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An Anglo-Saxon Reader
First published in 2005. An excellent introduction to Old English, this book begins with an elementary grammar, ably preparing students for the thirty-four texts that follow. Among the carefully selected stories, verses and histories can be found a wide sampling of West Saxon, Northumbrian, late and early Kentish and early Mercian. A comprehensive glossary is included.
414 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1925
About the author
Henry Sweet
90 books7 followersHenry Sweet (15 September 1845 – 30 April 1912) was an English philologist, phonetician and grammarian.
As a philologist, he specialized in the Germanic languages, particularly Old English and Old Norse. In addition, Sweet published works on larger issues of phonetics and grammar in language and the teaching of languages. Many of his ideas have remained influential, and a number of his works continue to be in print, being used as course texts at colleges and universities.
Henry Sweet was born in St. Pancras in London. He was educated at Bruce Castle School and King's College School, London. In 1864, he spent a short time studying at the University of Heidelberg. Upon his return to England, he took up an office job with a trading company in London. Five years later, aged twenty-four, he won a scholarship in German and entered Balliol College in Oxford.
Sweet neglected his formal academic coursework, concentrating instead on pursuing excellence in his private studies. Early recognition came in his first year at Oxford, when the prestigious Philological Society (whose President he was destined to become later on) published a paper of his on Old English. In 1871, still an undergraduate, he edited King Alfred's translation of the Cura Pastoralis for the Early English Text Society (King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care: With an English Translation, the Latin Text, Notes, and an Introduction), his commentary establishing the foundation for Old English dialectology. He graduated, nearly thirty years old, with a fourth-class degree in literae humaniores. Subsequent works on Old English included An Anglo-Saxon Reader (1876), The Oldest English Texts (1885) and A Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon (1896).
Sweet, like his contemporary Walter Skeat, felt under particular pressure from German scholars in English studies who, often state-employed, tenured, and accompanied by their comitatus of eager graduate students "annexed" the historical study of English. Dismayed by the "swarms of young program-mongers turned out out every year by German universities," he felt that "no English dilettante can hope to compete with them—except by Germanizing himself and losing all his nationality."
In 1877, Sweet published A Handbook of Phonetics, which attracted international attention among scholars and teachers of English in Europe. He followed up with the Elementarbuch des gesprochenen Englisch (1885), which was subsequently adapted as A Primer of Spoken English (1890). This included the first scientific description of educated London speech, later known as received pronunciation, with specimens of connected speech represented in phonetic script. His emphasis on spoken language and phonetics made him a pioneer in language teaching, a subject which he covered in detail in The Practical Study of Languages (1899). In 1901, Sweet was made reader in phonetics at Oxford. The Sounds of English (1908) was his last book on English pronunciation.
Other books by Sweet include An Icelandic Primer with Grammar, Notes and Glossary (1886), The History of Language (1900, and a number of other works he edited for the Early English Text Society. Sweet was also closely involved in the early history of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Despite the recognition he received for his scholarly work, Sweet never received a university professorship, a fact that disturbed him greatly; he had done poorly as a student at Oxford, he had annoyed many people through bluntness, and he failed to make every effort to gather official support. His relationship with the Oxford University Press was often strained.
Sweet died on 30 April 1912 in Oxford, of pernicious anaemia; he left no children.
As a philologist, he specialized in the Germanic languages, particularly Old English and Old Norse. In addition, Sweet published works on larger issues of phonetics and grammar in language and the teaching of languages. Many of his ideas have remained influential, and a number of his works continue to be in print, being used as course texts at colleges and universities.
Henry Sweet was born in St. Pancras in London. He was educated at Bruce Castle School and King's College School, London. In 1864, he spent a short time studying at the University of Heidelberg. Upon his return to England, he took up an office job with a trading company in London. Five years later, aged twenty-four, he won a scholarship in German and entered Balliol College in Oxford.
Sweet neglected his formal academic coursework, concentrating instead on pursuing excellence in his private studies. Early recognition came in his first year at Oxford, when the prestigious Philological Society (whose President he was destined to become later on) published a paper of his on Old English. In 1871, still an undergraduate, he edited King Alfred's translation of the Cura Pastoralis for the Early English Text Society (King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care: With an English Translation, the Latin Text, Notes, and an Introduction), his commentary establishing the foundation for Old English dialectology. He graduated, nearly thirty years old, with a fourth-class degree in literae humaniores. Subsequent works on Old English included An Anglo-Saxon Reader (1876), The Oldest English Texts (1885) and A Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon (1896).
