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ESMP old english mark atherton For over 60 years, more than 50 milion people have leamt over cts the teach yourself ey di impressive regults. be where you want to be with teach yourself 02776732 For UK order enquiries: please contact Boolkpoint Ltd, 120 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OxXi4 4SB. Telephone: +44 (0) 1235 827720. Fax: +44 (0) 1285 400494. Lines are open 09.00-17.00, Monday'to Saturday, with a 24-hour message answering service. Details about our tities and how to order are available at ww Teachyonrseti.co.uk For USA order enquiries: please contact MoGrau-Hill Customer Services, PO Box 545, Blacklick, OH 43004-0545, USA. Telephone: 1-800-722-4726, Fax: 1-614-755-5645, For Canada order enquíries: please contact McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd, 300 Water St, Winithy, Ontario, L1N SB6, Canada. Telephone: 905 430 5000. Fax S05 430 5020. Long renowned as the authoritative source for self-guided leaming — with more than 50 n copies sold vroriâwide — the teach yaurselt series includes over 500 tities in the fields of lanquages, crafts, hobbies, business, computing and education. Bnitish Library Calaloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this title Is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number. on file. First published in UK 2006 by Hodder Education, 838 Euston Road, London, NW] 38H. First published in US 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. This edition published 2006. The tsach yourself name is a registered irade mark of Hodder Headline. Copyright O 2008 Mark Aiherton in UK AN rights reserved. 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The toi Trianufaciuring processes are expected to conform to the environmental reg! country of origin. - Impression number 1987654321 Year 2010 2009 2008 2007 2008 aca 29.09.06 429.8242 K O enaneed JL 834768 introducilon how to use this book x pronunelaiion [4] o2 o 04 E] “here Edward was consecrated as king 1 the coronation of Edward the Confessor as reported in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; word recognition, pronunciation, spelling; introduction to personal names aking must hold a kingdom ul extracis from the poem Maxims If infinitivas, the ausiliary must, shaf, introduction to cases; introduction to place names say what | am called . 2 riddle 66 from the Exeter Book; personal proncuns, the verb to be, introduction to the present tense; a comparison with King Lear, names of countrias and people here in this year a the Ánglo-Saxon Chrt ; introduction to past tenses, weak and sirong verbs, the prefix ge-; descriptive titles of people about the four seasons 45 the four seasons from Byrhifenh's Handbook, more on tha present tensa, the nominativo case, gramatical gender; numerals, the seasons, dates SIU9JU0D = sjuejuoo 5, | 19 how Wynfled summoned her witnesses the lawsuit Wynficod v. Leofwine, extract from King Alfred's Boethius, from the Chronicle € 1006: the Vikings at Cwichelm's Barow; reported speech; modal verbs (can, could, wouia, shouíd ste.) the Tironian noia 20 act like thegns, and deliver my message - tothe assembly 233 the Herefordshire Lawsuit, Wulfstan's Promotion Law, extract from The Battle of Maldon; the Old English Iustrated Hexateuch, reading Old English script, word and image; traditional poetic words, Innovations in eleventh-century English, Old Norsewords in the vocabulary, French influence | iography 246 key to exercises 256 Old English-English word index 265 Appendices 280 Appendix |: the seven classes of Old English strong veibs 280 Appendix Il: map of southem Britain, with names in Old English 281 Acknowledgements 1 would like to thank the following. people for their helpful comments on sections of this book: Dr Stephen Baxter, Ginny Catmur; Dr Catherine Clarke, Julie. Dyson, Peter Jackson, Prof. Barbara Raw; colleagues and students at Regent's Park College, and the students who participated in the Old English language classes and lectures at the English Faculty, Oxford University. Old English was the language spoken and written in England until the twelfth century. Fts rich literature ranges from the epic Beowulf to the visionary poem The Dream of the Rood to the varied prose writings of king Alfred and the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle. As the language of historical record, Old English opens an invaluable window on the early history of England: on