sæde thæt he æt sumum cirre | fishing by the sea. He said
wolde fandian hu longe thæt | that he at some time [on one
land northryhte læge, oththe | occasion] would seek how long
hwæther ænig monn be northan | that land lay northright [due
thæm westenne bude. Tha | north], or whether any man by
for he northryhte be thæm | north of the waste abode.
lande: let him ealne weg | Then fore [fared] he northright,
thæt weste land on thæt steorbord, | by the land: left all the
and tha wid-sæ on thæt | way that waste land on the
bæcbord thrie dagas. Tha | starboard of him, and the wide
wæs he swa feor north swa tha | sea on the backboard [port,
hwæl-huntan firrest farath. | French _babord_] three days.
| Then was he so far north as
| the whale-hunters furthest
| fareth.

In this passage it is easy to see that the variations which make it into
modern English are for the most part of a very simple kind. Some of the
words are absolutely identical, as _his_, _on_, _he_, _and_, _land_, or
_north_. Others, though differences of spelling mask the likeness, are
practically the same, as _sæ_, _sæde_, _cwæth_, _thæt_, _lang_, for
which we now write _sea_, _said_, _quoth_, _that_, _long_. A few have
undergone contraction or alteration, as _hlaford_, now _lord_, _cyning_,
now _king_, and _steorbord_, now _starboard_. _Stow_, a place, is now
obsolete, except in local names; _styccemælum_, stickmeal, has been
Normanised into _piecemeal_. In other cases new terminations have been
substituted for old ones; _huntath_ and _fiscath_ are now replaced by
_hunting_ and _fishing_; while _hunta_ has been superseded by _hunter_.
Only six words in the passage have died out wholly: _buan_, to abide
(_bude_); _swithe_, very; _wician_, to dwell; _cirr_, an occasion;