Introduction to Old English

Introduction to Old English
Author: Peter S. Baker
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 421
Release: 2012-02-20
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 047065984X

Featuring numerous updates and additional anthology selections, the 3rd edition of Introduction to Old English confirms its reputation as a leading text designed to help students engage with Old English literature for the first time. A new edition of one of the most popular introductions to Old English Assumes no expertise in other languages or in traditional grammar Includes basic grammar reviews at the beginning of each major chapter and a “minitext” feature to aid students in practicing reading Old English Features updates and several new anthology readings, including King Alfred’s Preface to Gregory’s Pastoral Care

Old English and its Closest Relatives

Old English and its Closest Relatives
Author: Orrin W. Robinson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2003-09-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1134848994

This accessible introductory reference source surveys the linguistic and cultural background of the earliest known Germanic languages and examines their similarities and differences. The Languages covered include:Gothic Old Norse Old SaxonOld English Old Low Franconian Old High German Written in a lively style, each chapter opens with a brief cultural history of the people who used the language, followed by selected authentic and translated texts and an examination of particular areas including grammar, pronunciation, lexis, dialect variation and borrowing, textual transmission, analogy and drift.

The Old English Boethius

The Old English Boethius
Author: Boethius
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2012-11-19
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0674055586

King Alfred's circle of scholars boldly refashioned Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy from Latin into Old English, bringing it to a vernacular audience for the first time. Verse prologues and epilogues associated with the court of Alfred fill out this new edition, translated from Old English by Susan Irvine and Malcolm R. Godden.

The Old English Version of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica

The Old English Version of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica
Author: Sharon M. Rowley
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2011
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1843842734

Pioneering examination of the Old English version of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica and its reception in the middle ages, from a theoretically informed, multi-disciplinary perspective. The first full-length study of the Old English version of Bede's masterwork, dealing with one of the most important texts to survive from Anglo-Saxon England. The subjects treated range from a detailed analysis of the manuscriptsand the medieval use of them to a very satisfying conclusion that summarizes all the major issues related to the work, giving a compelling summary of the value and importance of this independent creation. Dr Rowley convincingly argues that the Old English version is not an inferior imitation of Bede's work, but represents an intelligent reworking of the text for a later generation. An exhaustive study and a major scholarly contribution. GEORGE HARDIN BROWN, Professor of English emeritus, Stanford University. The Old English version of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum is one of the earliest and most substantial surviving works of Old English prose. Translated anonymously around the end of the ninth or beginning of the tenth century, the text, which is substantially shorter than Bede's original, was well known and actively used in medieval England, and was highly influential.However, despite its importance, it has been little studied. In this first book on the subject, the author places the work in its manuscript context, arguing that the text was an independent, ecclesiastical translation, thoughtfully revised for its new audience. Rather than looking back on the age of Bede from the perspective of a king centralizing power and building a community by recalling a glorious English past, the Old English version of Bede's Historia transforms its source to focus on local history, key Anglo-Saxon saints, and their miracles. The author argues that its reading reflects an ecclesiastical setting more than a political one, with uses more hagiographical than royal; and that rather than being used as a class-book or crib, it functioned as a resource for vernacular preaching, as a corpus of vernacular saints' lives, for oral performance, and episcopal authority. Sharon M. Rowley is Associate Professor of English at Christopher Newport University.

Old English Metre

Old English Metre
Author: Jun Terasawa
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1442693843

Old English Metre offers an essential framework for the critical analysis of metrical structures and interpretations in Old English literature. Jun Terasawa's comprehensive introductory text covers the basics of Old English metre and reviews the current research in the field, emphasizing the interaction between Old English metre and components such as word-formation, word-choice, and grammar. He also covers the metre-related problems of dating, authorship, and the distinction between prose and verse. Each chapter includes exercises and suggestions for further reading. Appendices provide possible answers to the exercises, tips for scanning half-lines, and brief definitions of metrical terms used. Examples in Old English are provided with literal modern English translations, with glosses added in the first three chapters to help beginners. The result is a comprehensive guide that makes important text-critical skills much more readily available to Old English specialists and beginners alike.

The Cambridge Old English Reader

The Cambridge Old English Reader
Author: Richard Marsden
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 616
Release: 2015-04-02
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1316240320

This reader remains the only major new reader of Old English prose and verse in the past forty years. The second edition is extensively revised throughout, with the addition of a new 'Beginning Old English' section for newcomers to the Old English language, along with a new extract from Beowulf. The fifty-seven individual texts include established favourites such as The Battle of Maldon and Wulfstan's Sermon of the Wolf, as well as others not otherwise readily available, such as an extract from Apollonius of Tyre. Modern English glosses for every prose-passage and poem are provided on the same page as the text, along with extensive notes. A succinct reference grammar is appended, along with guides to pronunciation and to grammatical terminology. A comprehensive glossary lists and analyses all the Old English words that occur in the book. Headnotes to each of the six text sections, and to every individual text, establish their literary and historical contexts, and illustrate the rich cultural variety of Anglo-Saxon England. This second edition is an accessible and scholarly introduction to Old English.