the political events that shaped the land, on the culture and spirituality of the writers of the time, on landscape history and the layout of towns and villages, on the history of institutions. Through the study of their language these documents can be made to speak their own voices and express their concerns. All languages have their own phrases and modes of expression, and by learning Old English you can appreciate how the men and women of the time actually thought and felt. Beginning as a set of dialects spoken in the provinces and petty kingdoms of southern Britain, Old English eventually became the standard language used by the rulers of England from Alfred the Great to king Harold. ln many respects, this language is with us today, in the very names of the towns and villages in which we live. These place names reflect the shape of the land and relate how it was used: Longridge and Revidge (i.e. Rough Edge) near the dark or shining stream of Blackburm, Swindon the hill where the pigs were grazed, Oxford the river crossing suitable for oxen, Bury St Edmmunds the borough or town vith a monastery church dedicated to St Edmund, patron and defender of its rights. It is significant that Old English had a core vocabulary that we still use in our everyday speech and writing. Head and beart, bands and feet, sticks and stones all go back to Old English in.a different spelling; sun, moon and stars or thunder and lightning are UON]OINPOJMUI= uo]anponu! originally Old English words, as are love and há. strength and weakness. The basic grammar of present-day English has older roots: the way we talk about the past by ringing the changes in the vowels of sing, sang, sung or choose, chose, chosen, the way we express moods of volition and obligation with auxiliary verbs such as iwiliwould, may-might, sball-should, the way we refer intimately to ourselves and others with personal pronouns such as me and you, his and hers, or even 1 and ibou. E his poem Boxe Dreams the Irish poet Seamus Heaney pictures the history of the English language as a kind of archaeological dig; the excavator explores the many layers or accretions that the language has gathered over the centuries. Digging down from the present time through the colonial periods the archacologist uncovers layer after layer of influences that affected the English lexicon: Colonialism Asian, American, African words come into English Enligbtemment Latin and Greek scientific terms Renaissance Latinate learned words Middle Ages — French literary and cultural influences Nozman French administration Old Norse everyday words especially in the north and east Old English — the foundarion At the base of his trench the poet archaeologist finds ban-bus (pronounced “babn-hoos'); this is the poetic compound boné- house, an image or metaphor from Beowulf that signifies the body, where the spirit lives. For Heaney, as translator of Beowulf, this is one of the attractions of the Old English poetic line, the compression of its imagery. Other modern poets and writers have felt similarly drawn: W.H. Auden and Ted Hughes to its strength and craftedness, Gerard Manley Hopkins to the lilt of its alliterative rhythms, FR.R. Tolkien to its strong contrasts of light and dark and its myth-making power: The aim of this book is to help you to gain an efficient reading knowledge of Old English. It offers a graded progressive course in Old English based on aunthentic texts selected from the rich archive of poems, prose and historical documents that have survived from the libraries of early medieval England. Passages from famous poems such as Beowulf will be presented, but there are ais extracts from the writings of great prose writers such as arckbishop Wulfstan of York, and whole texts from the ãdministrative records of... period, chosen for their cultural “and historical interest. The passages are presented with minimal adaptation, so that you may, if you wish, go back to the original editions and read them with confidence. In reading these texts, You will at the same time also explore the political, cultural and litérary contexts in which they were written, x uopohponui Nóog sy esn 07 mou Practice Within each unit, you are given the opportunity to practise the : forms and patterns acquired in a series of translation, fill-in-the- : pe pod comprehension exercises, with a key at the end of the o0k. Select word index The word index at the back of the book lists all the words and phrases that appear in