Sunday, August 14, 2005

Common Place Book

"Is there any such thing as a modern-English version of the Canterbury Tales? I have these guilts about never having read Chaucer but I was talked out of learning Early Anglo-Saxon/Middle English by a friend who had to take it for her Ph.D. They told her to write an essay in Early Anglo-Saxon on any-subject-of-her-own-choosing. 'Which is all very well,' she said bitterly, 'but the only essay subject you can find enough Early Anglo-Saxon words for is "How to Slaughter a Thousand Men in a Mead Hall."'"

--Helene Hanff, 84, Charing Cross Road

2 comments:

theamazingcatherine said...

She'd obviously never read this:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.language.artificial/msg/69250bac6c7cbaff

Anonymous said...

"How to Slaughter a Thousand Men ina Mead Hall."

Interesting. Most interesting indeed.

*Warm fuzzies*

Alan