The Wordhord

Daily Life in Old English

By: Hana Videen

Narrated by: Sara Powell

Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins

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.

©2022 Hana Videen (P)2022 Princeton University Press

Critic reviews

“The perfect way to be introduced to Old English. There is insight on every page.”—David Crystal, author of The Stories of English

“A rich meditation on words, a thoughtful cultural history, and a delicious box of delights to dip into during stolen moments. I loved this book—and learnt more from it than from any number of solemn language primers. Hana Videen has created a marvel.”—Nicola Griffith, author of Hild

“A wonderful book heaving with linguistic treasure, a joyfully clever exploration of early medieval life.”—Edward Brooke-Hitching, author of The Madman’s Library

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.

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.

So Great! More please.

So Great! More please. A fascinating walk through words and histories of the Old English world.

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!

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.

excellent book!

Her wit and erudition made this a fantastic book for listening. I looked forward to it every day!

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.

Lisp!

Who chose a narrator with a lisp to read a book about the English language? Wish I could return it!