Studying Old English: Textbook Recommendations

[Wyrmwood]

The evolution of language is an interesting phenomena and while I'm not doing a university course on the subject, it's something that I find interesting. Not only that, but as Englishmen there exists a cultural heritage aside from the days of the empire and more modern history that shouldn't be forgotten.

While currently between jobs, I have the urge to stimulate my brain with some good old fashioned textbook (I'm open to other means too) learning; to this end, I'm asking for help from those on Warseer who have experience with the subject of the Old English language, or maintain a keen interest themselves, for textbook recommendations. I've searched Amazon (I've not yet journeyed to a library), and I can see a lot to choose from and so I'm a little overwhelmed.

The Cambridge Old English Reader seems like a good start, but some companion reading wouldn't go amiss.

I should say that I currently only have a keen interest and not much in the way of concrete knowledge on the subject, mostly vague information.

[C. Langana]

I studied Old English at University, there are various versions of texts online with the old English on one side and the contemporary English on the other. It can be quite tricky to start with but once it starts to click, it falls into place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_of_Northumbria some of the links at the bottom of this article are quite handy. If you get stuck I will eventually respond to a PM.

Here is a side by side Beowulf http://www.heorot.dk/beo-intro-rede.html

I had a chap called Tarrin Wills teach me the proununciations, but google will also assist.

Hopefully this will act as some pointers on the general stuff. I'd also add that while the reader is pretty handy, the contents are online and free on the pages of various universities.

ábéodan

[Mr Ogre]

There's this Home Study course available http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Old...4854384&sr=8-2

I got it from Christmas, but am yet to make a start. Once it's done with, you have an 'A' Level qualification to boot! Nice and cheap as well.

[Bloodknight]

Did you do any Latin? That would be a tremendous help with the "mechanics" of the language.

[Wyrmwood]

I greatly appreciate those links, C.Langana; they'll be perfect to browse while I have access to the laptop and, as you say, they're good for covering some basic, general ground while I develop my interest further. I've bookmarked them, and will proceed to work my way through them. Also, thanks for extending help via PMs!

@Mr.Ogre: I'll hold off from that for now, but if you let me know how the course goes I'd appreciate it.

And Bloodknight, I haven't studied latin in any depth so anything to do with the linguistics of it is currently beyond me.

[Disposable Hero]

I have an iPad and the iTunes University is bloody awesome.

Universties worldwide offer courses online on it. I am 'doing' one from Yale on Dante.