Category Archives: Literature

Could Beowulf Have Been a Source for the Star Wars Lightsaber?

I’ve been reading my colleague Craig Williamson’s splendid new translation of Beowulf, the first time I’ve re-read this poem since college.  Coming across Craig’s fun discussion of compound words and “kennings” in Anglo-Saxon poetry (pp. 8-9; kennings are 2-word metaphorical … Continue reading

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Corpus of Historical American English (COHA)

Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). The Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) is the largest structured corpus of historical English. The corpus was created at Brigham Young University, with generous funding from the US National Endowment for the Humanities. It is … Continue reading

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Just got a new iPad. So guess which is the first book I finish reading on it?

Turns out the first book I wanted to finish reading on our new iPad is a book that enchanted me when I was 12 and just becoming a serious reader—R. L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island. The free Kindle copy of the text … Continue reading

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