the study texts and practice exercises, with cross-reference to the units) where the word is explained or discussed. At first, in order to give as much primary assistance as possible, words are given exactly as spelled in the texts themselves, as well as im the base form with which they would appear in a dictionary. To encourage the discursive use of the supplementary reading texrs, their vocabulary is not given specific listings in the index at the back, since the parallel translations should provide all the help that is needed. * The focus, then, is on the study text; in the units you can read or listen to the texts, leam the meanings of their vocabulary and grammar and explore their literary, historical and cultural contexis, The study of Old English The study of Old English opens 'a window on the past and luminates the history and the literature. Through the texts we gain glimpses of the people of the time and hear snatches of their talk. In one historical document, for instance, a lawsuit takes place between a man and a woman over a piece of land. The woman calls on the aid of the queen herself and a whole group of women attend the assembly of the shire courtto support her (see Unit 19), The assembly meets at Cwichelm's Low, an ancient mound ar the junction of the old Ridgeway and the road to West Hendred in Berkshire. Now known as Scutchamer Knob, party obscured by trees and damaged by a pre-twentieth- century archaeological dig, the mound is still accessible; it is possible to stand on the site where those people met to argue their case, as recorded on a slip of parchment à thousand years ago. In another, heard by the shire court in Herefordshire, a woman was sued by her À. .h som. Jo this instance no women “attended the hearing, and perhaps they were prevented, but the “indignant mother sent a message to the assembly, which was rátified by the men present (see Unit 20). And the presiding official Thorkell the White, husband of the woman's kinswoman, rode to Hereford and had her exact words recorded in a blank space of a Latin gospel book at the cathedral, where it remains to this day. Here is a tangible material connection between the present and the past. - Byrheferth, one of:the. Old English writers presented in this book, regarded his branch of study as a journey across the “waves to the salt sea strand (Unit 5). And king Alfred, who was -a writer as well as a ruler, also expressed his view of learning in “terms of striking images: of thoughtful study as drawing from a . wellwithout letting the water run to waste; or tracing the tracks df those who went before; or exploring the forest for good building materials. For him, the ancient language to be explored wás Latin, but his imagery applies equally well to teaching yourself Old English. Such exploration can bring many rewards: a renewed sense of past connections, new historical insights, even new ways of seeing the English language and its literature. “Some linguistic terms used in the book “Adjective: a word that describes or qualifies a noun (fearfui, green, happy) é Adverb: a word that qualifies a verb (swam quickly) or mo: “adjective (extremely easy); expresses the time, manner, place of an action (then; quickly, here etc.) [“Cognate: a related word in languages (English two is cognate iwith German zweí because they both descend from a common “ ancestor in primitive Germanic) |“ Noun: a word referring to a person, thing or idea (man, tree, friendship) Preposition: a short connecting word, such as to, for, by, with, from Verb: a word denoting an actión in time (swim, arrived, sang) 008 su esn op mou E | jounuoJd!* uonge A short introduction The pronunciation of Old English has been carefully worked out by a process of historical and comparative research. In the overview here, many linguistic facts have been omitted, but further distinctions and fine tunings will be made in the course of the book. For those interested in phonetics, some further reading on the sounds of the langúage will be given at the end of the book. The following is a quick guide to sounding broadly correct. E is important to leam the basic sounds of the language, so that the texts and 'poems can be read fluently and with their original rhythmical effects. In addition, once the basic sounds are learnt the connections with modern English become much clearer and the language is much easier to learn. m the vocabularies, the Old English is given in bold, the meaning in italics, and where