Meet Ælfred Se Lytel!

Ælfred the Small and the Happy Birthday

Eala everyone! Today I have something new for you, the first multi-part Old English story since Wæstm, which was really the beginning of my explorations of Old English writing. This new serial was conceived with the same goals in mind as my first - I want to create learning materials for Old English students (or even those who are casually curious) to be exposed to the fun, creative, and relevant side of medieval language studies. As someone outside of the assumed age bracket for Old English scholars (especially when I began my journey), I’ve found an unfortunate dearth of resources that are appealing to those outside of traditional academia, ones that would invite new students into the field, rather than scare them away.

I have so much fun creating these stories - they remind me of books that I read when I was young, and of the types of books that are generally the first stepping stone into reading literature in a second language. Not only is coming up with new plots, characters, and escapades an exercise for the imagination, but I’m also constantly faced with the absence of words for common modern concepts or objects. Often, I get creative with compounds, or use connotations and associations to get my meaning across. I think that playing around with words and structures and pushing language to its limits makes writing and learning a little bit more interesting and entertaining. To me, this is one of the unique beauties of working with Old English, a language at some points uncannily unchanged from our modern vocabulary, and yet so different in many aspects of culture and perception.

One last note: I am looking for artists to help illustrate some of my current and future projects!! I would love to be able to help incorporate other fields and skills into medieval studies, and I think this would be a really rewarding and exciting way to do this. If you would be interested in collaborating, please reach out to me on instagram (@modern.old_english)!

Hope you all enjoy and I’ll be back next week with another update!

Ælfred se Lytel ond seo Bliþe Gebyrdtīd

In a hole in the wall of the school

In an ehþyrle in þam hwæme þæs leornunghuses

A mouse lives with his family 

An mus wunaþ mid his hiwenum

His name is ælfred the small

His naman biþ Ælfred se Lytel

Today is his birthday!

Todæg biþ his gebyrdtīde!

He wears his favorite pink shirt 

He berþ hine betst ful-hwit-read cyrtel

His family all sings to him

His hiwena eall singaþ to him

He eats a sweet cake from his grandmother-

He itt an werod cecel fram his ealdmodore -

It was all cheese!

Hit wæs eall cese!

All the candles burn bright 

Eall þa candela bærnað beorhta

Poof!

Pyf!

He blows them out!

He blædþ þas ut!

Ælfred feels very old

Ælfred felþ micel eald

(But he is only two)

(Ac he biþ anlig twa)

What a happy birthday!

Hwæt an bliþe gebyrdtīd!