Old English Grammar
Date and time in Old English?
Grammar Chart

Grammar Exercises

WEEK 1 Sources

Th 1 Feb.

• Review Syllabus
• Sweet and Campbell introduced.
• Bibliographic Introduction to Sources
• Linguistic History of OE

Part Two: Inflected Languages

WEEK 2 Origins

Th 8 Feb.

• Primer § 85-88, 1-7, 41-48, 84, 97, due.
• King Alfred's Grammar (hereafter KA), chs. 1-4 and "Pronouncing Old English"
• Sweet, VII (Bede), lines 1-14 due
• Bright's dialogue, "Godne daeg," due (glossary)
• Try some exercises in OE pronouns

Part Two: Presentation on "Ethnogenesis" (Harris).
• Campbell, pp. 1-78
• "Cædmon's Hymn"; "The Ruin"

Texts for consideration: Edward Said, Orientalism; Allen J. Frantzen, Desire for Origins; Samuel Kliger, The Goths in England; a study in seventeenth and eighteenth century thought;

WEEK 3 Heroism

Th 15 Feb.

• Primer § 8-34, 42-48 due (focus on the pronouns, and make sure you've memorized the weak and strong declensions for nouns--minor declensions and adjectives will be tested next week)
• KA, chs. 6-9
• Cynewulf and Cyneheard due, Reader, I (lines 1-23)

Part Two: Presentation on "J.R.R. Tolkien and Beowulf" (Professor Michael Drout, Wheaton College)
• Plese read these in translation in preparation for Prof. Drout's talk: "Battle of Maldon": (Tour Maldon); "Widsith"; Beowulf.

WEEK 4 Sanctity

Th 22 Feb.

• Primer § 31-41, 69-80 due.
• KA, chs. 2, 11, 12, 14
• "Dream of the Rood" (ll. 1-77b) due

Part Two: Presentations on "Saints" (?)(?)
• Athanasius, Life of Anthony (Text Here)
• Ælfric's Natale Sancti Oswaldi, handout.

WEEK 5 Women in Anglo-Saxon England

Th 1 Mar.

• Primer § 52-68 due.
• KA, ch. 13, 15
• "Dream of the Rood" (ll. 78a-end) due
• Campbell, pp. 84-100

Part Two: Presentation on "Women in Anglo-Saxon England" (Mary Dockray-Miller, Lesley College)
• Dockray-Miller, Motherhood in Anglo-Saxon England, Introduction and ch. 2; "The Feminized Cross of The Dream of the Rood" Philological Quarterly 76.1 (1997) 1-18; "Female Community and the Old English Judith" Studia Neophilologica 70 (1998) 165-172.

WEEK 6 Literacy

Th 8 Mar.

• Review grammar
• Reader, Bede's Caedmon, pp. 45-47 (to line 52) due.
• Reader, Mercian Hymn A, pp. 184-85 due.
• Campbell, ch. 6
• Review for Midterm

Part Two: Presentations on "Books, Languages, and Script" (?)
• consult Frantzen, King Alfred; David Diringer; Christopher de Hamel.

WEEK 7 Midterm

Th 15 Mar. MIDTERM

• Hand in your best 20 lines of translation as your midterm.
• Finish translations. Continue with 9th century.

WEEK 8 Spring Break

Th 22 Mar. No Class

WEEK 9 Monasticism

Th 29 Mar.

• Primer, "Abraham and Isaac," pp. 66-67 (get help here)

Part Two: Presentations on Druids (Gina); General Monasticism (Richard)
• Rule of St. Benedict

WEEK 10 Alfred

Th 5 Apr.

• Campbell, ch. 5
• Alfred, "State of learning" (Reader, pp. 4-7) due

Part Two: Presentation on West Saxon Dialect (Rachel); Presentation on Translation (Ann)
• Frantzen, King Alfred, chapters 1 and 7, on reserve.

WEEK 11 Paganism

Th 12 Apr.

• "Battle of Maldon" lines 1-112 due
• Campbell, pp. 168-91

Part Two: Presentations on Charms, Magicians, and Witches (Christopher); The Danish Kingdom (Jason); The Dream of the Rood and the Ruthwell Cross (Chuck)
• Eric G. Stanley.
• Samuel Kliger, The Goths in England
• Simon Schama, Intro to Landscape and Memory

WEEK 12 Ælfric

Th 19 Apr.

• "Battle of Maldon" lines 112-229 due
• Campbell, pp. 201-13
• Reader, Ælfric's Homily on Vineyard, pp. 61-68

Part Two
Presentation on Anglian Dialects (Rachel)
Presentation on Marriage (Gena)
Presentation on Interpreting Abraham and Isaac (Aura)
• Homily on Judith
• "Judith" Reader, XXIII.

WEEK 13 Wulfstan

Th 26 Apr.

• "Battle of Maldon" lines 229-end due
• John Hill, The Anglo-Saxon Warrior Ethic, chapter 5 (on reserve)

Part Two: Presentations on AS Armor and Armament (Sara); Arthur Myth and Gildas (Laura); Medieval Arthur (Brett).q
• Wulfstan, "Sermo Lupi ad Anglos," (Reader XVI).

WEEK 14 No class

Th 3 May

Class cancelled

WEEK 15 Allen Frantzen

Th 10 May

Presentation by Professor Allen J. Frantzen, Loyola University Chicago

25 May All papers due.