Category Archives: water

wæd

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wæd, n.n: ford, shallow water, water that may be traversed; (poetic) a body of water, sea. (WAED / ˈwæd)

water
A boy, having been pushed off London Bridge by cattle, is rescued by rivermen on the Thames. John Lydgate’s Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund. England (Bury St Edmunds?), between 1461 and c. 1475. British Library, MS Yates Thompson 47, f. 94v. [bl.uk]

be-sencan

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be-sencan, wk.v: to sink, plunge, submerge, drown. (beh-SEN-kahn / bɛ-ˈsɛn-kan)

Today is the Feast of St Clement. Read his story in this week’s Wordhord Wednesday post on Patreon.

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Constantine and Methodius receiving the remains of Pope Clement I by the Black Sea. From The Menologion of Basil II (late 10th- or early 11th-century). Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. gr. 1613, p. 204. [commons.wikimedia.org]

firigend-strēam

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firigend-strēam, m.n: a mountain-stream, the ocean. (FIH-rih-yend-STRAY-ahm / ˈfɪ-ɹɪ-jɛnd-ˌstɹeːam)

siren
From the British Library medieval manuscripts blog: Detail of a miniature of a siren from a Bestiary, with extracts from Gerald of Wales on Irish birds. England (Salisbury?), 2nd quarter of the 13th century. Harley 4751, f. 47v. The siren has seized a ship and destroyed its mast. One of the sailors is trying to close his ears to her horrible song.