Saturday, 14 February 2009

the alphabet is incomplete!

The thorn , Þ þ , is one of the most fascinating of letters and, in a form unrecognisable to the untrained eye, is still used to convey 'olde-worlde' charm. Twee shop fronts may bear the legend 'Ye Olde Shoppe' in an attempt to recreate a feeling of the medieval, and inevitably the word spelled as 'Ye' will be pronounced by all as 'Yee'. However, 'Ye Olde Shoppe' ought actually to be pronounced as 'The Old Shoppe', because the 'Y' derives from a printed form of the thorn.

Þrúðr (Throd - the daughter of Thor in Norse mythology) will be pleased if we can all spell her name right again...

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