English literature spans a period of around one thousand five hundred years. The earlier half, unrivalled as a vernacular literature in its day, is almost unknown to the modern reader, and if known, only in paraphrase. Knowledge of our literature is seriously incomplete without Beowulf, The Dream of the Rood, The Battle of Maldon,The Wanderer and half a dozen other poems, and without King Alfred’s prose, which did as much to unify the kingdom as his victories over the Danes. The prime source for any knowledge of Anglo-Saxon England, the Chronicles, was itself groundbreaking in using the vernacular, and ought to be common knowledge. But the earliest poetry and prose is written in Old English, and the modern reader is scared off.

To get a reading knowledge of Old English does require some effort—though nothing like as much as Latin. We have a flying start. Much of what we say in English uses words either the same as or closely related to the words they used a thousand years ago. Using this book you can be reading Old English after about 40 hours of work!

Many Introductions to Old English are available, some of them excellent. David Parry found in years of experience that they are all unnecessarily difficult for the modern student who may have little time and less knowledge of grammatical terms, so he made his own Old English for Beginners. In this book grammar is not shirked, and one by-product will be to give any reader who needs it a working knowledge of the grammar of modern English, but grammar is introduced step by step in alliance with reading, and the student begins reading even before starting the grammar.

Anyone who has gone seriously through this little book will be well equipped to read further and/or to study Old English academically. Its forerunners have been proved in practice to achieve these aims.

This eTextbook incorporates Mr Parry’s own readings which are themselves a first-rate introduction to Old English, a language that needs to be heard. Annotated versions and recordings of the following Old English texts are included:

• Bede's Description of Britain (excerpts)
• “The Happy Land” from The Phoenix
• Apollonius of Tyre
• The Chronicle (excerpts)
• The Battle of Maldon
• The Dream of the Rood (excerpts)
• “Satan in Hell” from Genesis B
• The Husband's Message

Englisc copyright © 2003 The Brynmill Press Ltd

Additional resources:

Buy englisc in paperback from any bookshop or direct from Edgeways Books

To use eTextbooks downloaded from eTextbookShop, you will need to download and install eTextbookViewer, part of eTextbookSuite. The software allows this eBook to be read, annotated and searched.

All electronic books purchased within the UK are subject to Value Added Tax at 17.5%