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.
DeleteThegn evokes Tolkien's Thain for me, which seemed to fit in context. (if it's pronounced the same and not another word). not a king, but a more local leader.
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