Bikermouse, In the extended version of "LOTR, Two Towers", Eowyn sings in Old English as Theodred is buried... and you can hear the rhythm and the strength of the language. Tolkien's own translations are very good (he had an ear for the works of others even if some of his own poems are awful); Auden and Hollander made quite decent translations of the Elder Edda and other works. I've borrowed the new Beowulf (Chickering's translation) but haven't settled down with it yet. From the stresses in songs and poems (whether chanted or spoken aloud), we can learn how the words were pronounced. Plain texts such as a list of rules or tallies of grain shipments don't yield this information. Beowulf was a rare surviver from an immense body of oral tradition and we are fortunate that it is a good poem with stirring imagery. Imagine a philologist of the future with a copy of "Dead Man's Curve" or some rap song trying to determine America's poetic tradition (and funeral practices)! Imagine a scholarly dignified poet a thousand years from now trying to write a song in the style of "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" because it was on a rare fragment which survived the destruction of the 23rd century. (Now THAT's real horror... cue the howling wolves again.) Carolly