'Old English Language, Literature, and Culture'

Runs: 20 weekly meetings on Mondays from 7.30-9.30pm starting 13th January, 1997. For more information contact: The Manager, Public Programmes, OUDCE, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA; Tel: 01865 270380/270312.

I. Topic: An Introduction to the Old English Period

Who were the Anglo-Saxons? What is Old English? (week 1)

Old English: An Inflected Language (week 2)

Old English Literature: An Overview (week 3)

Text: Some Practice Sentences (week 1), pp. 163-4.

Ælfric's Colloquy (weeks 2 and 3), pp. 174-181.

II. Topic: The Rise and Fall of the Anglo-Saxons

The Anglo-Saxon Invasions and the early Kingdoms (week 4)

The Dominance of Wessex (week 5)

From Ethelred to William the Conqueror (week 6)

Selections from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 196-199, plus pieces in translation from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ed. G Garmonsway (weeks 5-6).

III. Topic: Old English Prose

An Introduction to Old English Prose: Alfred the Great (week 7)

Ælfric (week 8)

Wulfstan (week 9)

Text: Alfred's Preface to Gregory's Pastoral Care (week 7), pp. 188-191.

Ælfric's Preface to Genesis (week 8), 182-187.

Wulfstan's Sermo Lupi in translation (week 9)

IV. Topic: Old English Manuscripts

An Introduction to Palaeography and Codicology (week 10)

Old English Manuscripts and Later Anglo-Saxon Scholars (week 11)

Text: Transcription Exercises from facsimiles (weeks 10 and 11)

V. Topic: Old English Poetry

An Introduction to Old English Poetry (week 12)

Old English poetical Manuscripts (week 13)

Text: Riddle (c), p. 217 (week 12)

Riddle (a), p. 216 plus othrs in translation (week 13)

VI. Topic: Old English Elegies

The Elegaic Poems (week 14)

Text: The Wanderer (week 14), pp. 254-259.

The Wanderer (week 15), and The Ruin/The Seafarer in translation

VII. Topic: Beowulf

An Introduction to Beowulf (week 16)

Text: Beowulf's Fight with Grendel, pp. 268-275. (week 16, 17)

Beowulf Consoles Hrothgar for Æschere's Death, pp. 275-78 (week 18)

Beowulf's Funeral, pp. 279-80 (week 19)

VIII. Revision

What do the Anglo-Saxons teach us? (week 20)


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