cycan - chicken ? (i was hopan to see all those cycan men runnan i wolde haf smerced at this)
Eald = old
ReplyDeleteCnawan = known
waet = wheat
teorned = turned
hus = house
fyr = fire
holt. I am not persuaded holt means countryside. Top of page 41: "we was in the holt, a lytle holt only for in the fenns the islands (sic) and the trees...."
holt = pasture, meadow?
ealu = ale
fefor = fever
ReplyDeletesmerc = smirk
secg = sedge
dweorg = dwarf
fyrs = fires
Nice reference here. Holt means "wooded area" no doubt.
Deletehttp://www.wordreference.com/definition/holt
Good stuff here. Really enjoyed the book overall.
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