Sweet, like his contemporary Walter Skeat, felt under particular pressure from German scholars in English studies who, often state-employed, tenured, and accompanied by their comitatus of eager graduate students "annexed" the historical study of English. Dismayed by the "swarms of young program-mongers turned out out every year by German universities," he felt that "no English dilettante can hope to compete with them—except by Germanizing himself and losing all his nationality."
In 1877, Sweet published A Handbook of Phonetics, which attracted international attention among scholars and teachers of English in Europe. He followed up with the Elementarbuch des gesprochenen Englisch (1885), which was subsequently adapted as A Primer of Spoken English (1890). This included the first scientific description of educated London speech, later known as received pronunciation, with specimens of connected speech represented in phonetic script. His emphasis on spoken language and phonetics made him a pioneer in language teaching, a subject which he covered in detail in The Practical Study of Languages (1899). In 1901, Sweet was made reader in phonetics at Oxford. The Sounds of English (1908) was his last book on English pronunciation.
Other books by Sweet include An Icelandic Primer with Grammar, Notes and Glossary (1886), The History of Language (1900, and a number of other works he edited for the Early English Text Society. Sweet was also closely involved in the early history of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Despite the recognition he received for his scholarly work, Sweet never received a university professorship, a fact that disturbed him greatly; he had done poorly as a student at Oxford, he had annoyed many people through bluntness, and he failed to make every effort to gather official support. His relationship with the Oxford University Press was often strained.
Sweet died on 30 April 1912 in Oxford, of pernicious anaemia; he left no children.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 16, 2013
Again, not a find you'd expect me to come across in a Belgian bookshop, but nonetheless, I did. It's a good collection of a miscellany of prose and verse pieces of Anglo-Saxon, including an extract from Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, Caedmon's hymn, etc. Unlike the more modern reader I have, it doesn't have a glossary side by side with the text, which encourages me to do a little more work. Will definitely be utilising this in my plan to brush up on my Anglo-Saxon again.
May 6, 2013
Kindled for free. I was reading this book to try and get some passive Old English vocabulary, after finishing all the grammar exercises by C. Smith (http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/oe/docs/oe_gra...) - Those grammar exercises are excellent by the way, they are almost unique for learning old english from scratch.
Since I was trying to pick up vocabularly passively I did not stop to look up words in dictionaries, so it was really useful that lots of the stories were biblical and ones which everyone knows, together with a few which I had never read before (much harder to understand) and some classics of Old English literature.
Its difficult to judge if the book has helped at all, since any learning I might have done is passive, but it was not too bad to read. I didn't feel there was any curve whatsoever -the texts were quite hard to read from the beginning, which made it more difficult. However, I did get through the book, although there were lots of stories I understood only small segments of. I'd say give it a try, especially since it is in the public domain and can be downloaded to an ebook reader for free!
My favourite parts:
{Extracts from Life of King Edmund which I'd read before}
Hīe ēodon þā sēċende and simle clipiende, swā swā hit ġe•wunelic is þǣm þe on wuda gāþ oft, 'hwǣr eart þū nū, ġe•fēra?' And him 130 andwyrde þæt hēafod, 'hēr, hēr, hēr;' and swā ġe•lōme clipode andswariende him eallum, swā oft swā hiera ǣniġ clipode, oþ þæt hīe ealle be•cōmon þurh þā clipunge him tō.
...
Þā læġ se grǣga wulf þe be•wiste þæt hēafod, and mid his twǣm fōtum hæfde þæt hēafod be•clypped, grǣdiġ and hungriġ, 135 and for Gode ne dorste þæs hēafdes on•byrġan, ac hēold hit wiþ dēor. Þā wurdon hīe of•wundrode þæs wulfes hierd-rǣdenne, and þæt hāliġe hēafod hām fęredon mid him, þanciende þǣm Ælmihtigan ealra his wundra.
{fun to see Gaza called part of phillistea lande!}
Æfter þissum hē fērde tō Philistēa lande, intō ānre byriġ 35 on hiera onwealde, Gaza ġe•hāten.
{description of britain}
Breten īeġ-land is eahta hund mīla lang, and twā hund mīla brād; and hēr sind on þǣm īeġlande fīf ġe·þēodu: Ęnġlisc, Brettisc, Scyttisc, Pihtisc, and Bōc-læden. Ǣrest wǣron būend þisses landes Brettas. Þā cōmon 5 of Armenia, and ġe·sǣton sūþan-wearde Bretene ǣrest.
Since I was trying to pick up vocabularly passively I did not stop to look up words in dictionaries, so it was really useful that lots of the stories were biblical and ones which everyone knows, together with a few which I had never read before (much harder to understand) and some classics of Old English literature.
