When I was a sophomore in high school — this was just a plain old everyday public high school, not a school for high-achieving nerds or anything — our English teacher let us write an end-of-year research paper on any topic we liked. I have no idea why, of all possible subjects, at the age of 15 I decided to research Old English. (And then, a year later, to continue the investigation by focusing on Middle English.)

Whatever the reason, and no matter in how many forms I see it covered, the topic never gets old for me. This was sheer pleasure:

[Hat tip to Jules, via Facebook]

Its style reminds me a little of something which might have appeared scattered throughout several episodes of the old Rocky & Bullwinkle TV show: kidding, but not quite.