Cassandra Rasmussen’s last Old English translation for The Toast (“The Cat in the Hwæt”) can be found here.
Goodnight, Rune. Goodnight, Stone.
Goodnight to the sleeping king, laid alone.
Goodnight goblets, and golden plates,
Wondrous workmanship, wrecked by the Fates.
Farewell to the Feasting Hall, felled by time,
Goodnight to the ancient Gates, engraved with grime.
Where has gone the great hall, where the golden seats?
Goodnight to the grain bowl, the goodly meats.
Goodnight glories of tale-tellers, gifts to long ears,
Longing to listen, for legends of years.
Where now is the wall-clock, where the socks and mouse?
Where the comb and the cow, the carpet and house?
Alas for the song-spinners, the slurpers of mush.
Where is the old woman, whispering ‘hush’?
Goodnight to the earth-grip, goodnight giver of gold
who slumbers in silence, sun-robbed and cold.
Words wrought on tombs, worn beyond study.
Goodnight forgotten graves: goodnight nobody.
Goodnight, steely stars. Goodnight, silent air.
Goodnight to noises everywhere.
Tags: cassandra rasmussen, linguistics, old english, poetry
Related Posts
The Greatest Poems In The Works Of P.G. Wodehouse
Poems That Sound Like Reputable Contemporary Poems But Are Bad
Notes On Other Household Appliances From William Carlos Williams
“Let Me Tell You About New York City”: A Poem
A Linguist Explains the Syntax of “Fuck”
“The Spinster’s Almanac”: Poetic Advice for Depression
Did anyone else just get this shivers because this is so awesome? I can’t be the only one.
Definitely not the only one.
As a medievalist, I read it through trying not to shriek out loud. Note that I am currently proctoring a final exam, so it was really important not to shriek out loud.
Nope, absolutely beautiful.
Not just you.
Best thing. Only thing. Best thing.
Absolutely delightful, this. I’m right in the midst of applying to grad programs to study Anglo-Saxon literature, and this and your Cat in the Hwæt post are my favorite, favorite things.
This is beautiful. I want it read at my funeral one day.
Sorry, that’s a weird compliment.
I was thinking along similar lines- this turns the children’s bedtime story into a gorgeous eulogy!
Where was this when my kids were toddlers?
So much better than the original. SO MUCH.
eta: also forever grateful to my college self for taking that Old English course so I can properly appreciate this stuff. The Russian, that was a mistake, but not the Old English.
Old English is never a mistake.
This is beautiful, thank you
Having just survived Medieval term at uni this is hitting home like a two story bus crashing into my living room. Oh God this is good!
This is glorious, and spine-chilling.
A haunting masterpiece. There’s nothing more soothing than ubi sunt.
The comb and cow, the carpet and mouse have vanished under the shadow of night, and are no more.
Just like everything sown by the brooks. The wall-clock has withered, the house shall fade away, and be no more.
These are the works of the giants who have fallen.
Idle they stand, empty of folk, gaping teeth where once there were walls.
I adore this.
When is this becoming a gloriously-illustrated book? I want to get it for my mom.
Aw dang, very good, the Old English were the grimmest of peoples, huh.
Gold of hair, grimmest of peoples, grief-gotten Ænglisc, glory seeking.
Hail ye Seaxe, deft-handed tomb-builders, worm-feeding, harrow-souled.
High-hearted hall builders, hardy in battle, marching towards doom, those mighty men’s sons.
Hahah, A+ game, Æthel the Unready, word-wefting, spear-shaker.gloom-seeking as her mothers were. Would play again.
Many thanks, Braak, bringer of burnt bread, keen-minded commenter.
I am going to get home from work and then send this to all the medievalists I know.
1) I love your username.
2) I am jealous that your sum of “all the medievalists I know” is greater than zero.
Thank you!
Medievalists are by and large lovely people, and often huge nerds. Unfortunately I can’t really think of a reliable way to get to know them in person other than through university. There are lots on the internet, though. I found this list of blogs, which might be a good starting place? http://www.bestuniversities.com/blog/2010/50-best…
I think we’re all learning that the Toast is an excellent place to meet medievalists.
ETA: you said ‘in person.’ Nevermind.
I did not know that medievalist is a profession. I have chosen the wrong profession.
I sent it to all my medievalist friends, too. Well. I sent it to my FAVORITE medievalist friends.
I will read this to my nieces and nephew this summer when they come to visit, so their dreams will be filled with wights and they will prophesy about the coming of the end of days.
Please excuse me while I go home, retrieve my daughter’s copy of Goodnight Moon, and update it.
I want to print a copy of this and paste it to the inside cover of our copy.
I am already thinking about how to illustrate it.
As a former medievalist, I just creamed my pants with “Goodnight to the earth-grip”. This is PAAAAARFECT!
So perfect. I love it, you, and everything.
Once I had a grad school class in which we were to provide our own interpretation of a canto of the Inferno from the Italian (without knowing Italian), and I did mine in this manner. It wasn’t great, but oh, it was fun.
Where now is the wall-clock, where the socks and mouse?
Where the comb and the cow, the carpet and house?
Alas for the song-spinners, the slurpers of mush.
Where is the old woman, whispering ‘hush’?
I did not realize that combining GOODNIGHT MOON and THE WANDERER was all that I needed, but here we are. Amazing.
BRB, crossing out the words in our copy of “Nigh-Nigh Noo” and reading this version (at least 5 times a day) from now on.
beautiful!
Please publish an entire book of theses!
95 of them, perhaps?
All the love.
By my count, “silent” is the only word of Latinate origin in this piece. GLORIOUS. Please never stop.
I had to go back and re-read to check if this was really going on. Sorrow of sorrows, I don’t think it’s deliberate – or if so not quite as thorough – there’s “glories” and “ancient” as well.
It is still glorious though, traces of Latin or no traces of Latin!
No wait what’s going on here?
Is this supposed to be, like, what it would be like if it was written in Old English and then translated into Modern English? So confused.
Excellent job! I love this! I just can’t believe other people do these sorts of things. Mixing different poems and poetry styles into elaborate jokes is a hobby of mine. Glad to see I’m not the only one!
Lovely poem. Can someone address why this is called “Old English” or why it is called a “translation.” I’m not exactly fluent in old english, but this is nothing like the Beowulf I’ve studied.
This is the best thing I’ve read since Goodnight Room. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/138868) I think the very best part may be how the final line is nearly unchanged, and still works PERFECTLY. Speaking as the parent of a toddler who has hundreds more readings of the original source text in my future, Thank You!
My friend just casually dropped this in the middle of our Dungeons and Dragons game.
These were both good- this and CITH, but um, neither was in Old English. The style of, yes, the language, no. Sorry to be picky, again the content was good, but I was sort of disappointed.