The Deorhord
eBook - ePub

The Deorhord

An Old English Bestiary

  1. 304 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Deorhord

An Old English Bestiary

About this book

An entertaining tour of Old English words for animals, from the author of The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English

Many of the animals we encounter in everyday life, from pets and farm animals to the wild creatures of field and forest, have remained the same since medieval times. But the words used to name and describe them have often changed beyond recognition, starting with the Old English word for “animal” itself, deor (pronounced DAY-or). In The Deorhord, Hana Videen presents a glittering Old English bestiary of animals real and imaginary, big and small, ordinary and extraordinary—the good, the bad, and the downright baffling.

From gange-wæfran or walker-weavers (spiders) and hasu-padan or grey-cloaked ones (eagles) to heafdu swelce mona or moon-heads (historians still don’t know!), The Deorhord introduces a world both familiar and strange: where ants could be monsters and panthers could be your friends, where dog-headed men were as real as elephants, and where whales were as sneaky as wolves. The curious stories behind these words provide vivid insights into the language, literature, and lives of those who spoke Old English—the language of Beowulf—more than a thousand years ago.

A delightful journey through the weird and wonderful world of Old English, The Deorhord is a magical menagerie of new creatures and new words for the modern englisc reader to discover.

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Yes, you can access The Deorhord by Hana Videen in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Sprachen & Linguistik & Britische Geschichte. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Praise for The Wordhord
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Prologue: An Old English Bestiary
  8. The Ordinary
  9. The Extraordinary
  10. The Good
  11. The Bad
  12. The Baffling
  13. Epilogue: Human or Beast?
  14. Þanc-word (thank-words)
  15. Sources
  16. Old English Words
  17. Images
  18. A Note from the Author