The Cambridge Old English Reader

by Richard Marsden

This reader remains the only major new reader of Old English prose and verse in the past forty years. The second edition is extensively revised throughout, with the addition of a new 'Beginning Old English' section for newcomers to the Old English language, along with a new extract from Beowulf. The fifty-seven individual texts include established favourites such as The Battle of Maldon and Wulfstan's Sermon of the Wolf, as well as others not otherwise readily available, such as an extract from Apollonius of Tyre. Modern English glosses for every prose-passage and poem are provided on the same page as the text, along with extensive notes. A succinct reference grammar is appended, along with guides to pronunciation and to grammatical terminology. A comprehensive glossary lists and analyses all the Old English words that occur in the book. Headnotes to each of the six text sections, and to every individual text, establish their literary and historical contexts, and illustrate the rich cultural variety of Anglo-Saxon England. This second edition is an accessible and scholarly introduction to Old English.

Genres: Language, Nonfiction, Medieval, History, Poetry, Literature, Classics

614 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

Reviews

[William Gwynne]

So far in the first few weeks of my 2nd Academic Year at University, my favourite module has been Old English. I am not the most linguistically proficient, but it has been awesome learning about the very simple sections of Old English, as well as the historical context around its formation that we know of, or can assume.

[Othy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The format of this reader is very good for beginners, I think, as well as for those who don't care much about the language. The glosses of most words are right there on the side of the page, or else down below in footnotes when things get sticky, so even if your knowledge of Old English is small, you can get through some of the easier texts. I've been studying Old English for a couple years now, and I find myself getting pretty lazy while reading it, that I focus on the meaning more than the language (though this might be due to my being more of a lit person than a lang person...). Still, the footnotes and opening sections on the text are very informative, and the variety of texts in here is really great.

[Unazoomer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good overview of the Old English (i.e. Anglo-Saxon) corpus. It has extensive footnotes and same-page glosses; good introductions to the texts and sections providing historical, linguistic and literary context; beginner's guides to OE poetry, pronunciation and grammar; and a reference grammar and glossary list in the back. Most of the texts are in the "standard" West Saxon dialect with added punctuation and minor amendations (usually with notes discussing them). There are some short songs/poems in Northumbrian, usually alongside a West Saxon version. It uses a modern orthography with macrons and the letters æ, þ and ð, so no ꝺ, ꝼ, ᵹ, ꞃ, ɼ, ꞇ, ƿ. Overall, the book is quite accessible.

The OE corpus is relatively big compared to those of other contemporary vernaculars; the OE literary tradition was quite strong—and also quite varied. You will find letters, laws, Latin tutorials, remedies, speeches, philosophy (translations, or more so parodies) and poetry, both monastic and secular (even some from a woman's perspective), both epic and lyric, a mixture of Christian and Germanic tradition. There is something for everyone.

I personally would recommend using some sort of etymological dictionary such as wiktionary.org, especially if you know other Germanic languages. You will be surprised how much new vocabulary you will learn in both English and in related languages. You will also find links that are not immediately obvious, but which can be quite deep. Discovering these things makes the OE words more memorable. I was surprised to find that the OE word "wīgend" (warrior) has a (albeit incredibly obscure) cognate in Dutch, namely "wijgand" (which has not been used much since the 17th century). A worker or maker of something is called a "wryhta" in OE, from which words such as "playwright" and "shipwright" are derived, and which has a cognate in Dutch in the form of "wrecht". "To play" (OE "pleġan") is related to Dutch "plegen", which has a rich history and many meanings. The word "lord" is derived from OE "hlāford/hlāfweard", literally a loaf-ward or loaf-guard. (The words "ward" and "guard" are also related; where Frankish had a w sound, it was usually replaced with a g or gu in French; cf. "gauntlet" and Dutch "wand", or "Gawain" and Dutch "Walewein," French "gaufre" and Dutch "wafel", French "guerre" and English "war".) The -lo(o) ending in Dutch placenames is related to English "lea" (and OE "lēah"). "Sound" as in "a sound foundation" is related to Dutch "gezond". English "but" and Dutch "buiten" are cognates. "Sodden" and "seethe" come from the same root, since you need to submerge something in water to boil it. Your property is your "wielding" ("weald"), and sovereignty is "one-wield" ("ānweald"). An evangelist is an "ǣrendwreca"—an "errand-wreaker", where "to wreak" means to drive/push out(ward).

Some of the most fun and creative words in OE come from poetry and are known as "kennings"—allusive discriptions of things forced by the poetic contraints to be used instead of the name of the thing itself. Some kennings include "whale-road" ("hranrād") for sea, "need-fare" ("nēdfere") i.e. "inevitable journey" for death, "mead-city" ("medobyriġ") for stomach, "bee-wolf" ("bēowulf") for bear, "heaven-candle" ("heofoncandel") for sun, etc.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[شاهنشاه‎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the most important resource for any one learning Anglo-Saxon/Old English. The grammar is adequate for anyone familiar with a more conservative germanic language or some other highly synthetic PIE Language (i.e., Latin, Ancient Greek, etc.). The selection of texts is broad and well-selected - the range of difficulty, subjects, styles, ages, and type is very good.

My main critique of the book is that the running vocabulary is not numbered, but rather uses the same character for all glosses. This is extremely annoying for texts that have a very specific vocabulary (i.e., medical texts) and therefore a lot of glosses. I would highly recommend that a third edition move to indicating gloss vocab with line number + instance on line (3:7 for line 3, 7th gloss). I wasted far too much time finding my line number then counting the number of glosses.

Over all a phenomenal work and one to which I will return.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impressive collection of Old English readings with many useful glosses and explanations. There is a grammar included, making this a self contained introduction to the language (albeit not comprehensive).

[rania · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok obviously i've not read the entire thing but had to consult this for my medieval paper and it was super useful ! i do wish there was slightly more on saints lives [basically begging for ælfric's passion of st edmund] but i do owe whatever success i have in exams to this book

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a big selection of texts, well glossed and with informative introductions. The format, with the glosses on the same page, is helpful -- perhaps too helpful, as I relied on it quite a lot, and I won't have the glosses in the exam. Makes it pretty easy to get a feel for the language. Didn't really use the pages about grammar, mostly because I was taught that pretty well from different sources.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by my professor, a great sampling of Old English Literature, with many helpful notations and a glossary.

[Kayla]

loved it

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great range of texts and information, but lacking in depth. Still very useful.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really excellent resource for Old English. Well glossed and a very easy to use format. The selection of work is pretty robust as well.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book published for students of Old English.