Medieval History
As an invitation to explore the wonders of Old English, hand-saex is certainly arresting.
The Dictionary of Old English, based at the University of Toronto (doe.utoronto.ca), offered hand-saex as last week?s ?word of the week.? Reader Susannah Cameron spotted it and sent the reference to Word Play. ?Have to admit it caught my attention,? she said.
Sadly for anyone expecting new insight into the intimate practices of Anglo-Saxons between the years 600 and 1150, the word refers to a knife or dagger. The knife was a saex, also spelled seax and (yes) sex, and a hand-saex was a weapon held in one hand. The word for hand in Old English was hand. Very handy.
Saex comes from a Germanic root (sah or sag) meaning to cut. It survives today only in the narrowly defined word sax, a tool used to trim roofing slates. But before the Norman Conquest of 1066 reshaped the English language and gave us Middle English ? a process that took about a century to filter down to ordinary folks ? saex was all the rage.
Click here to read this article from The Globe and Mail
- English Is A Scandinavian Language
By Trine Nickelsen Contrary to popular belief, the British did not 'borrow' words and concepts from the Norwegian and Danish Vikings and their descendants. What we call English is actually a form of Scandinavian. "Have you considered...
- Understanding The Art Of Memorization Through A Medieval Singing Tool
In an age of sheet music, pianos, and electronic keyboards, the study of a nearly extinct technique for learning how to sing might seem unwarranted. But Jesse Rodin, an assistant professor of music at Stanford, believes that an antiquated teaching tool...
- The Painting Once Sold For £45 'is A Long-lost Leonardo Worth £120million'
A painting once sold for £45 at auction has been identified as a work by Leonardo Da Vinci and is estimated to be worth a world record £120 million. The oil on wood panel painting, Salvator Mundi, or Saviour of the World, depicts Christ with his right...
- The University Of Toledo
I'm torn about doing this post. On the one hand, I want this blog to stay focused on "Modern Medieval" or, perhaps better, how being a medievalist means that you can say something about the modern world. On the other hand, this seems an opportunity...
- Deeds
DOCUMENTS OF EARLY ENGLAND DATA SET (DEEDS PROJECT) Directed by Michael Gervers, PhD University of Toronto For several decades, the DEEDS Project has had as its major research objective the development of a computer program to provide chronological...
Medieval History
Anglo-Saxons and hand-saex
As an invitation to explore the wonders of Old English, hand-saex is certainly arresting.
The Dictionary of Old English, based at the University of Toronto (doe.utoronto.ca), offered hand-saex as last week?s ?word of the week.? Reader Susannah Cameron spotted it and sent the reference to Word Play. ?Have to admit it caught my attention,? she said.
Sadly for anyone expecting new insight into the intimate practices of Anglo-Saxons between the years 600 and 1150, the word refers to a knife or dagger. The knife was a saex, also spelled seax and (yes) sex, and a hand-saex was a weapon held in one hand. The word for hand in Old English was hand. Very handy.
Saex comes from a Germanic root (sah or sag) meaning to cut. It survives today only in the narrowly defined word sax, a tool used to trim roofing slates. But before the Norman Conquest of 1066 reshaped the English language and gave us Middle English ? a process that took about a century to filter down to ordinary folks ? saex was all the rage.
Click here to read this article from The Globe and Mail
- English Is A Scandinavian Language
By Trine Nickelsen Contrary to popular belief, the British did not 'borrow' words and concepts from the Norwegian and Danish Vikings and their descendants. What we call English is actually a form of Scandinavian. "Have you considered...
- Understanding The Art Of Memorization Through A Medieval Singing Tool
In an age of sheet music, pianos, and electronic keyboards, the study of a nearly extinct technique for learning how to sing might seem unwarranted. But Jesse Rodin, an assistant professor of music at Stanford, believes that an antiquated teaching tool...
- The Painting Once Sold For £45 'is A Long-lost Leonardo Worth £120million'
A painting once sold for £45 at auction has been identified as a work by Leonardo Da Vinci and is estimated to be worth a world record £120 million. The oil on wood panel painting, Salvator Mundi, or Saviour of the World, depicts Christ with his right...
- The University Of Toledo
I'm torn about doing this post. On the one hand, I want this blog to stay focused on "Modern Medieval" or, perhaps better, how being a medievalist means that you can say something about the modern world. On the other hand, this seems an opportunity...
- Deeds
DOCUMENTS OF EARLY ENGLAND DATA SET (DEEDS PROJECT) Directed by Michael Gervers, PhD University of Toronto For several decades, the DEEDS Project has had as its major research objective the development of a computer program to provide chronological...