Archives - History: Page 28
Author: thelanguageguy (Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:33 am)
Title: Beowulf
Doesn't anyone remember reading Beowulf in high school? I guess that I should say "being forced to read," as that is probably the case for most people. I remember reading it in 11th grade and totally hating my life. It wasn't until I started to read about historical linguistics that I began to have an appreciation for Beowulf and other similar texts. I always concerned myself with studying languages other than English. English seemed boring and overdone, and I wanted to learn something new. I remember meeting a girl in one of my Greek classes during undergrad that happened to be a modern languages/classics double major. In addition to taking some Greek and Latin, she also took a course in Old English. I happened to glance her way once while she was doing homework, and I was completely blown away by the looks of the "English" language. I figured that whatever Old English was, it was far too scary to appreciate. Well, it wasn't until years later that I remembered Beowulf and the scary Old English language. I decided to venture out to Borders and find myself a copy and sit down for a while and look through it. It really was an eye-opening experience to see where our language started from and to also know where it has ended up today. Even if you are not an aspiring linguist, this experience is something that anyone who has learned English from childhood can appreicate.