appropriate a rough pronanciation based on modem English is indicated by inverted commas: e.g. rice kingdom “ree-cheh”. The basic rule is to pronounce every letter as written, including -e on the end of words. The leiters.p and ô were pronounced as modern “h'; g adjacent to e or i becomes a “yuh' sound and ie s “itch'. Vowels sound very like those In modern English: pat, pet, pit, pot, put, or like continental European vowels when lengthened; ea is a one-syliable 'e-a'. reference gu.le for later study Further details on pronunciation are given below and these are = Pages to which you should retum frequently for reference purposes. However, it is suggested that you do at least the first “three, units of the book before you study the details below any further, Mány:consonants sounded as in modern English: b, p, t, d, 1, r, Wii, X. ; : é tonsonants'f, s, and p have two pronunciations: Initially and finally they sound like “? and “s* and the “th' in “tai”, When they appear in the middle of a word between vowels, they take on the voiced pronunciation *v and “7. Thus *“heofon and freosan sound' more like their modem equivalents heaven and freeze than they might appear at first sight and the medial -p- will souad like “th” in “bathing”, not like the voiceless “th” in “mathematics”. The letter c represents “e in cyning king and candel candie, but ahen adjacent to the vowels e and í in ceap goods, cild child and ice church or names in Ac like Alíric and Godric, it had the jôdern “ch” sound. Similarty g is 'g' in god good but becomes a = &yisound in gif if “yifº and geong young “peong' and dag day “dsey". In the middle of words, such as boga bow g later came to “ be pronounced “w, but in the Old English period it was Pronounced like a Dutch “g' or a German voiced “ach? sound “heard in north German “sagen Sie. The letter combination cg is uivalent to the modem spelling dge; thus ecg and brycg sound very like modern edge and bridge. Similarly, sc is the digraph for sb” as in seip ship, pronounced “ship”. In the middle of words h sounded like the medial -ch- in German Sicht while in final position it sounded like the “-ch” im Scottish och Ness”. The letter a represents a back vowel like “a” im “psalm”. E contrasts with the front vowel spelt a, pronounced as in “southern English or standard American “man”. “There are two diphrhongs, written ea and eo. Again, each letter should be pronounced, but the tongue should glide quickly from one vowel to the next so that the diphthong remains one syliable. 1) uenspunuoid ] Es 2 D Her weos Eadward gehalgod to Gi ge 8 z Here Edward was consecrated as king % v 8m a ãé The use of English & &| In 1040 Edward the atheli i i 2E e atheling — prince and heir to the throne =8| Tetuned to England after twenty-four years of exile on the ê Continent. Two years later he succeeded to the throne of England and in the following year the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle xeports that Edward was consecrated King at Winchester on the o first Easter Day witho great bonowr. , EN iz; 5 Nasa Edward the Confessor, as he came to be called by his successors, tuled a stable and prosperous England for twenty-four years. Yet “during his lifetime, the country became subject to a bewildering variety of cultural influences: from Norse and Anglo-Danish to Norman and French. One constant in all this period of change was the large and central role played by the OK English language in the political, literary and spiritual life of the country. Unlike most of Europe at this time, where Latin was the only written language in use, England had developed a considerable literature in the vernacular, and much of its everyday administration was also condu: medium of written English. cued chrongh the TS j AD 1043 Here Edward was consecrated as king at Winchester The:G Version of thÚ Shronicie Ttso happened that a new version of the Anglo-Sazon Chronicle was: started around the time of Edward's accession. The Chronicle was a year-by-year record of the mation's affairs probably begun. in the time of king Alfred in the ninth century. The new recension of the 1040s, known as version €, was made perhaps at Abingdon Abbey or at an ecclesiastical centre in Mercia, the Midland region of Anglo-Saxon England. The compiler copied the earlier Chronicle up to his own day and then began entering new records in the annual list of events. By adding. his own stories, he was essentially acting as a Contemporary observer of