Old English is a declined language, with a couple of major declensions, called “strong” and “weak”. Has all the usual cases ( except ablative ). There are only two verb tenses, present and preterite. Three moods- imperative, indicative, subjunctive. There are three “types” of verbs, called “strong” ( undergoes i-mutation/ablaut in the past tenses ), weak ( analagous to modern english regular verbs ), and “preterite-present”, which is a mixture of the two. There are numerous sources on the web which have good overviews of the grammar. There is one called “the electronic introduction to old english” which is quite good and detailed.
The poetry is alliterative ( eg, Beowulf ). It has a pleasing sound ( to me ) when read aloud. I’m enjoying the language very much. It sounds more like German than English to me. Not nearly as difficult ( in my opinion ) as either Greek or Latin.
Too many things to mention…I really should stop trying to read every book in my library at once!
Andrew Jackson: Portrait of a President (very good)
La Fayette (even better)
Character and Viewpoint (re-reading)
Writer’s Market 2005 (not exactly thrilling reading, but very informative)
War and Peace (somebody shoot Tolstoy)
Grain and Chaff from an English Manor
China’s Three Thousand Years
William of Germany
And Others. But those are the ones I’m reading most.
The Chomsky Reader
King Leopold’s Ghost
My Pet Goat (I have just finished it.)
I was curious about the book My Pet Goat. If I am not mistaken, it is the only book that George Dubya has ever read. For the record, it took me “seven minutes” to read it through!
I’m planning on reading Don Quixote if I can ever get to the library between everything else I have going on. Sadly it will be in English although I’d love to read it in Spanish, but I’m not quite to that level yet (because our highschool spanish department is crap) and I haven’t had a whole lot of time to do any studying on my own lately.
What are the odds? Just finished August 1914 last month (my husband and I were fighting over our single copy) and November 1916 just arrived in the mail last week
Have to finish rereading The Gulag Archilpelago, which I picked up to tide me over till November 1916 should arrive, first though.
My husband strongly recommends The First Circle, which he picked up to tide him over till November 1916 got here.
The only question is, should I tell him it’s here?
Also reading atm:
The Pearl
Kirkwood on Early Greek Monody
Hainsworth on Flexible Formulae
Calvino, 6 Memos for the Milennium
Nicholson Baker The Mezzanine
Steven Brust 500 Years After
Mann, Dr Faustus (bogged down in the middle)
Pynchon, V (bogged down at the beginning)
some random book I just found on Medieval Rhetoric and Poetry
WG Sebald The Emigrants
Hodder and Huston Reading The Past
Barthes, Camera Lucida
Inferno (verrrrrry slowly)(if I stare at it long enough the Italian rearranges itself into Latin, but the process takes time )
Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Collected Stories of CK Cherryh
rereading the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid with an eye to caesurae and phrasing.
actually, am casting about for a good next thing to read in Latin (in Greek I appear to be heading, kicking and screaming at every step, towards the Lyric Poets). Recently reread most of Caesar’s oeuvre with world events in mind, and then of course Trollope on Caesar, Trollope on Trollope, Trollope’s Mother on Americans, De Tocqueville on The Republic…etc.
I love Hardy; he is my favourite fiction author. He is the only one who gives me such a fury that I desire to throw the book across the room. This passion occurred with Tess and also with the Mayor of Casterbridge. In spite of my anger, I keep reading because I love those tragic romances and his wonderful use of the language.
sweet! I throw my books out the window all the time
As I finish Tess I’m wondering whether to pursue more Hardy–my admiration of whom grows with every passing year–give Meredith a whirl (heh, my last attempt at Diana of the Crossways ended in a hearty defenestration) or dip into Faulkner as a kind of American counterpoint to Hardy.
Why do you suppose it is so peculiarly satisfying to eject an author (as represented in his work) out the window? The higher the floor, the better
Chase and Phillips’s Introduction to Greek was in fact the seminal text with which I acquired the (now permanently ingrained) habit. That is one well-sewn book.
They do say that the classics are the ones that last!
If I get tired of reading on any given day, I have a nap or go to the gym. But these days I am working SO much that I don’t have time for eating, sleeping OR reading. So it is nice this weekend to be able to relax and read a book.
Reading shouldn’t be boring, Episcope. Maybe you need to find the books that interest you–surely latin books are intriguing?
Practise makes perfect, but I’m concerned about the damage that could be done before perfection is reached, so I’ll stick to reading.
I have respect for you guys who can study the language of your choice and still able to read so much.
After I have completed my vocational duties and my domestic duties, I study Greek. When I get tired of the particular book I’m studying I pick up another Greek grammar.
When I think it is time to read a novel it is bedtime, so I pick up Pharr and go to bed.
I do enjoy reading books by Farley Mowatt, and I truly enjoyed “The Covenant” by James Michener.
To coin a phrase: I’d rather have a book in front of me than a frontal lobotomy lol
I have adored Farley Mowat since I was little and my mother gave me a copy of The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be.
Throughout my adulthood my appreciation of the range of his writings has grown considerably–from absolute joy in his lunatic absorption in research in Never Cry Wolf (heh we’ve all had our moments ) to enormous respect for his exposition of what fighting in war does to a person (which I read during the first gulf war) in And No Birds Sang
Now that I’m thinking about it, I should go foist off a few copies of The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be on some unsuspecting youngsters of my acquaintance
My mother was also the one who gave me my first Greek and Latin books, then later all my lovely unabridged lexicons and dictionaries (screw cookies–nothing shows a mother’s love like a really good lexicon!!!)
klewlis, I see your good point, but I tried already reading A&G New Latin Grammar, 20 pages a day, and got 1/2 way through then failed. I was so bored. Plus the book smells!
lol. well i don’t know very many people who enjoy reading grammars, so i’m with you on that one. i actually meant books in latin, not books about latin.
I stalled on Latin, due to new job, new location, new house, new… well, I think that gives the idea.
Just finished “Iliad” (in English) for a course (“Greek and Roman Epic in Translation”, and will start “Odyssey” and maybe “Argonautica” when I’m out of the country on course for the next few weeks.
When I get back to Latin, I’m still in the middle of Cicero’s “De Officiis”, but was also getting into Horace’s “Sermones”, which were a lot of fun.
Otherwise… pocketbook mysteries which can be knocked off in an evening or so…