Reading Old English : A Primer and First Reader

With the immersion method dominating contemporary language learning, the knowledge of traditional grammar is at a low ebb, creating real barriers to any student wanting to learning dead or historical languages. This revised edition of Reading Old English aims to equip readers (advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and autodidacts) with the necessary tools to read the oldest recorded forms of the English language by explaining key language features clearly and methodically, without simplifying any of the core grammatical concepts. It includes a number of helpful exercises, a variety of interesting and unusual Old English texts to translate, as well as appendices covering the basics of traditional grammar and sound changes in Old English, along with an introduction to poetic structure.
 

Robert Hasenfratz  is Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Connecticut and editor of Ancrene Wisse. Thomas J. Jambeck is Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Connecticut and author of Grammar and the Strategies of Writing.