political events. The following short Old English text is his own, typically brief, account of the “eoronation.of 1043. Drhe year 1043 1043 Her. wsas Eadward gehalgod to cinge on Wincestre on na forman Easterdseig mid myccelum wyróscype, and da weeron Eastron .ii. Nonas Aprelis. Eadsige.arcebisceop hiné halgade, and toforan eallum pam fole hine wel leerde, and to his agenrs neode and ealles foices wel manude. And Stigant -preost wes gebletsad to bisceope to Eastenglum. : on the first Easter Day with great honour, and that year a Easter fell on the third of the nones of April. Archbishop s: Eadsige consecrated him, and before all the people instructed him well, and for his own need and that of all the people admonished him well. And the priest, Stigand, was blessed as bishop to the Fast Angles. . Strategies for reading Old English (a): The first strategy to employ when tackling a text written in am infected language like Old English is to mark up (with hypheus or by underlining) the inflections, i,e. all the endings which the “> Jahguage uses to mark grammatical meanings in the text it is úseful also to highlight the root or stem of each word by marking e] Bury SE pojesosuoo SEM PJEMP-GJ0U [LO +) Buy se pajeloosuco SEM pJEMpa elo [LO any prefixes. An example of an ending is -e on É ing, a prefix Ê Thé literal.translation can ta be turned into natural modern ge- occurs before halgod ballowed, consecrated; in the same word the -od ending corresponds to the modem ending -ed. (b) Try doing a literal word-for-word translation of the text.” | This helps to understand the structure of the language. (c) Next, hear the text read out loud on the recording (or by someone familiar with the language); this will help with comprehension. Many words (e.g. Easterdaig) become instantly recognizabie once they are heard and the connections between Old and modern English start to emerge. Using the guide to pronunciation (in the introduction) you can also try reading out loud on your own; it is possible to learn to pronounce the basies of Old English surprisingly quickly. At first, remember that ô, p represent the modern “th” sound in “thorm”. Next, careful ; attention should be paid to the letrer-sound correspondences of *. £, €, cg and sc. (d) Start observing the pattems of the language: its frequent meaningful endings, its word order, its typical modes of expression and idioms. When reading texts from the Chronicle | for instance, you will soon find that a typical word-order is Here was Ediward... Here commanded the king..., Here came : Cut... etc, As you gradually acquire more knowledge of the - rules of grammar, this may seem less necessary, but im fact a good habit of observation is always essential: it will strengthen your grasp of the language and enrich your knowledge of the resources of the language. (e) One further option is to experiment with transcribing the text in a slighriy modernized spelling, in order to become familiar with the form and shape of the words. An example would be transcribing Wincestre as Winchestre. Reading strategies in practice Taking a sentence at a time, we can apply the above strategies to our text from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Highlight inflections and prefixes Her wes Eadward ge-halg-od to cing-e on Wincestr-e on forma- , n Easterdeeig mid myccel-um wyrô-seype. Do a literal translation Here was Edward hallowed to king on Winchester on former Easterday with mickle (e. great) worthsbip. E English: Here Ediward was consecrated as king at Winchester on the first Easter Day with great honour. Prónounce out loud Pronounce every letter and syllable. Fox finer points, use the pronunciation guide in the introduction; the following are some ines: Her: pronounce “hayr” with a long, close vowel like French “gg: The long vowel points to its later modern form here. . «ries: the letter se represents a medium-low front vowel like “a standard English “car”. ““Eadward: “Aird-ward”. . ge-Halgod: pronounce “yubHAI god” (note that the capital “letters represent the stressed syllable); make the aa Jong “Back vowel. The g was a guttural or fricative like in Dutch, but à later pronunciation. was “w”, which perhaps makes the connection with modem English hallowed more obvious. to: rhymes with “tow” not with “too”. e “e decig: “dee (glide from the “a” to the “ih? sound). To British “Ear this may sound rather like an Australian “G'dayb. e MÚTCH-eh-lumº (pronounce y as French “u” or Wyrôscype: