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The Wordhord
- Daily Life in Old English
- Narrated by: Sara Powell
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
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Publisher's summary
This audiobook narrated by Sara Powell takes listeners on an entertaining and illuminating tour of weird, wonderful, and downright baffling words from the origins of English
Old English is the language you think you know until you actually hear or see it. Unlike Shakespearean English or even Chaucer’s Middle English, Old English—the language of Beowulf—defies comprehension by untrained modern readers. Used throughout much of Britain more than a thousand years ago, it is rich with words that haven’t changed (like word), others that are unrecognizable (such as neorxnawang, or paradise), and some that are mystifying even in translation (gafol-fisc, or tax-fish). In this delightful book, Hana Videen gathers a glorious trove of these gems and uses them to illuminate the lives of the earliest English speakers. We discover a world where choking on a bit of bread might prove your guilt, where fiend-ship was as likely as friendship, and where you might grow up to be a laughter-smith.
The Wordhord takes listeners on a journey through Old English words and customs related to practical daily activities (eating, drinking, learning, working); relationships and entertainment; health and the body, mind, and soul; the natural world (animals, plants, and weather); locations and travel (the source of some of the most evocative words in Old English); mortality, religion, and fate; and the imagination and storytelling. Each chapter ends with its own “wordhord”—a list of its Old English terms, with definitions and pronunciations.
Entertaining and enlightening, The Wordhord reveals the magical roots of the language you’re reading right now: you’ll never look at—or speak—English in the same way again.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Many of the animals we encounter in everyday life, from pets and farm animals to the wild creatures of field and forest, have remained the same since medieval times. But the words used to name and describe them have often changed beyond recognition, starting with the Old English word for “animal” itself, deor (pronounced DAY-or). In The Deorhord, Hana Videen presents a glittering Old English bestiary of animals real and imaginary, big and small, ordinary and extraordinary—the good, the bad, and the downright baffling.
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It was ok
- By Bbttott on 07-11-24
By: Hana Videen
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Winters in the World
- A Journey Through the Anglo-Saxon Year
- By: Eleanor Parker
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Winters in the World is a beautifully observed journey through the cycle of the year in Anglo-Saxon England, exploring the festivals, customs, and traditions linked to the different seasons. Drawing on a wide variety of source material, including poetry, histories, and religious literature, Eleanor Parker investigates how Anglo-Saxons felt about the annual passing of the seasons and the profound relationship they saw between human life and the rhythms of nature.
By: Eleanor Parker
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The Anglo-Saxon World
- By: Nicholas J. Higham, Martin J. Ryan
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The Anglo-Saxon period, stretching from the fifth to the late eleventh century, begins with the Roman retreat from the Western world and ends with the Norman takeover of England. Between these epochal events, many of the contours and patterns of English life that would endure for the next millennium were shaped. In this authoritative work, N. J. Higham and M. J. Ryan reexamine Anglo-Saxon England in the light of new research in disciplines as wide ranging as historical genetics, paleobotany, archaeology, literary studies, art history, and numismatics.
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Reference, Not Narrative
- By Austin Howard on 01-03-24
By: Nicholas J. Higham, and others
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The Gilded Page
- The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts
- By: Mary Wellesley
- Narrated by: Mary Wellesley
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Medieval manuscripts can tell us much about power and art, knowledge and beauty. Many have survived because of an author’s status - part of the reason we have so much of Chaucer’s writing, for example, is because he was a London-based government official first and a poet second.
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Not suited for audio
- By Secutor on 05-27-22
By: Mary Wellesley
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Conquered
- The Last Children of Anglo-Saxon England
- By: Eleanor Parker
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The Battle of Hastings and its aftermath nearly wiped out the leading families of Anglo-Saxon England—so what happened to the children this conflict left behind? Conquered offers a fresh take on the Norman Conquest by exploring the lives of those children, who found themselves uprooted by the dramatic events of 1066. Among them were the children of Harold Godwineson and his brothers, survivors of a family shattered by violence who were led by their courageous grandmother Gytha to start again elsewhere.
