The largest library in the world will be digitalized and opened to everyone

We're talking about the Library of Congress (USA), which, supported by UNESCO, will offer the World Digital Library with free access from anywhere on the planet. That'll be at the end of 2008.
You see they're really taking a big step towards free culture (which has already been promoted with the creation of concepts such as the copyleft).

Some interesting webs

Hi everybody!

As Alejandro told us to upload things we've found on the web about the subject. I'd like to give you some links (legal, of course) related to some topics that can be of our interest.

• The first one is the a link to a book of project Gutemberg's site, titled "A Brief History of the English Language and Literature" http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21665

• The second one is www.englishtips.org. It is in Russian (you can change the language into English) , but it is the best web I’ve visited for a long time, here you can download every single book you’re looking for. (you need registration). There are two or three books for this subject although you are going to find plenty of grammar, phonetics, exam preparation and literature books. Don’t worry, it is not illegal! In Russia, there are no laws banning this type of downloading, just in case, don’t air the link too much.

Alejandro, if you think that this link can be “dangerous” for the survival of your super-blog feel free to delete it.

PS: Alejandro, why don’t you try to include snap shots on your blog and webpage? (It’s just a suggestion) they are free and very useful for previewing the links. Here you can create them and get HTML code. http://www.snap.com/about/shots.php

Cheers!!

Elena Moreno

A reply concerning holy, etc. and OE halig

Alejandro gret eadmodlice his leorneras and eow segþ,

In reply to Marina's survey of the etymology of holy, holiday and halloween, I thank her for reminding me of that piece of forgotten "homework". A good teacher should not give homework and then forget to correct it. My apologies to those who did work out the etymologies of these words.

I was surprised to read in Marina's post that Old English halig descends from Old Norse heilagr. I checked in the Online Etymology Dictionary myself and found a little error in her explanation. What the dictionary says is that both the OE and ON words are reflexes of a common Germanic word, which is reconstructed as *khailagas.

This dictionary also mentions that the word halig is etymologically connected to the word hal "healthy, sound, whole". Both words had a long /a:/ in OE. In ME /a:/ became /o:/, whence Modern English holy and whole. The word whole today has an archaic meaning "healthy". However, in the North of England and in Scotland, this OE /a:/ did not change, and the word continued to be written with "a". The Modern English alliterative expression hale and healthy contains this a-form from the North. It is in fact a doublet of two words meaning the same thing.

The compound haligdæg existed already in OE. It is only the meanings "religious festival" and "day of recreation" that were created in the 14th century, not the word itself, as Marinas description seems to imply. Until then, including the OE period, it was used to render the Latin (Hebrew) word Sabbath (i.e., "Sunday").

As for the third word, halloween, I have nothing to add. But I would like to draw your attention that Halloween is particularly popular in Scotland.

I am glad that two students have contributed posts to this blog. My comments must not be taken as discouraging. On the contrary, this commentary is an invitation to more posts.

Wesaþ ge hale!
Alejandro Alcaraz

Etymological study

Hi everybody!

I just remembered we forgot to bring up in class the etymological study of the words 'holy', 'holiday' and 'Halloween'. It so happens that I was already familiar with those terms because, as you know, I quite like Harry Potter, and the seventh (and final) book of the series is titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This title was really controversial because the word 'hallows' is not used nowadays, and therefore we all had to hurry up and take a look at an etymological dictionary. By the way, 'hallows' was finally paralleled with 'holy relics', just so you know (not everyone, but some of you may be interested).
In any case, I found out that the three words ('holy', 'holiday' and 'Halloween') have an Old Norse origin 'heilagr'. In OE it changed into 'halig' ('that must be preserved intact') which in fact, after some variations in meaning towards the spiritual field, became 'holy' in ModE.
Now, 'holiday' is a compound of 'halig' ('holy') + 'daeg' ('day') and it was first registered in the 14th century (meaning 'religious festival' or 'day of recreation'). By the 16th century both its pronunciation and sense evolved towards the current word 'holiday'.
The word 'halloween' is really interesting when it comes to its provenance. It appeared as a Scottish shortening of 'Allhallow-even' (literally 'Eve of All Saints') which was celebrated on the 31st of October, the last day of the Celtic calendar.

