viking log.

Why the hell didn’t anyone tell me that a fortnight was not 10 days, like I’ve mistakenly believed for years?

I mean, where the hell did I get the crazy idea that something that comes from f?owert?ene niht (old english, literally “fourteen nights”) was ten days?

At least I didn’t do this in public.

I believe Jim has found a new tagline for his site:

Jim Henley: And the Thunderbird icon still looks like a greeting card envelope wearing a ridiculous blue wig.
Brett Peters: LOL
Brett Peters: What do you think about the Firefox logo?
Jim Henley: It doesn’t suck nearly as much.
Jim Henley: It’s sort of cute. Not at all like the planet Earth with a Viking beard.
Brett Peters: Now that you mention it, it really DOES look like the planet Earth with a Viking beard.
Brett Peters: You know that I’m never going to be able to look at it the same way again, right?
Jim Henley: Ah. That’s what the best writing does.
Brett Peters: The very best writing makes you think of Viking beards?
Brett Peters: How odd.
Jim Henley: They all laughed at Northrop Frye too.
Jim Henley: My theories await a new generation with the wit to absorb them.

Amazon.com: So You’d Like to… Learn Old English language and find your inner Anglo-Saxon.

More helpful OE links:

• Declension in English
• Old English
• Instrumental Case
• Introduction to Old English
• The Origins of Old English

Some books I’m currently going through:

• A Guide to Old English
• A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary
• Finn and Hengest
• On Translating Beowulf in The Monsters and the Critics

Because everyone needs a pronunciation guide by their bed (per section 2.7): anglo-saxon muttering.