Old and Middle English
Beowulf
Listen to Beowulf (text and sound). I recommend the scenes when Grendel comes in and has a feast.
Here you'll find beautiful extracts of a Modern English reading of Beowulf by Seamus Heaney. The second one ("The Fight with Grendel") describes the same scene (from 1:00).
Sir Orfeo
Listen to the following short extract:
Middle English
Bifel so in þe comessing of May,
When miri & hot is þe day,
& oway beþ winter-schours,
& eueri feld us ful of flours,
& blosme breme on eueri bou
Oueral wexeþ miri anou
Þis ich quen, Dame Heurodis,
Tok to maidens of priis,
& went in an vndrentide
To play bi an orchardside, 10
To se þe floures sprede & spring,
& to here þe foules sing.
Modern English
It happened thus at the beginning of May
(when the day is pleasant and hot,
and winter-showers are away,
and every field is full of flowers,
and bright blossom on every bough
grows everywhere very pleasantly)
this same queen, Lady Heurodis (= Eurydice)
took two precious maidens
and went in the mid-morning
to amuse herself at an orchard’s edge,
to see the flowers grow and burgeon,
and to hear the birds sing.
(from http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/stella/readings/Middle/ORFEO.HTM)
Listen to Beowulf (text and sound). I recommend the scenes when Grendel comes in and has a feast.
Here you'll find beautiful extracts of a Modern English reading of Beowulf by Seamus Heaney. The second one ("The Fight with Grendel") describes the same scene (from 1:00).
Sir Orfeo
Listen to the following short extract:
Middle English
Bifel so in þe comessing of May,
When miri & hot is þe day,
& oway beþ winter-schours,
& eueri feld us ful of flours,
& blosme breme on eueri bou
Oueral wexeþ miri anou
Þis ich quen, Dame Heurodis,
Tok to maidens of priis,
& went in an vndrentide
To play bi an orchardside, 10
To se þe floures sprede & spring,
& to here þe foules sing.
Modern English
It happened thus at the beginning of May
(when the day is pleasant and hot,
and winter-showers are away,
and every field is full of flowers,
and bright blossom on every bough
grows everywhere very pleasantly)
this same queen, Lady Heurodis (= Eurydice)
took two precious maidens
and went in the mid-morning
to amuse herself at an orchard’s edge,
to see the flowers grow and burgeon,
and to hear the birds sing.
(from http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/stella/readings/Middle/ORFEO.HTM)
sang - 1. Jan, 20:00
