A.Z. Foreman | Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky read in Middle English translation @a.z.foreman74 | Uploaded 2 years ago | Updated 12 hours ago
Ever wondered what Jabberwocky would sound like in southeastern Middle English ca. 1370 or so? No, I didn't think so. But here you go anyway
I could actually do a lengthy commentary here on the hapax words involved. Here are a few notes though.
In couple cases, I took words that just didn't survive from Old English and pretended that they had Middle English reflexes. "Guþrew" (vorpal) is one such case ( from Gūðrēow, an OE poetic term meaning "battle-fierce"). As, in its way, is the "Shou" ( from scūwa) of "Shoufenged". In other cases there's some portmanteau-ing (vagreffilich, wragious).
"Eglich" is an analogical remodeling of an OE term which also has a semantically unsuitable reflex in real Middle English. (People who are into Beowulf will get it.) Sometimes though (e.g. "Galumphaunt" which was almost "Galiumphaunt") the perfect equivalent just intuitively suggested itself.
"Grendelving" was one of many possible candidates for "Jabberwock". Others were "Scroghterling" and "Grendolfend" and "Hidraigoun". There's Grendel, there's Gryndel, there's Elven, there's the productive -ing suffix and now I feel like I killed a joke by explaining it.
Some words used here which descend from Old English material are attested in Middle English but extremely rarely. I'm pretty sure "meche" is attested only in Laghamon for example.
ADDENDUM: oopse that should have been "holough" rather than "holaught". That syncope combined with the weak preterite in a verb derived from "laughen" is anachronistic for the period I was going for. At least a century off target. Clearly I've been doing too much work on 16th century English.
If you liked this video and want to help me make more things like it, make a pledge at my patreon account:
http://patreon.com/azforeman
Ever wondered what Jabberwocky would sound like in southeastern Middle English ca. 1370 or so? No, I didn't think so. But here you go anyway
I could actually do a lengthy commentary here on the hapax words involved. Here are a few notes though.
In couple cases, I took words that just didn't survive from Old English and pretended that they had Middle English reflexes. "Guþrew" (vorpal) is one such case ( from Gūðrēow, an OE poetic term meaning "battle-fierce"). As, in its way, is the "Shou" ( from scūwa) of "Shoufenged". In other cases there's some portmanteau-ing (vagreffilich, wragious).
"Eglich" is an analogical remodeling of an OE term which also has a semantically unsuitable reflex in real Middle English. (People who are into Beowulf will get it.) Sometimes though (e.g. "Galumphaunt" which was almost "Galiumphaunt") the perfect equivalent just intuitively suggested itself.
"Grendelving" was one of many possible candidates for "Jabberwock". Others were "Scroghterling" and "Grendolfend" and "Hidraigoun". There's Grendel, there's Gryndel, there's Elven, there's the productive -ing suffix and now I feel like I killed a joke by explaining it.
Some words used here which descend from Old English material are attested in Middle English but extremely rarely. I'm pretty sure "meche" is attested only in Laghamon for example.
ADDENDUM: oopse that should have been "holough" rather than "holaught". That syncope combined with the weak preterite in a verb derived from "laughen" is anachronistic for the period I was going for. At least a century off target. Clearly I've been doing too much work on 16th century English.
If you liked this video and want to help me make more things like it, make a pledge at my patreon account:
http://patreon.com/azforeman