Its difficult to judge if the book has helped at all, since any learning I might have done is passive, but it was not too bad to read. I didn't feel there was any curve whatsoever -the texts were quite hard to read from the beginning, which made it more difficult. However, I did get through the book, although there were lots of stories I understood only small segments of. I'd say give it a try, especially since it is in the public domain and can be downloaded to an ebook reader for free!
My favourite parts:
{Extracts from Life of King Edmund which I'd read before}
Hīe ēodon þā sēċende and simle clipiende, swā swā hit ġe•wunelic is þǣm þe on wuda gāþ oft, 'hwǣr eart þū nū, ġe•fēra?' And him 130 andwyrde þæt hēafod, 'hēr, hēr, hēr;' and swā ġe•lōme clipode andswariende him eallum, swā oft swā hiera ǣniġ clipode, oþ þæt hīe ealle be•cōmon þurh þā clipunge him tō.
...
Þā læġ se grǣga wulf þe be•wiste þæt hēafod, and mid his twǣm fōtum hæfde þæt hēafod be•clypped, grǣdiġ and hungriġ, 135 and for Gode ne dorste þæs hēafdes on•byrġan, ac hēold hit wiþ dēor. Þā wurdon hīe of•wundrode þæs wulfes hierd-rǣdenne, and þæt hāliġe hēafod hām fęredon mid him, þanciende þǣm Ælmihtigan ealra his wundra.
{fun to see Gaza called part of phillistea lande!}
Æfter þissum hē fērde tō Philistēa lande, intō ānre byriġ 35 on hiera onwealde, Gaza ġe•hāten.
{description of britain}
Breten īeġ-land is eahta hund mīla lang, and twā hund mīla brād; and hēr sind on þǣm īeġlande fīf ġe·þēodu: Ęnġlisc, Brettisc, Scyttisc, Pihtisc, and Bōc-læden. Ǣrest wǣron būend þisses landes Brettas. Þā cōmon 5 of Armenia, and ġe·sǣton sūþan-wearde Bretene ǣrest.
February 11, 2025
Many interesting examples from the A-S literature, and most importantly, the Glossary contains line numbers for each word, so you can use it to acquire a vocabulary more effectively.
December 23, 2025
That was solid
May 8, 2015
"And la, hu mæg mare scamu þurh Godes yrre mannum gelimpan þonne us deð gelome for agenum gewyrhtum? Ðeh þræla hwylc hlaforde æthleape and of cristendome to wicinge weorþe, and hit æfter þam eft geweorþe þæt wæpngewrixl weorðe gemæne þegene and þræle, gif þræl þæne þegen fullice afylle, licge ægylde ealre his mægðe; and, gif se þegen þæne þræl þe he ær ahte fullice afylle, gylde þegengylde. Ful earhlice laga and scandlice nydgyld þurh Godes yrre us syn gemæne, understande se þe cunne; and fela ungelimpa gelimpð þysse þeode oft and gelome. Ne dohte hit nu lange inne ne ute, ac wæs here and hete on gewelhwilcan ende oft and gelome, and Engle nu lange eal sigelease and to swyþe geyrigde þurh Godes yrre; and flotmen swa strange þurh Godes þafunge þæt oft on gefeohte an feseð tyne, and hwilum læs, hwilum ma, eal for urum synnum. And oft tyne oððe twelfe, ælc æfter oþrum, scendað to bysmore þæs þegenes cwenan, and hwilum his dohtor oððe nydmagan, þær he on locað, þe læt hine sylfne rancne and ricne and genoh godne ær þæt gewurde. And oft þræl þæne þegen þe ær wæs his hlaford cnyt swyþe fæstne and wyrcð him to þræle þurh Godes yrre. Wala þære yrmðe and wala þære woroldscame þe nu habbað Engle, eal þurh Godes yrre! Oft twegen sæmen, oððe þry hwilum, drifað þa drafe cristenra manna fram sæ to sæ, ut þurh þas þeode, gewelede togædere, us eallum to woroldscame, gif we on eornost ænige cuþon ariht understandan; ac ealne þæne bysmor þe we oft þoliað we gyldað mid weorðscipe þam þe us scendað: we him gyldað singallice, and hy us hynað dæghwamlice; hy hergiað and hy bærnað, rypað and reafiað and to scipe lædað; and la, hwæt is ænig oðer on eallum þam gelimpum butan Godes yrre ofer þas þeode swutol and gesæne?"
April 5, 2007
Reading Beowulf in the orignal is just as much fun as you would think; unfortunately, Beade's Translation of Boethius is, likewise, just as much fun as you would think. Still, OE is such a cool language - besides singular and plural, they have a dual mode for verbs which you use when refering to "you and I".
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December 29, 2008Old English
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews