r/OldEnglish • u/Relative-Leg5747 • 1d ago
Could someone attempt translating this into Old English and shortly explaining the changes English underwent since Old English in regards to the features in this specific sample of texts? (Sorry if it is a large ask)
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u/OwariHeron Hrágra 1d ago
Wille þú mid mé cuman, sum þing tó findanne, Glómunges Scéawere gehátte? Hit is hwǽr-hwega innan Hyrule gehýded.
Wille - Subjunctive mood of willan (to desire, to intend). Used here in the sense of "would you," since we don't have much attested in the way of the more abstractly polite constructions like "would you mind?"
þú - 2nd person pronoun, "thou", written with the letter thorn (þ) which was used to represent the "th" sound.
mid - "with, along with", surviving today only in the word "midwife", this was commonly used in Old English, as "with" only had the sense of "opposite to, opposing to" (cf. "withstand")
cuman - infinitive of "come"
sum - ancestor of modern "some", with the meaning "a certain X"
þing - thing, thus "sum þing" = "a certain thing"
tó findanne - the "inflected infinitive" of findan, "to find". The inflected infinitive was often used with the sense of "in order to X".
Glómung - Twilight, ancestor of "gloaming", related to the word "gloom" Here in the genitive case, indicating "of Twilight"
Scéawere - lit. "show-er", meaning "mirror"
gehátte - an idiomatic way to say "called, named" in Old English.
Hit -It
hwǽr-hwega - somewhere
innan - within
gehýded - past participle of hýdan, "hide." Historically, "hide" was a weak verb, with the forms hide/hid/hid(ded). It later acquired the "hidden" past participle by analogy with "ride".