Just as a quick warm-up post, I want to share something that crossed my mind in class today. When Professor Wenthe was talking about how "ichot" was a combination of "ich" and "wot," and how the language was carried down to even Shakespeare's era in Hamlet's speech, "God wot," I mis-wrote in my notebook, "Godot." God knows? Of course my mind immediately jumped to Beckett's Waiting for Godot: Waiting for God Knows...? Perhaps a knowledge of Middle English was one of Beckett's reasons for picking the name. In addition, there are evidence that the phrase "God wot" is in the consciousness of modern artists, such as in the 1868 song "A Bone, God Wot!" and even a 1964 TV series, "Channing: Freedom is a Lovesome Thing God Wot." Just an interesting sneak peek at the continuation of history. I am very interested in the allure of Old/Middle English in the modern world. I am thinking along the lines of inspirations for J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, as well as the genres of fantasy, magic realism, romanticism, and even realism.
I'm still trying to get a feel for my concentration in the class. My future (actual) posts will be more formal...
Julia
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2 comments:
Julia, I've spent the past two years reading on Tolkien and we're going to find him in conversation with a lot of this literature. I'm excited. AL
I just came across "God wot" in Jane Eyre, something I've never noticed before...I guess it survived quite a while!
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