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This site contains resources for students of Old English at the University of Virginia and elsewhere, including texts and exercises, information about Introduction to Old English, the new textbook by the creator of this web site (with a link to the free on-line version), and links to a selection of on-line resources. Students everywhere are invited to make free use of these pages.
An introduction to Old English and a course on Beowulf are offered annually at U.Va.; these are open to both graduates and undergraduates. At the graduate level, ENMD 981, Studies in Old English (various topics) and ENMD 905, Studies in Early English Philology, are offered occasionally. The links below are to sample syllabi and a bibliography for students.
Old English Aerobics is an anthology of Old English texts and a collection of on-line exercises, all keyed to Peter S. Baker, Introduction to Old English (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003). This site is under construction: usable, but please excuse the dust.
Introduction to Old English is a new textbook published by Blackwell Publishers. The book is aimed at students whose interests are primarily literary or historical rather than linguistic; it assumes no expertise in traditional grammar or other languages, but it provides everything the student needs to read Old English well. The book includes an anthology of prose and poetry. The entire grammar is available on-line, and the anthology is also available as part of the Old English Aerobics web application.
Junicode is a family of fonts that selects from the Unicode standard those characters likely to be of use to medievalists. Though still under construction, it already includes all Old English vowel+macron combinations, IPA characters, runes, and more. You will probably need Junicode if you want to use the Old English Aerobics Reader.
Old (non-)standards, these fonts have been around for about ten years. You may need them if someone has given you a document that uses them. But if you are looking for a font that handles Old English well, read the first link.
See also More Resources; and don't forget the valuable
printed bibliographies,
available in the library.
This site was created and is maintained by Peter S. Baker, who also teaches the Old English courses at U.Va.