So, I hope you enjoyed these curious facts. I certainly did! I know it's not much, but it is really interesting to see how words and their meaning change as much as going, for example, from 'religious festival' to those exquisite long months in which we rest and have fun!

Cheers!
Marina Torralbo

PS. I used an online etymology dictionary. You can check it out in the following link: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php

The Bayeux Tapestry (III)

But this is not the complete story…

According to scholars there must be a piece of tapestry missing (of at least seven or eight metres), which is quite demoralizing because that part may have answered many questions related to the Tapestry. The historical facts are that, after his triumph at Hastings, William marched to London, where some English lords submitted to him. On Christmas day William was crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey. However, the Saxons continuously rebelled against the invaders, even after William’s death.

We can compare the surviving piece, depicting the Norman’s triumph over the English, and the missing one, perhaps dealing with William’s coronation and consolidation of England; and this comparison suggests that someone may have removed it intentionally, probably someone French.

The Tapestry in the Modern Age

During the French Revolution the Tapestry was at risk of being destroyed. Some people from Bayeux, fighting for the Republic, used it as a cloth to cover an ammunition wagon, but fortunately a lawyer who understood its value replaced it with another cloth. Later Napoleon wanted to use the Tapestry as inspiration for his attack on his lifelong enemy England. When this plan was aborted, the Tapestry was given back to the people of Bayeux.

Other details and anecdotes

• The Tapestry provides much information about early Norman clothes, weapons, castle-building, boat-building, hunting and other aspects of the medieval everyday life.

• Above and below the different sequences of the story we find “the marginalia”, that is, additional information that shows the season of the year, the looting of war spoils, and many other symbols and pictures.

• A full-size replica of the Bayeux Tapestry is displayed in the Museum of Reading, in England. The Victorians demanded that the one naked figure in the original tapestry was represented with a garment covering his genitals. From 2000 some members of the Danish Viking group Lindholm Hoje have been elaborating an accurate replica of the Bayeux Tapestry, using the original sewing technique, and thread naturally dyed with plants.

• Scott McCloud in his work Understanding Comics, mentions the Bayeux Tapestry as one of the first examples of narrative art. (By the way, I recommend this book to all comic fans).

Have a look at this animated Bayeux Tapestry, the story seems to be full of life.

Electronic sources

All these electronic sources were consulted on 20th October 2007.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hastings

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_tapestry

• http://hastings1066.com/history.shtml

• http://www.britainexpress.com/History/bayeux-tapestry.htm

• http://www.cinemacrawler.com/index.php?Operation=CustomerReviews&ItemId=B00004R9A4&ReviewPage=15

• http://www.youtube.com/v/bDaB-NNyM8o

The Bayeux Tapestry (II)

What the Tapestry tells us
The Tapestry deals with the story of the Norman conquest of England, in which the Normans, led by William the Conqueror, fight against the Anglo-Saxons, conducted by Harold Godwinson, recently crowned as King of England. They fought in the Battle of Hastings in October 1066.

The main character of the Tapestry is William the Conqueror. As a piece of gossip I can tell you that he was married to his distant cousin Matilda of Flanders, and that William was 1.78 m., while Matilda was 1.27 m (just imagine them together).

At the beginning of the tapestry there is a scene of King Edward the Confessor, who did not have any heir. Apparently Edward sends Harold Godwinson, the most powerful earl in England, to Normandy. There he lands, but he is imprisoned by Guy, Count of Ponthieu. William sends two messengers to require his liberation, and Guy obeys quickly. William, perhaps to impress Harold, invites him to his combat against Conan II, Duke of Brittany. On the way, Harold saves two Norman soldiers who had become mired in quicksand. William’s army pursues Conan, who eventually surrenders at Dinan. For his braveness Harold receives arms and armours from William and makes an oath on saintly relics.

Harold sails to Normandy

The messenger with Guy with portrayal of medieval agriculture in the marginalia.