WURTH-shih-peh” (sc sounds like modern. -“Bnglish “sh'). Observe linguistic patterns Note the word order: here was Edward ballowed... In present- day English the natural sequence is to place Edward before the “sperb was ballowed, but Old English often placed the verb in second position with the subject following. . Observe also the use of the prepositions to, on, mid. In Old English it was natural to say that someone was hailowed to king tather than as king; the preposition still makes perfect sense in . modern English, but the idiom is no longer used. From the Evidence of this sentence, note also the use oÉ on + location in : thê phrase on Winchester, as well as on + time in on Easter Day. * Experiment with modernized speltings “Try modernizing the spelling; replacing b and ô with th, soft-c «with ch, soft g with y or 1, and medial guitural g with w: a) Bup| se pojesdasuos sem pJempa eJeu (LO e] Bupj se pejesesuoo SEMA PIBMPA GJOU [LO Reading NA In the reading section of each unit you are invited to read and browse through some passages supplementary to the main. study texts-of the unit. The reading texts are chosen for similarity of theme, outlook or vocabulary, but it is not necessary to understand every word or study them intensively. The opening words of an eleventh-century sermon Leofan men, ure Drihten, selmíliig God, us pus singallico manaô and leereô purh his da halgan bec best we riht and soô don her on worulde in urum life. Deariy beloved, our Lord, almighty God, thus. continually, admonishes and instructs us through his holy books that we should do right and truth here in this world in our life, Old English personal names In the early Middle Ages, most men and women simply had one name. This meant that many people tended to have the same name, with obvious potential for confusion, although bynames or even nicknames were used to distinguish them. Sometimes a set of related names tended to run in an important family. This is certainhy true of the West Saxon royal dynasty, in which a recurrent name element is Ead- (modern English Ed-), found in the tenth-century kings Eadmund, Eadred, Fadwig, Eadgar, Eadward. . The common type of Old English personal name is referred tó”. às dithematic because, like a compound, it is made up of two ' meaningful words put together. Thus the name Eadward consists of two elements ead blessed + weard guardian, aú apt name for a ma intended to be a shepherd of the people. A typical woman's name Godgifu pronounced 'GOD-yi-vub? “É (later spelling Godiva) consists of god god + gifu gift. Im the * following table, most of the elements can be combined productively to give common Old English names. Ss, Practice (2) do Making names Identify five famous men and five women among the names in the tables below. Check your results in the key to exercises at the back .of the book. For help, consult the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England or Stenton (1998). e] Bup| S& pojejsssuoa SEM PJEMPI 9494 Men's names tiret element second element self supernatural, elf gar spear , o sebe! noble heah high [o ead blessed reed acvice eald old rie powerful god god sige victory + stan stone weard guardian wine friend As either first or second element: beorht bright, os god, wig baitle, wrulf wolf. Women's names | first element second element =lf-siipematural, elf fleed beauty (used only in names) ape! nobie gifu gift cad blessed bryb power : god.god gyô batile E | wynjoy bBul D jsnu This unkt will cover: texis + extracts from the poem Maxims Il grammar « infinitives « the auxiliary shall, must * introduction to cases vocabulary * » introduction to place names 'o IB É pas pa — 4] Exceptional, the combination DA Fo fe se in sceal delan to sriare out, apporion 15 xo pronounce as one sound, e si im imglish shas 'D/EH-lar' (pronounce the long ze zo 85 * The Jerter c is pronounced k im cyning (sometimes speiled , here like the open sound in modern âs E) kyning). But in rice the letter c sounds like the ch of moderi British Engilsh “air; when short, e is ca 33 English rich. Avoid pronouncing c like the “s' sound that like the “a! In “cat) ' as 2 often takes in modern English. bera bearberra! E ê * Rice itself is a two-syllable word xi-ce sounding rather lik onhede onthe heath (hecó is also written hasp & » “REE chebº (ie. with stress on the first syllable). Healdan is — pronounce p and d like Modern English “hr”, voiced between a also two syllables, heal- and -dan. vowels in hssõe and voiceless