Chapter 12 Answers
1. And wearþ se cyng swyþe gram
wiþ þa burhware.
And the king became very angry against the citizenry.
2. He wæs swyþe spedig man.
He was a very prosperous man.
3. Ac he is snel and swift and swiþe leoht.
But he is quick and swift and very light.
4. Ða wurdon þa mynstermen micclum
afyrhte.
Then the monks became greatly frightened.
5. Ond þær wearþ Heahmund
bisceop ofslægen ond fela godra monna.
And there Bishop Heahmund was slain and many
good men.
[A literal translation of wearþ ofslægen
would be “became slain.” Fela godra
monna is an example of a partitive genitive,
discussed below in Chapter 19. In this case,
translate as a simple plural]
6. And þæt byne land is easteweard
bradost.
And that cultivated land is broadest in the east.
7. He wæs mid þæm fyrstum
mannum on þæm lande.
He was with the first men in that land.
[mid + dative case þæm could be translated
as “among those” ]
8. Se hwæl biþ micle læssa þonne
oþre hwalas.
The whale is much smaller than other whales.
9. Ða beoþ swyþe dyre mid Finnum,
for þæm hy foþ þa wildan
hranas mid.
Those are very precious to the Finns because
with them they catch those wild reindeer.
[A literal translation of mid Finnum would be “with
the Finns”, “to the Finns” is
given to make the translation idiomatic in Modern
English, where “precious” takes the
preposition “to.”]
10. Wæs þær in neaweste untrumra
monna hus.
In the vicinity there was a house of unwell men.
[The subject is the last word in the sentence
because hus is the only noun in the nominative
case.]