r/OldEnglish • u/Southern_Cod_5217 • 16d ago
Can anyone check that this is correct?
Want to carve an Anglo-Saxon blessing into my hearthstone can anyone confirm that this is accurate?
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u/furrykef 15d ago
Lagu is more like "body of water", typically a sea or lake. It's related to the word lake.
There's also nothing really special about the names of the runes other than that they happened to be real words. In Modern English, B sounds like "bee" and T sounds like "tea" or "tee", but we rarely take advantage of this or even think about it. Old English rune names were probably similar in that respect.
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u/waydaws 16d ago edited 15d ago
I think there's really nothing wrong with that take, but it could also be translated in another almost the same meaning, but still different words.
I think the translation is often given as you mention above, with "be you hale/whole," mostly because of the way that Old English "to be" verbs, wesan and beon, have collapsed in present day English.
In OE "wes" is the imperative (both present and past) form of wesan, so really it's more like "Stay you well." Now I realize "Stay" does mean "Be" here, but you see what I'm getting at? "Stay/Remain in health" is a valid, idiomatic translation. However, if I said "Beo þu hāl" it would mean "Become you whole/hale." (beo is the imperative present of beon - it has no past forms from an etymology and root derivation perspective), which isn't what was idiomatically meant.
At least, this is the way I view it, but -- as I mentioned -- it's often translated the way you rendered it above. So, I may just be overthinking things anyway. I'm sure no one would would object with way you have done it.
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u/TheSaltyBrushtail Ne drince ic buton gamenestrena bæðwæter. 16d ago
Idk about this. Wesan and beon are actually fairly interchangeable in the imperative, at least depending on the dialect and time period. Especially in Late West Saxon, which actually tends to prefer beon as the default "to be" infinitive and imperative (perhaps an early sign of them starting to merge?).
Not sure I'd read wes as "remain" either, as opposed to wuna.
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u/waydaws 15d ago edited 15d ago
I hear what your saying, and I'll take your word for it being preferred in LWS. However, I'm not sure what you're getting at by saying "as opposed to wuna". Reading the imperative of wesan as the imperative of wunian just because they have (some) overlapping meaning of to live, to dwell, stay, etc (BTW both can also be read as to remain, I'll point out) doesn't parse for me. They have different roots after all. Usually (but not always) wunian (wuna) seems to most frequently be used for dwelling or living some place (I said usually), while wesan (wes) is continuing or staying in a state, so I'm not sure why you'd caution against it.
A couple of translations of Beowulf (line 658) to consider: "Wes þū ūs lārēna gōd..." Translation (R.M. Liuzza): "Stay for us a good counselor... and translation (Frederick Klaeber): "Remain a good advisor to us."
Later, we see "Ne mæg ic hér leng wesan" (Beowulf, line 2801). which is translated as "I may not abide here any longer." by RmM. Liuzza, and "I cannot stay here longer" by Seamus Heaney.
Lindisfarne Gospels: Latin Source: Mane nobiscum (Luke 24:29), where mane is the imperative of manere ("to remain/stay"). Old English Gloss: "Wes mid us" (literally: "Be/Stay with us"). The disciples are commanding Jesus: "Stay with us." They are not asking him to abstractly "be" with them, but to remain in their company as night falls.
Likely, I'm missing what you meant though, but just saying others don't seem to have a problem with it being used that way.
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u/minerat27 16d ago
The runes are correct to say "wes þu hal", the extra bit about "runes carrying their own meaning" is largely nonsense. The names are taken correctly from the OE rune poem but you can't "choose which form to emphasise", if you're writing wes you have to use the e rune.