EN 699 Seminar: Old English (Fall: 3)
Fulfills the pre-1700 requirement. This course is open to both Undergraduate
and Graduate Students.
Anglo-Saxons ruled England for 600 years, and their language is both familiar
and strange. The core of English (stone, water, bone) comes from
Old English, but English has changed in 900 years. Grammar is learned quickly.
Then a world of literature opens up: violent poetry, mournful elegy, spiritual
meditations, fanciful romance. We read Genesis, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
Bede's Ecclesiastical History, mesmerizing homilies, Boethius' Consolation
of Philosophy, and unforgettable poetry: the moody elegies The Wanderer,
The Wife's Lament, and The Husband's Message, the Christian
psychedelia of Dream of the Rood, the cryptic remnant Wulf
and Eadwacer, and the feminist Biblical narrative Judith.
Robert Stanton
Last Updated: 31-JAN-12