--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
>The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of
> Anglo-Saxon England is a good reference book, though of course it's
> meant for the general reader.
>
That's pretty much what I'd identify myself as -- my knowledge in this
field is, maybe surprisingly, limited.
>
>
> By the way, I've just found this online: it seems to be at least partly
> identical with Davis's article in ASE 35 (though I can't compare them
> closely right now):
>
> http://www.mun.ca/mst/heroicage/issues/5/Davis1.html
>
> Piotr
>
Thanks, I read it, and I don't know if you want any
feedback/commentary but I will say that this article makes the
Anglo-Saxons seem identity-challenged. Although I know it has nothing
to do with this, I nevertheless tend to think that English seems
destined to have become a language in which the overwhelming majority
of dictionary entries have foreign etymologies. I also go further and
wonder whether such a fundamental identity crisis could be related to
the current prestige that English enjoys as the most widely-spoken
second language (if one of the Chinese languages has not taken over
this title). Do other nationalities have similar identity confusion
in their histories? (Maybe you might want to take this over to
Cybalist_admin.)
Andrew