By: Eleanor Parker
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In Search of the Dark Ages
- By: Michael Wood
- Narrated by: Marston York
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In Search of the Dark Ages is an unrivalled exploration of the origins of English identity, and the best-selling book that established Michael Wood as one of Britain's leading historians. Now, on the book's 40th anniversary, this fully revised and expanded edition illuminates further the fascinating and mysterious centuries between the Romans and the Norman Conquest.
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Brilliant!
- By Dee Goulet on 08-31-22
By: Michael Wood
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The First Kingdom
- By: Max Adams
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Somewhere in the dim void between the departure from Britain of the Roman legions at the start of the fifth century and the days of the venerable Bede, the kingdoms of Early Medieval Britain were formed. But by whom? And out of what? Max Adams scrutinises the narrative handed down to us by later historians and chronicles, stripping away the most lurid nonsense about Arthur and synthesising the research of the last 40 years to tease out strands of reality from myth.
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Very interesting, but not in my truck
- By Liz on 03-03-21
By: Max Adams
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Valkyrie
- The Women of the Viking World
- By: Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir
- Narrated by: Ann Richardson
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Valkyries: the female supernatural beings that choose who dies and who lives on the battlefield. They protect some, but guide spears, arrows, and sword blades into the bodies of others. Viking myths about valkyries attempt to elevate the banality of war - to make the pain and suffering, the lost limbs and deformities, the piles of lifeless bodies of young men, glorious and worthwhile. Rather than their death being futile, it is their destiny and good fortune, determined by divine beings.
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Great book horrible narrator
- By Zeb Williams on 06-13-22
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River Kings
- A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads
- By: Cat Jarman
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Three years ago, a Carnelian bead came into Catrine Jarman's temporary possession. River Kings sees her trace the path of this ancient piece of jewelry back to eighth-century Baghdad and India, discovering along the way that the Vikings' route was far more varied than we might think—that with them came people from the Middle East, and that the reason for this unexpected integration between the Eastern and Western worlds may well have been a slave trade running through the Silk Road, all the way to Britain.
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Rivers Kings
- By Anonymous User on 11-28-23
By: Cat Jarman
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The Origins of English Words
- A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots
- By: Joseph Twadell Shipley
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 36 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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There are no direct records of the original Indo-European speech. By comparing the vocabularies of its various descendants, however, it is possible to reconstruct the basic Indo-European roots with considerable confidence. In The Origins of English Words, Shipley catalogues these proposed roots and follows the often devious, always fascinating, process by which some of their offshoots have grown.
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Soooooo boring
- By Koko B. on 07-08-24
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The Manuscripts Club
- The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts
- By: Christopher de Hamel
- Narrated by: John Lee, Christopher de Hamel
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. However, we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence. This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years.
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Manuscripts Through the Centuries
- By Tbaley on 12-02-23
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Battle for the Island Kingdom
- England's Destiny 1000–1066
- By: Don Hollway
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In a saga reminiscent of Game of Thrones and The Last Kingdom, Battle for the Island Kingdom reveals the life-and-death struggle for power which changed the course of history. The six decades leading up to 1066 were defined by bloody wars and intrigues, in which three peoples vied for supremacy over the island kingdom. In this epic retelling, Don Hollway (The Last Viking) recounts the clashes of Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and Normans, their warlords and their conniving queens.
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Wonderfully told
- By Matt on 08-03-24
By: Don Hollway
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How Dead Languages Work
- By: Coulter H. George
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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This volume celebrates six such languages - Ancient Greek, Latin, Old English, Sanskrit, Old Irish, and Biblical Hebrew - by first introducing listeners to their most distinctive features, then showing how these linguistic traits play out in short excerpts from actual ancient texts. It explores, for instance, how Homer's Greek shows signs of oral composition, how Horace achieves striking poetic effects through interlaced word order in his Latin, and how the poet of Beowulf attains remarkable intensity of expression through the resources of Old English.
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Surprisingly fun
- By RB on 09-29-21
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The Language Hoax
- Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language
- By: John H. McWhorter
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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This short, opinionated audiobook addresses the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which argues that the language we speak shapes the way we perceive the world. Linguist John McWhorter argues that while this idea is mesmerizing, it is plainly wrong. It is language that reflects culture and worldview, not the other way around.
