A History of the English Language - A Companion Site

Chapter 4: Old English: 450-1150

This chapter will focus on the characteristics of Old English, including the extant written sources, spelling, and the runic alphabet. In addition, we will consider (and listen to) the sounds of Old English, discuss its Old English, including the system of endings. Old English vocabulary is very interesting and creative, as we will see. Dialects will be discussed briefly, and the chapter will conclude with several well-known Old English texts to be read and analyzed.

Useful Links

Manuscripts

The British Museum has a turn-the-pages version of the Lindisfarne Gospels as well as other works. Bodleian images are here and from Cambridge here.

The University of Duisburg-Essen site has a very informative page on OE writings and wonderful images of manuscripts.

Audio & Pronunciation

Michael Drout reads Caedmon's Hymn and other OE works.

The Peterborough Chronicle's entry for the year 1135 is read by Jeremy Smith. More Old English read by him is available here.

Wikipedia informs about alliterative verse.

Archeology and maps

The Clwyd-Powys Archeological website provides a lot of links to maps and historic landschapes and digs.

The Staffordshire gold hoard was an amazing find in 2009.

Map of England during King Alfred.

Lexicon

The Bosworth-Toller dictionary can be found here.

Old English translator.

Texts

Benjamin Slade has Beowulf and a translation here.

Several Old English texts not already in the textbook are available here.