Beowulf prologue in Old Mercian

A translation and recitation of the Beowulf prologue in Old Mercian.

Note:
Dialects or language varieties of this period are not uniform as we learn from Joseph Wright. They are 'sub-dialects' as he puts it. So every 'dialect' shares features with another dialect or language variety in one way or another. This would be due to time period, proximity and influence.
Given the scant literature of Old Mercian, this 'translation' is of 3 components:
1) imitation of what is attested Old Mercian that differs from West Saxon.
2) borrowings from 'other' Anglian texts
3) Older features from the hypothetical "Proto-West-Germanic"

Music
honor-and-sword-main- by Zakhar Valaha

#beowulf #oldmercian #mercia

Want to help the channel? Become a Patron!

LIKE and FOLLOW:

[antonyreyn]

That was God Kenning Len, cheers from the woods of Mercia

[jimmysosa]

Great video!!

The Mercian dialect is my favorite dialect of Old English.

PS:Thank you Kevin for the info on the old English texts of Mercia.

[HelenM]

I'm from an area that falls within Mercia, and there are a couple of OE words we still use, though falling out of use. 'Spanwannend' meaning to be stuck astride a wall and 'nesh' meaning easily feel the cold. From my understanding as well, in Mercian, the 'a' could be more of an 'o' sound, and that also still exists where I live, where man becomes 'mon'.

[Bjowolf]

Det var en god sang og en god tale for os - mange [mAng-e] ( many, OE moneGe ! ) tak, Cefin 👏

[erikabutler]

Nice. What we know as modern English is largely derived from Mercian.

[LearnRunes]

That was beautiful. Are you planning to upload more songs like this?

[grime_buster]

i’m new to old english and the mercian dialect, do you have any reading recommendations that can introduce me to old english?

[shawnv]

is old mercian intelligible with old english