Next time you want to get everyone's attention for a speech at a party, try this: stand up on a table, pound your mead-chalice on a hard surface (you've got a mead-chalice, right?) and shout HWÆT! No one will have any idea what you're saying, but they'll have no choice but to listen. That's the power of Old English. We've hit bedrock in our excavation of the history of English, which brings us to Beowulf and what Seamus Heaney calls "the coffered riches of grammer and declensions."

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

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Mark Forsyth's books on curiosities of the English language: https://a.co/d/fxudMAn

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Live reading of Beowulf from Hillsdale: https://youtu.be/CH-_GwoO4xI?si=tQCTnID9A7gi5s5_