#guthlac

Hey if you've got 15 minutes or so you should watch my brother's latest video. It's not doing as well as he'd hoped but it's interesting.

The ways in which sceadu is articulated in these patterned passages call for two remarks. First, there is a consistent presentation of shadow, or shadows, as moving, whether coming or going away, and one notes that grammatically sceadu tends to be the subject. Whether or not this can conjure some such impression as that of a sentient being or wilful force extending its menace, the moving-shadow-in-the-dark image certainly receives striking verbal and syntactical emphasis. More remarkably still, this ominous emphasis is bestowed no less on a sceadu that actually retreats. Potentially cheerful passages where we are told shadows are dispelled actually still feel somewhat eerie and sinister because of the shadows’ quasi-physical, obstinate verbal lingering.

Wuldres scima, æþele ymb æþelne, ondlonge niht scan scirwered. Scadu sweþredon, tolysed under lyfte. Wæs se leohta glæm ymb þæt halge hus, heofonlic condel, from æfenglome oþþæt eastan cwom ofer deop gelad dægredwoma, wedertacen wearm [The radiance of glory shone all night long, the noble [light] on the noble man, clothed in brightness. The shadows (scadu) faded away, unloosed under the sky. The radiance of light was about the holy house, the heavenly candle, from even-gloom until from the east came the crack of dawn over the deep expanse, a warm weather-sign.]