r/OldEnglish • u/CoThrowAway4 • 5d ago

Translation Help

Hello and help. I’m trying to translate these texts that I’m pretty sure are Old English (the version that’s this sub’s focus) and I don’t want to use AI. Any help with their meaning or where I should take them to translate would be much appreciated! Thank you for your time.

The first I’m pretty sure is a poem:

Nu sind beseted ure modbrægnu ealle sidum.
Nu be scotungum we gescorfan sindon.
Hwær sie scursceadu? Hwær sie scieldu ure?
In þornum we wriþaþ. For þinga Cædmon us!

Unwriteras begeaton geardaga spellas,
wemmenne ond searienne, hira oferhydes wela
Biþ se anlican wiht hie willaþ forstandan.
Þus sind forgietende ure fædera þrymmas.
Mid þornum hie þræstaþ. For þinga Cædmon us!

Hwæt seo scinsawol þe secþ scieppan
Ac for an mæg dælan dærstan migoþena.
Willaþ we for wætre in hyges westene ac
Adrincaþ in cwudu, mod-drana coþe.
Be þornum we þyrstaþ. For þinga Cædmon us!

Cædmon forma scopa, cannst scame þu,
Hu hit draf þe fram healle, þa se Dryhten
Mætinge in sægde singan. Mæge se Hælend
Menn gelice bebeode eft. Þys we gebiddaþ.
Of þornum we bidaþ. For þinga Cædmon us!

And then there’s the second:

Hpæl pierged ne onbutan hrop. Hpæl pierged ne sinc neopolnesse · tac ne deopum tyht ne rap · racentum flit ond pætre ceoca. Scricas sæ nu spift · scipa scricas, nu spift Nu strang. Hæstlice hebbaþ · sunnan stariaþ · heofone giet standaþ. Hpæl pierged Laþlic sæclud · fiscstan gecursod · fisc gefæstnod nu forspelt · hpæl gedemed · gardeaþes hærfest. Þu pierged hpæl. Þu pierged hpæl.

Any assistance is appreciated.

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u/Euphoric-Quality-424 5d ago

Where did you find these?

In the second one, it looks like <ƿ> is mistranscribed as <p>.

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u/CoThrowAway4 4d ago

An ex-friend of mine. I recently stumbled across/rediscovered these in an old Google Docs and was wondering what they said. If I remember correctly, the first I copied from an old email, and the second is a facsimile I made out of his own copy of either another copy or the original, so it's possible there were issues on either my or his part when it comes to the exact characters used.

Will that error make it hard(er) to translate?

Also, thank you for your time.

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u/Euphoric-Quality-424 4d ago edited 4d ago

They look like modern OE compositions, although I'm not competent to comment on how well they are executed.

The first one is in alliterative verse. Some of the vocabulary seems to involve creative neologisms, e.g. modbrægnu, lit. "mind-brains", which seems not to be attested in historical OE. I can't work out what the refrain "For þinga Cædmon us!" is supposed to mean, but the overall gist of the poem is a sort of nostalgic lament.

I can't really make much sense of the second one. It's something about whales. The mistranscriptions of <ƿ> are not particularly difficult to spot and correct for, but I suspect there might also be other mistranscriptions that make it harder to see the sense.

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u/CoThrowAway4 4d ago

Got it! Thank you! The fact that one's about whales makes sense to me. In that case, do you have any recommended resources if I wanted to take it further for either of these translations?

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u/Kunniakirkas 4d ago

Aight, I gave the first poem a go, but the grammar is all over the place so this translation involves quite a few very questionable guesses at the intended meaning:

Now our mind-brains are beset on all sides.
Now we are gnawed by shootings.
Where may the shower-shade (i.e. protection against storms) be? Where may our shields be?
In thorns we writhe. (Something something Cædmon)!

Bad writers laid hold of the (stories?) of the old days,
To mar and wither(?), the wealth of their overskin (a mistake for oferhygdes, 'arrogance'?)
Is the only thing they want to stand for.
Thus they are forgetting the glories of our fathers.
With thorns they (roll about? torment?). (Something something Cædmon)!

What the spectral(?) soul that seeks (to form?)

At this point I gave up, maybe someone can do the rest

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u/marintkael 3d ago

Bosworth-Toller is free online and searchable by headword, I'd start there. For grammar, Peter Baker's Introduction to Old English has a free companion site with the paradigms. And with modern compositions, if a word isn't in Bosworth-Toller at all, it's probably invented.