Learn Old English with Leofwin

by Matt Love

This is a new approach to learning old English as a living language. Leofwin and his family are your guides through six lively, entertaining, topic-based units. New vocabulary and grammar are presented in context, step by step, so that younger readers and non-language specialists can feel engaged rather than intimidated. The author has complemented the text with a wealth of illustrations throughout. This volume is the first part of the course."

Genres: Language, Nonfiction

148 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2013

Reviews

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, brilliant book. Makes beginning Old English (a complex language) relatively painless and very pleasurable. Each didactic chapter builds on your knowledge and growing skills. At university (I did 3 years of uni OE) they quickly throw you in the deep end with the OE poetry. Matt Love's book is the antidote to this (in my view flawed) approach. Fun, colourful, absorbing, engaging and highly instructive - that's is how I would describe this work.

I can only see two negatives and these are minor: a) sometimes the formatting and orthography looks slightly amateurish, and b) some might argue that the author's voice is not the best for audio recordings (the female speaker sounds better) and the quality of the recordings could have been better/clearer.

This book is revolutionary - there is nothing else (as far as I know) that approaches learning OE in this way. Fantastic!