at the end of a word as in ha26) * The combination ea is a falling diphthong, in which thé eald old a one-syllable 'Éald" tongue glides quickly from the prominent vowel e to the egestull | terrible “EH-yes-tul [em À wealker vowel a; accordingly heald- sounds rather like ea rivor'ta! o mM “HAYald” or Héald” run together as one syllable. Other dun mountain, hilldoon' [O] o examples of one-syllable diphthongs occur in beag, eald and of dune from the hill “ot DOO-neh' eorl. fod-grag flood-grey fload-gresy' feran fogo, travel'FE-ran' Oid-modern correspondences The noun rice kingdom or kingship is connected with the ending ricin present-day English “bishopric”. It is also cognate with the adjective rice powerful, which gradually took on the meaning sich and powerful and then simply rich. Under later Norman influence, the change in meaning was reinforced by French riche. Cyning sceal on healle beagas dselan A king in hall must deal out rings After the lines about the dragon in the cave and the fish in the water, the poem Maxim II continues as follows: E D] Cyning sceal on healle É beagas deslan. Bera sceal on hasõe, eald and egesfull. Ea of dune sceal flodgrseg feran. Cultural contexts : e The hall or heall was the central meeting place of the town or beag ring one-syllable 'BÉag' É -Settlemient, the seat of government, the place of feasting and heall half one-syilable “HÉar on heaile in a haif'HEaleh' ETR beagas | rings 'BEa-gas' (plural form) “festival; in literature it becomes a symbol of right living in the wórid, In poetry such as Beowulf, beag (also spelled beah) topBupy -s e pjoyasnu bue SP | [20 means a ring in the sense of treasure, wealth. aven by a beah: gifa, the ring-giver or King; it-probably refers to large rings of precious metal that could be looped onto the pommel of:a sword. En later Old English, the word is used for an armlet or arm-ring, normally made of silver and often of considerable weight. Kt was used by the King to reward loyalty and must have been equivalent to a large sum of money. For a picture of an arm-ring in an eleventh-century manuscript, see Unit 8. é Ested-in' idictionaries) is thé.ufinitive, in modem English hold or - more-often to hold. In Old English the infinitive is indicated by the ending -an. verb: stem ending — pronunciation healdan fio)hokf — heald- -an “HÉai-dan' delan; (to)share desl- -an 'DE-lan' feran (to) travel —fer- -an é *FE-ran B Fyrd sceal etsomne A host must ride together Fyrd sceal cetsomne, tirfesstra geirum. Wudy sceal on foldan biasdum blowan. Beorh sceal on eorban grene standan. God sceal on heofenum, desda demend. fyrd «army, milítia ford (pronounce y like German “&) etsomne togeiher getrum froop “yuh-TRUM tirfcestra ofihe giorious (tir glory + feest) wudu wood folde — earth (poetic word for eorpe earth) bleedum with fruits (dative plural of blaad, bled fruit) blowan fourish -beorh, beorg . hill, mountain (cf. iceberg) grene on heofenum in the heavens (dat. pl. of heofenas heavens from heofon heaven) of deeds Judge DÉ-mend' dssda demend Grammar The infi e Old English is an inflected language. This means it- uses inflections, i.e. endings on words, to indicate the meaning and role of words in the sentence.- The base form of the verb (as green 'GRÉ neh EÊ | Other infinitives include: biddan to pray, bringan to bring, cydari to prociaim, gretan to greet, niman to take, scinan to shine, standan to stand, wyrcean or wyrcan “wix-chan” to work, create; ân:exceptional form is beon to be. í The auxiliary Because 'it mormally takes an infinitive, sceal is known as an auxiliary (ie. a helping” verb). Examples of auxiliaries in modern" English are can, may, must, shall, will — these are followed immediately by the infinitive: a king must rule, a bear shall-dwel] on a heath, a wood will blossom. Old English auxiliáries include: scéalmust mag can mot is allowed wile will, wants word órder with auxiliary and infinitive Untike in modem English the infinitive can come much latex in theOld English sentence, as seen in the typical sentence structure (syntax) of the proverbs in this unit: subject auxiliary adverbial object infinitive :Cynihg sceal on healle beagas deelan ssubject auxiliary adverbial complement infinitive Beorh — sceal on corban grene standan Inthe above scheme, the subject is the doer of the action expressed by the verb; the object is the person or thing directly affected by the action of that verb, An adverbial qualifies the Yerb.in some way giving information