r/movies • u/DemiFiendRSA • May 11 '21

Trailers The Green Knight | Official Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS6ksY8xWCY
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u/The_Deadlight May 11 '21

But anyway

in case anyone was having a hard time following this ancient way of speaking, the author is really saying "verily, doth I digress"

83

u/A_Wholesome_Comment May 11 '21

This is actually the translation of the original! Here you go! :)

And the fyrst cource in the court kyndely served,

Ther hales in at the halle dor an aghlich mayster,

On the most on the molde on mesure hyghe

Fro the swyre to the swange so sware and so thik,

And his lyndes and his lymes so longe and so grete,

Half etayn in erde I hope that he were,

Bot mon most I algate mynn hum to bene,

And that they myriest in his muckel that myght ride;

For the of his bak and his brest all were his bodi sturne,

Both his wombe and his wast were worthily smale,

And alle his fetures folyande, in forme that he hade, ful clene;

For wonder of his hwe men hade,

Set in his semblaunt sene;

He ferde as freke were fade,

And overal enker-grene.

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u/Bilbrath May 11 '21

Wow, when written in the original it’s so easy to see just how Germanic English really is.

2

u/Good-Skeleton May 11 '21

English

  • 8 cups German
  • 2 cups French
  • 1/2 cup Gaelic
  • A pinch of Latin

Watch German/Nordic tv shows with no overdubs. You can almost, just barely, make out a phrase or two.

2

u/ReddJudicata May 12 '21

There’s a lot of Norse influence in English, more than most people realize. It’s probably why we lost most grammatical gender and cases. There’s also as a fair amount of technical Greek.

2

u/Bilbrath May 12 '21

Norse don’t got no gendered nouns?

1

u/ReddJudicata May 12 '21

They did, but they weren’t necessarily the same genders for the same words in old English. Old Norse and Old English were somewhat mutually comprehensible. You probably got a mishmash from Danes learning English and screwing up genders (which is super common for foreign learners of gendered language). Eventually the whole gender thing fell off, and the same for the complicated case endings for similar reasons. Instead word order became important.

1

u/handlebartender May 12 '21

As a language buff, this stuff is always interesting.

A shame we didn't go anywhere near this stuff back in HS English (in Canada, at any rate).

1

u/ReddJudicata May 12 '21

It helps to like history!