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

This book is designed to ease the beginner into competent reading of Old English texts. It presents the essential points of Old English grammar and also includes a selection of short, relatively simple original language texts, glossed and annotated. Numerous practice exercises are also included throughout. A companion website includes additional interactive exercises, a fuller grammar, and further original language texts.

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 Earliest English provides a student-friendly introduction to Old English and the earliest periods of the history of the English Language as it evolved before 1215. Using non-technical language, the book covers basic terminology, the linguistic and cultural backgrounds to the emergence and development of OE, and the OE vocabulary that students studying this phase of the English language need to know. In eight carefully structured units, the authors show how the vocabulary of Old English contains many items familiar to us today; how its characteristic poetic form is based on a beautiful and intricate simplicity; how its patterns of word building and inflectional structure are paralleled in several present day languages and how and why the English language and its literature continued to change so that by the mid-12th century the English language looks more like the 'English' that we are familiar with in the 21st century. Features of the book include: the provision of accessible guides to some important 'problem topics' of classical OE stimulating cross-linguistic comparisons, e.g. the pronoun system of OE as compared with the pronoun system of present day Dutch cleverly laid out translation exercises, with structural help in the form of selective glossaries careful division into eight units, designed for both classroom use and self-study Written in a clear and accessible manner, The Earliest English provides a comprehensive introduction to the evolution of Old English language and literature, and will be an invaluable textbook for students of English Language and Linguistics.

Designed for introductory courses in Old English, Word-Hoard offers a vocabulary of some 2000 words drawn from the poems that beginning students normally read. Exploiting the natural curiosity we feel about our own language, Stephen Barney draws etymological connections, provides mnemonic aids, and introduces the student to cultural and literary concepts as well as words. This second edition of his valuable book has been completely reset in a format that improves its clarity and conciseness. Reviews of the earlier edition: "An excellent piece of work. . . . It makes learning the basic vocabulary of Old English, especially of the poetry, an adventure in ideas, adding in short compass the fascination of etymology and even semantics to the otherwise laborious and at first crude efforts to understand the texts."--John C. Pope "It obviously reflects enthusiasm and a great deal of hard work, and it will serve very well the students for whom it is intended."--Thomas D. Hill, Speculum "There is nothing quite like it in the literature. . . . Such a book would have been enthusiastically greeted years ago. It is doubly welcome today."--Choice Stephen A. Barney is professor of English at the University of California at Irvine.

The texts in this reader include prose, metrical prose, and poetry, and represent a variety of genres (saints’ lives and metrical charms as well as heroic verse). Frequently taught canonical texts are balanced with interesting, lesser-known works. The glossary is at the back of the book, and the companion website includes texts with clickable glossing, as well as additional texts for study.