about time, manner, or “place of the action. The complement in this sentence refers back to the subject. In'brief; as the two examples show, the auxiliary often sends the infinitive to a position at or near the end of the sentence. Having the infinitive at the end of the sentence may seem strange at first, | WopBup; a e proyasnu bue [20 uopBum 8 | é pjou jsnu Buy E (20 Practice 1 Claliteration Listen to a reading of the extract from th poem Maxims II and note the words in each line ih alliterate e.g. beagas and bera, or eald and ca. Cyming sceal on healle beagas delan. Bera sceal on hacõe, eald and egesfull. Ea of dunê sceal flodgreg feran. Fyrd sceal atsomne, tirfzestra getrum. Treow sceal on corle, wisdom on were, Wudu sceal on foldan bisedum blowan. Beorh sceal on eorpan grene standan, God sceal on heofenum, deeda demend. 2 Translate the proverbs: a A bear belongs on a heath, old and terrible. b A river must flow, flood-grey down the mountain. € A wood belongs on the earth, flourishing with leaves, d A hill must stand green upon the earth. 3 Etymology Use the word index at the back of he boolksto work out the derivation of the following place names. Whai original Old English words lie behind them? a Kingston b Somerton c Norton d Sutton í e Acton f Merton g Shipton h Oxford i Hereford 1 Hertford “Paljes we | IBUYM Áes This unit will cover: texts « riddle 66 from the Exeter Book grammar * personal pronouns * the verb to be * introduction to the present tense vocabulary * a comparison with King Lear * names of countries and people pejeo we [eum des À [80 Say what Lam called N Saga hweet ic hatte a Cultural contexts Leofric bishop of Exeter Edward the Confessor's succession to the throne in' 1042 was; naturally enough, accompanied by a number of changes. After bis long years of exile in Normandy he brought with him: number of Cominental friends and supporters and he appointed some of these to work as chaplains and clerks in the royal household. When posts became available, these men were: promoted, and in 1044 Leofric, a man of English descent from” Lotharingia (Lorraine), was appointed bishop of Devon .ánd Cornwall. In 1050, he moved the see of the bishopric tó Exeter. Anxious to use English in his pastoral work, he collected a large set of books, listed in the record of his donations to thê cathedral in 1069-72. One of them is described as mycel englisc boc be gehwilcum bingum on leodwisan geworht a large English book on various matiers made in verse, clearly a description"óf: the late tenth-century Exeter Book, which, through his gifts.to the cathedral, was preserved for posterity. Riddles from the Exeter Book The Exeter Book anthology owned by bishop Leofric contains à number of famous Old English poems: The Advent Lyrics, a set of religious lyrics exploring the advent and life of Christ; hagiographic poems on the hermit Gutblac, an elegiac search for wisdom in The Wanderer, the poem of exile and pilgrimage known as The Seafarer, and two thematically connected lyrics: of loss and reconciliation called The Wife's Lament and The É Husband's Message. As well as these, there are ninety-five riddling poems that describe many aspects of the human and natural world, in a spirit sometimes of playful humour but usually also of wonder and exploration. ic eom mare ponne pes middangeard [am more than this middle earth The follówing text is riddle 66 from the Exeter Book. Take a iti to read it through, remembering the basic ion rule that every letter counts, that the letters p' (:horn”) and & (eth?) represent a “ty” sound, that ge- is pronounced Syuh>, thar c is a “ch” sound-in words like race reach 'RJE-cheh'. OQ fc-6óm-mare ponne pes middangeard, Isgesé ponne hondwyrm, leohtre ponne mona, siwiftre ponne sunne. Larnimore than this middle world, less than a mite, lighter than the moon, swifter than the sun. é Sees me sind ealle flódas on fesômum ond pes foldan bearm, Sa: grene wongas. E The seas to me are all foods in my embrace, and this earnth's lap, the green plains. 5h. Grundum ic hrine, = helle underhnige, heofonas oferstige, «“ayuldres epel, a To the depths | touch «hefl | sink below, heavens ! soar above, the glory land, wide resce “ater engla eard, eorpan gefylle, : ““ealne middangeard ond meresireamas 40 -side mid me sylfum. Saga Iwcet ic hatte. widely ! reach “over the angels! land; the earth | fill “> all the world and the ocean streams — "widely with myself. Say what | am called. ) 2 [o pojigo tm | eum fes E 
