This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
In this new series, linguist Colin Gorrie will teach you how to read Old English texts like Beowulf with the aid of a dictionary.
Like every language, English has a past. More than many languages, English has changed dramatically over the years: the language as spoken just a thousand years ago would be incomprehensible to us today.
And it is a pity, because this Old English language has a rich and beautiful literature: from heroic poems like Beowulf, to elegiac poems like The Wanderer or The Seafarer, to historical narratives such as The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Yet for most people these riches will remain inaccessible, except through the distorting lens of translation.
The only solution is to learn to read Old English. That is just what this series proposes to teach you how to do.
This series is for you if you want to:
- Explore the earliest history of the English language.
- Gain access to new poetic forms and literary devices.
- Open a window into the culture and literature of the Middle Ages.
- Learn to read Beowulf in the original (for why you might want to, read this).
- Immerse yourself in the universe that inspired Tolkien’s Middle-Earth.
- Satisfy your curiosity about scientifically informed techniques for learning ancient or historical languages.
Structure and goals
Over the course of 8 weeks, we will meet weekly to read short texts in Old English together, starting with short prose texts and gradually progressing to longer and more complex texts until, by the end, you will have made a start on Beowulf.
Over the first seven weeks we’ll be reading excerpts from the Old English translation of the Gospel of Matthew. No dragon-slaying in this text, but it does have the benefit of being relatively easy prose that you can find good Modern English translations of without difficulty. Because poetry presents additional challenges, we’ll save it for last: the reading for Week 8 will be an excerpt from Beowulf.
Once you’ve handled that, you will be able to read most Old English texts with the aid of a dictionary and a bit of patience.
Teaching Philosophy
The readings will be supplemented with explanations of important historical or grammatical points, but the focus will be on the readings.
The grammar we discuss will be limited to what is necessary: memorization of endings, verb forms, etc. will be kept to an absolute minimum. There’s good research showing that learning these isn’t particularly helpful! Rather, what is important in a nutshell is exposing you to as much of the language as possible (for more on the science behind this, read this).
Instead, our focus will be on learning to recognize the types of grammatical changes that occur and the contexts in which they occur in texts, so that you can resolve difficulties when you encounter them in your own reading.
Recordings
All classes will be recorded for review or to accommodate emergencies, schedule changes, etc. Recordings will be available privately to series members on my host page.
Scholarships
If you want to learn Old English, but the cost of this series would prevent you from joining, there is a limited number of scholarship spaces available which would allow you to join free of charge. Please email hello@interintellect.com for details.
Date and Time
This series meets every Saturday from 1:00–3:00pm Eastern, starting July 9 2022.
Tickets
This series is only available as a series ticket. Tickets for individual sessions will not be sold separately.
Already have a membership? Sign in to get your series ticket.
In addition to series tickets, members get access to our community Discord (with a channel for this series to chat between events)—as well as free salon tickets each month, discounts, free members-only events, and more.
# Date Episode 1 July 9 Old English: what, where, when, and who?
First we’ll set the stage by looking at the history of the English language in a nutshell as well as the identity and history of the “Anglo-Saxons”, one name for the speakers of Old English. Then you’ll quickly learn the sounds and spelling of Old English, and we’ll finish off by reading a short text together, so you can start to hear the language out loud.
Text: Matthew 7: 24–272 July 16 How to read a language you don’t know (well)
In this session, we’ll explore the methodology of the course: how can you read a language you don’t know well yet? I’ll flip the question: how can you know a language you haven’t read well yet? Lots of research tells us that reading extensively in a language is very helpful for learning it. But it’s easier said than done: so I’ll teach you strategies for doing this as a beginner, and then we’ll put them into practice on another short text.
Text: Matthew 12: 18–213 July 23 Case, or why they is sometimes them
Today I’m going to introduce you to a concept called case. Case refers to how nouns and some other words change depending on how they’re used in the sentence. If that’s gibberish at this point, don’t worry. It’s not that hard once you see it in action. But it is rather important to how Old English functions, so it’s worth knowing about. As always, we’ll explore our new concept as it shows up in a short text.
Text: Matthew 13: 3–84 July 30 All you need to know about Old English nouns
Today we’ll start a little tour of Old English grammar. The idea here is to familiarize you with the ways nouns change in all their various functions in the Old English sentence. After a brief talk about these matters, we’ll jump into a slightly longer text and see some of it in action.
Text: Matthew 13: 24–305 August 6 All you need to know about Old English adjectives
As with Old English nouns, adjectives in Old English also like to change how they look depending on the environment in which they occur and the meaning they’re expressing. So we need to be aware of some of the principles behind this. After we discuss these, we’ll do what we always do: jump into another text.
Text: Matthew 20: 1–166 August 13 All you need to know about Old English verbs
This week will conclude our short tour of the different major parts of speech in Old English with a stop among the verbs. We’ll look at the different factors which affect how a verb looks in a sentence: one of the challenges with Old English is that the way a verb shows up on the page can be quite different from how it looks in the dictionary, so we’ll demystify that in this session. And then, no prizes for guessing: we’ll look at a new text.
Text: Matthew 25: 1–137 August 20 The joy and mysteries of Old English word order
This session is all about how words are arranged into sentences in Old English. In some ways it’s similar to the way it’s done in Modern English, and in other ways it’s very different. But best of all, it can often help us clear up ambiguities in longer sentences, so it’s worth discussing. Finally, we’ll do another reading: the last of our prose readings.
Text: Matthew 25: 14–308 August 27 Reading poetry in Old English
In this final session, we’ll look at Old English poetry. Poetry in Old English is constructed according to rather strict rules, which has an effect on how the language is employed in poetry. It also makes poetry more difficult than prose, which is why we’ve saved this section for last. We’ll discuss these rules and illustrate them by reading an excerpt from Beowulf together, which will be a fitting end for our journey together.
Text: Beowulf 1–11
Already have a membership? Sign in to get your series ticket