Square Root of Minus Garfield • Re: No. 5860: Old Englishfield

Just asked DeepSeek the same thing, and got this translation:

Īohannes (þurh fingorǣswa at Garolaf): Þū eart catt!
Īohannes (þurh fingorǣswa at mūs): Sēo is mūs!
Garolaf (clyppende þā mūs hand): Ēadig, þē tō mētenne!

It also provided these notes:

1. Names:

• "Jon" becomes Īohannes (a plausible Old English equivalent).
• "Garfield" is rendered as Garolaf, mimicking the name’s structure in Old English (though names were rarely compound like this, it preserves recognizability).

2. Grammar & Vocabulary:

• "You are a cat" → "Þū eart catt" (þū = "you," eart = "are," catt = "cat").
• "That is a mouse" → "Sēo is mūs" (sēo = "that" [feminine, since mūs is feminine], is = "is," mūs = "mouse").
• "Pleased to meet you" → "Ēadig, þē tō mētenne" (ēadig = "happy/pleased," þē = "you," tō mētenne = "to meet" [infinitive]).

3. Cultural Adjustments:

• Old English didn’t have a direct equivalent for modern polite phrases like "Pleased to meet you," so "Ēadig, þē tō mētenne" is a reconstructed approximation.
• The humor relies on Garfield’s ironic politeness, which survives in the tone.

After prompting both about it, they seem to agree that 'sēo' is the more accurate word for the second sentence. The last one is up to personal preference, though asking ChatGPT to think about it, it said that

• In Old English, ēadig means “blessed, happy, prosperous” (often in a moral or spiritual sense), rather than “glad” or “pleased” in the mundane sense of being pleased to make someone’s acquaintance.
• For the everyday “I’m pleased/glad,” Old English usually uses blīðe (‘blithe, joyous, glad’) or forms of wlitig (“glad, cheerful,” though this is less common).
• So “ēadig” isn’t wrong as “happy/blessed,” but it carries a stronger connotation than “pleased” and often appears in contexts like “blessed be …” or “happy is he who …” rather than a casual greeting.

Then settled on 'Blīðe þē tō mētan!' for 'a more idiomatic Old English exclamation'

I think I need to submit my own 'fixed' version of this now, huh?

Statistics: Posted by jorwat — 05 Jun 2025 09:15

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