An entertaining collection of strange, delightful and unexpectedly apt words from the origins of English

An entertaining collection of strange, delightful and unexpectedly apt words from the origins of English, which illuminates the lives, beliefs and habits of our linguistic ancestors. 'A marvelous book' Neil Gaiman 'Wonderful' - Tom Holland 'A lovely, lovely read' - Lucy Mangan 'Splendid' - David Crystal 'Thorough, entertaining, and absolutely fascinating.' Paul Anthony Jones, Haggard Hawks In this beautiful little book, Hana Videen has gathered gems of words together to create a glorious trove and illuminate the lives, beliefs and habits of our linguistic ancestors. We discover a world where choking on a bit of bread might prove your guilt, where fiend-ship was as likely as friend-ship, and you might grow up to be a laughter-smith. These are the magical roots of our own language: you'll never see English in the same way again.

"A wonderful book heaving with linguistic treasure, a joyfully clever exploration of early medieval life." - The Madman's Library

"A lovely, lovely read" - Lucy Mangan

"Thorough, entertaining, and absolutely fascinating." - Haggard Hawks

"Eminently giftable ... A book to be dipped in and out of for the riddles and enjoyable factoids" - The Times

"A lively linguistic history" - BBC History Magazine

"Brilliant. So rich with detail. If you're at all interested in Old English you'll love it." - Kate Wiles, senior editor

"Thorough, entertaining, and absolutely fascinating. If you're interested in Old English (and for that matter, even if you're not!) it's an absolute treat." - Haggard Hawks

"A wonderful book that blends linguistics with a survey of everyday life in early Medieval England. If you want to know why music was known as dream-craeft, what was meant by sawel-dreor - 'soul blood' - or the origins of our days of the week, then this is for you. It constitutes a veritable leornung-hus, or 'learning house''" - BBC History Magazine

"Delightful ... [Videen's] etymological journeys [are] full of satisfying twists ... the book is released in time for Christmas wassailing, and would make a classy gift to the commonly word-drunk ... it's a pleasure just to be reminded of [early Medieval people's] world-craft." - Guardian

"Written in a conversational style that playfully uncovers the meaning of words and their cultural context, [Wordhord] will appeal to all lovers of language and ... serve as an excellent companion to students of Old English literature. Videen unlocks a treasure chest of ancient English ... the result is an accessible, erudite study" - Choice

"This book is a treasure trove... [Videen] is a stunning and gifted word detective and writes of her investigations with nimble prose.... At the end [of The Wordhord] you feel the way that you feel when you come to the end of a Sherlock Holmes tale." - Leaf by Leaf