Harold comes back home and meets the old king Edward again, who seems to be reprimanding Harold, maybe for making an oath to William. Edward dies, and Harold becomes the new king. After his coronation a star with hair appears flying across the sky, it is Halley’s Comet! In the Middle Ages comets were considered a symbol of doom.

Halley's comet.

William hears about Harold’s coronation and, longing for the throne of England, he prepares his fleet of ships. With his troops he reaches England. There is a legend about this. While setting foot on the beach, William stumbled and fell on his face. Not to seem awkward before his troops, he rose with his hands full of sand and shouted: “I now take hold of the land of England!” But this is suspiciously similar to the story of Julius Caesar’s invasion of Britain, so it may have been used by William’s biographer to highlight the similarities between Caesar and William. Again in the Tapestry, William orders his men to find food and cook a meal. A house is burnt, probably because of the invaders’ thirst of destruction. Then the Normans build a kind of fort to defend their position. Messengers are sent between the two armies, and William delivers a speech to get his army ready for the battle.

The English force consists entirely of infantry, fighting behind the protection of a shield wall, whereas the Normans employ a mounted cavalry. The first warriors to fall are Harold’s brothers. Bishop Odo also appears in this episode. The part dealing with the death of Harold has received different interpretations, since the name “Harold” is embroidered above a lengthy death scene, which makes it difficult to find out which character is Harold. Usually, medieval iconography depicts perjurers dying with a weapon through the eye. Thus representing Harold as an oath breaker (with an arrow stuck in his eye) may emphasize William’s legitimate right to the throne. Nevertheless, Harold’s way of dying remains unknown. Finally in the Tapestry the defeated English run away.

Continuation: THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY (III)

Harold's death.

The Bayeux Tapestry (I)

After mentioning the Bayeux Tapestry to my father, he stated that it appears at the beginning of the film Bed knobs and Broomsticks (known in Spanish as La Bruja Novata). Later I found an image of the film and at last I remembered: the opening titles have a design which is quite similar to that of the Tapestry. This is because the film is about another invasion of England, but in this case prompted by the Nazis.

The Bayeux Tapestry is 70 metre long and half a metre wide. In fact it is not a tapestry at all! Actually, it is an embroidered cloth depicting the incidents that led to the Norman invasion of England, as well as the invasion itself. They call it “tapestry” because it is embroidered, and because it is designed to hang on the wall, like other medieval works. Another interesting fact is that the Tapestry contains annotations in Latin. Nowadays it is exhibited in a special museum in Bayeux (France), the Centre Guillaume le Conquérant. We may conclude that one of the greatest historical records of the Middle Ages in Britain is not preserved in Britain, but in France.

Scholars think that it was Bishop Odo (William the Conqueror’s half brother) who commissioned the Tapestry, with the intention of exhibiting it at Bayeux Cathedral. If we assume this to be true, then the Tapestry may have been designed and constructed by English artists, since Odo’s central base was in Kent and because in the Tapestry many connections have been found with Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, clothes and language.

Continuation: THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY (II)

Laptop thieves. Beware!

Beware of thieves.
AAS

Wikipedia in Old English

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia is published in many languages. Among others:

• Old English = Wicipǣdia, sēo frēo wīsdōmbōc.

• Latin = Libera encyclopaedia.

AAS

News in Old English

You can read current news in Old English and test your reading comprehension skills!

Visit the New Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in Old English called Tidunga on englisce.

As we move further into the course, you'll see how your reading improves.

AAS

Bosworth & Toller's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon

You can download an application with Bosworth & Toller's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon and view the entries as text or images of the original printed dictionary.

AAS

Online History of English Course

You can visit the Online History of English Course, still under construction.

The material in this website is practically the same as that in Docencia Virtual.

AAS

Novedades en Docencia Virtual

He reestructurado las carpetas y archivos de la asignatura en la plataforma de Docencia Virtual. Podéis visitar todas las carpetas, salvo las de Middle y Early Modern English, que estarán disponibles en el segundo cuatrimestre.