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I really love listening to language--and McWhorter
- By Rachel on 03-24-16
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Michelangelo, God's Architect
- The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece
- By: William E. Wallace
- Narrated by: Simon Callow
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Michelangelo, God's Architect is the first book to tell the full story of Michelangelo's final two decades, when the peerless artist refashioned himself into the master architect of St. Peter’s Basilica and other major buildings. When the Pope handed Michelangelo control of the St. Peter’s project in 1546, it was a study in architectural mismanagement, plagued by flawed design and faulty engineering.
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Michelangelo, architect, urban designer, artist
- By Marco on 09-16-20
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The Discarded Image
- An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrated by: Richard Elwood
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The Discarded Image paints a lucid picture of the medieval worldview, providing the historical and cultural background to the literature of the middle ages and renaissance. It describes the 'image' discarded by later years as "the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science, and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe". This, Lewis' last book, has been hailed as "the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind".
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I hope more of Lewis's scholastic stuff is coming
- By James on 04-01-21
By: C. S. Lewis
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The Sea and Civilization
- A Maritime History of the World
- By: Lincoln Paine
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 29 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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A monumental retelling of world history through the lens of maritime enterprise, revealing in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, lake and stream, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world's waterways, bringing together civilizations and defining what makes us most human.
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Comprehensive
- By Than on 12-29-19
By: Lincoln Paine
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Sex in the Middle Ages
- By: Jennifer McNabb, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer McNabb
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Original Recording
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Sex. The word makes some people giggle or blush, while others may draw back in discomfort. So, why do we find it so difficult to talk openly about sex? Much of our reticence in discussing and acknowledging the realities of sex comes, at least in part, from a unique time and place: medieval Europe. In the 12 episodes of Sex in the Middle Ages, Professor Jennifer McNabb and a panel of experts in medieval history and literature will take you back to the period between the fall of Rome and the rise of the Renaissance to explore the ideals and realities of sex and sexuality.
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Confusing
- By Anonymous User on 03-23-24
By: Jennifer McNabb, and others
What listeners say about The Wordhord
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Christopher Torgersen
- 02-23-24
Great book, great performance, poorly recorded
First, before I give any negative criticism, the bottom line is that this is a really great intro to Old English, and the performance of Sara Powell is extremely good. I would certainly not hesitate to recommend it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and appreciated the PDF that came with it and listed many of the words used.
The reason I took off a star for the overall rating is that the recording is somewhat bafflingly poor in quality. It's not beyond the pale, but it's bad enough that it made me wonder what kind of quality control they had for the sound. It sounds like it was recorded with a cheap microphone. Very often, "s" sounds are somewhat distorted so that they sound more like "th" sounds. When listening to a book with new and interesting words, this can be a problem. There also just seemed to be a high level of noise that was dealt with by a filter, which is probably related to the problem. It was enough of an issue that it occasionally distracted me from enjoying an otherwise superb book and performance.
Still, as I said, the bad sound is not severe enough to dissuade me from recommending the book to anyone interested in the topic.
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- Andy Turkington
- 08-25-23
Brilliant!
Such a pleasure to listen to. Funny, enlightening and inspiring. I learned not only about the language, but the life and outlook of the Old English. Marvelously narrated.
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- Danielle
- 05-27-22
So Great! More please.
So Great! More please. A fascinating walk through words and histories of the Old English world.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Emma
- 09-19-23
enjoyable and enlightening
What a joy for a lover of the English language. the narration was superb and the content informative and anything but dry!
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1 person found this helpful
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- gaminette
- 09-05-22
wundrung!
Full disclosure: I have a BA in medieval studies and I adore Middle English. This book was an utter delight: fascinating facts and hilarious asides.
I don’t usually write reviews but wanted to give a shout-out to Susan Powell, who did phenomenal work narrating and nailing the prononciations.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jonathan L.
- 08-10-23
excellent book!
Her wit and erudition made this a fantastic book for listening. I looked forward to it every day!
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- Rose Hallett
- 04-23-24
Unique information
I loved this book. I’m fairly new to Anglo-Saxon history, so no expert, but the unique angle was very engrossing and there was so much fun new information. The tone of the book is also slightly casual with a few jokes and modern references thrown in which I enjoyed.
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- Karen
- 03-07-23
Lisp!
Who chose a narrator with a lisp to read a book about the English language? Wish I could return it!
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1 person found this helpful