[blushing so much it shows through his helm] ... Um, thanks everyone. I'm really glad you liked the thread. As I said, I have wanted to do this for a long time. I find the diversity and yet similarities of the Old Germanic languages to be like a symphony. Each Germanic instrument had its own interpretation of the words they received from the parent proto-Germanic language...which itself was part of an Indo-European symphony shared with Celtic, Latin, Greek, Slavic, etc.

If you listened to the Bitter Scroll link in the Gothic post, you'll remember that JRR Tolkien loved the sounds of Gothic so much he said just hearing a Gothic word list read aloud could bring him almost to tears. [While I didn't cry, I did try to put my own faith into my reading of the prayers; especially the beautiful Psalm 61.] Anyway, I feel similarly: a different love for each Germanic language.

So anyway, now you've all really inspired me to post a lot more regularly on my Bitter Scroll blog and podcast; I will try to squeeze more time out of busy RL to do this when possible. I've been putting off the second part of the Dream of the Rood, which I will do eventually, but in the meantime, I'll see what else I can find in Gothic and Old Saxon to read (those being the two main requests so far).

I'm humbled by everyone's reaction--and I'm glad you like my untrained baritone voice! As long as I can pass on even a little bit of the excitement I find in these languages. :-)