The Deorhord

An entertaining tour of Old English words for animals, from the author of The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English Many of the animals we encounter in everyday life, from pets and farm animals to the wild creatures of field and forest, have remained the same since medieval times. But the words used to name and describe them have often changed beyond recognition, starting with the Old English word for ';animal' itself, deor (pronounced DAY-or). In The Deorhord, Hana Videen presents a glittering Old English bestiary of animals real and imaginary, big and small, ordinary and extraordinarythe good, the bad, and the downright baffling. From gange-waefran or walker-weavers (spiders) and hasu-padan or grey-cloaked ones (eagles) to heafdu swelce mona or moon-heads (historians still don't know!), The Deorhord introduces a world both familiar and strange: where ants could be monsters and panthers could be your