Stephen Lawhead - The Realms Thereunder

“ Swa swa , it’s Ecgbryt. Just so,” he said, grinning. “What say you? Are you ready to rejoin the battle?”

Two Weeks Earlier…

Gad gazed down at Robin Ploughwright from the throne he sat upon. He didn’t like elves, as a rule, and had plans to be rid of them for good. Although they could be relied upon, they were unpredictable. He had overcome his antipathy because they were perfect for just these sorts of jobs-distraction and detention.

Gad made a gesture, permitting him to leave.

Robin had walked a few steps when he turned.

“With respect,” he said, twitching, “I know I shouldn’t question- never have before, but I must ask . . . why not simply kill them, or detain them in a more conventional manner?”

Gad rose a hand to his chin. Kill Daniel and Freya? The thought truly hadn’t occurred to him any more than removing chess pieces from his own side of the board halfway through a game. He liked them-they were so . . . manipulable . . . malleable.

“Really, Robin,” he said, grinning. “Is that any way to treat a friend?”

When the British monks first started to record the history and literature of their land, they wrote them in the Old English language but used the Latin alphabet instead of the pagan one. This was mainly for practical purposes, since Latin was spoken in nearly every European country at that time, usually by other priests and monks. The Roman system of writing was convenient, economical, and comprehensible to foreigners.

The problem, however, was that a few sounds used in English as it was at that time didn’t exist in Latin and therefore had no letters to express them. To fix this, they decided to use the letters for those sounds that they already had, which came by way of the Scandinavians. A few of these letters and sounds were:

?, ? -called “thorn” and pronounced like the “th” in “thin”

?, ? -called “eth” and pronounced like the “th” in “then”

?, ?-also used to represent a vowel sound that was like the “a” in “ate”

Then England was conquered by France in 1066, and the English language went underground-all documents were written in Latin or French. When it started being used officially again several hundred years later, they didn’t use any of the old letters or even most of the old words. This was the start of Middle English.

However, everyone living in Ni?ergeard and nearly all the knights who were already sleeping when this was happening didn’t know of this change and a lot of them still use the old letters, which is why you’ll find them in these books.

?lfred – AYL-fred

Cnafa – KNAF-ah

Cnapa – KNAP-ah

Ealdstan – ee-ELD-stan

Ecgbryt – ETCH-(ye)-brit

Gad – GAAD

Godmund – GOHD-mund

Frithfroth – FRITH-froth

Kelm Kafhand – KELM KAHF-hand

Modwyn – MOHD-woon

Ni?ergeard – NI-thur-gayrd

Sl?pismere – SLAYP-is-mare-eh

Swi?gar – SWIDTH-gar

yfelgop(es) – EE-fel-GOHP(as)