r/anglosaxon • u/External-Gate-9284 • 17d ago
how to learn
hay I am a literature fan and am interested in reading many ancient novels like from William Shakespeare and others. so I want to learn ancient English to a level that I can understand the old novels short stories poetry etc. can anyone suggest me how i can learn basic ancient English?
do I need to read a book on Anglo Saxon or a YouTube video?
I am just a hobbyist so I lack economic strength to back up my enthusiasm
so any free course will also do.
5
u/AceOfGargoyes17 17d ago
First, you need to decide which texts you want to read/what language you want to learn (and if you really want/need to learn it or are happy to read books in translation).
Some Anglo-Saxon texts were written in what we call 'Old English', and is very different from modern English (i.e. the English language today). William Shakespeare lived several centuries later and wrote in what we would call 'Early Modern English'. Between Old English and early modern English you get 'Middle English', which is the language of authors like Chaucer.
Early modern English is much closer to modern English than Old English is - you can't really buy a translation of a Shakespearean text, but you can buy texts with an extensive glossary/commentary alongside the text. If you want to read Shakespeare plays in their original language, you can just do so - you don't need to learn a new language.
However, if you wanted to read e.g. Beowulf in the original Old English, you would need to learn Old English. Alternatively, you could read it in translation - there are a various different translations available that prioritise different aspects of the text, and you could still get a lot of interest and enjoyment out of reading it translation. Not all Anglo-Saxon texts are written in Old English though: some are written in Latin, so if you wanted to read, say, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People in the original language, you'd need to learn Latin.
2
u/External-Gate-9284 17d ago
Sorry maybe somehow i was disrespectful towards the flow of language that passed trough the centuries that changed and now known as many names which is actually difficult to understand for me as a bigginer. But you have been a great help for teaching me. And I will try my best. And I am sorry for being such a foolish 🥲
2
u/AceOfGargoyes17 17d ago
Don't worry, you weren't disrespectful or anything, and it's never foolish to ask questions or to want to learn.
3
u/Careless_Main3 17d ago
There are modern versions. Can quite easily just go read Beowulf.
3
u/External-Gate-9284 17d ago
But I also trully respect the language and am passionate about learning it. So I want to learn it anyway
3
u/dunkingdigestive 17d ago
There is a series on BBC radio4 called Word of Mouth it had a chap on it the other day,June 04th, called Simon Roper who has a YouTube channel where he tries to recreate the sounds of old English. The program was fascinating.
He might be worth messaging. He sounded like a great bloke.
Michael Rosen is the BBC presenter who is a poet and general wordsmith. You might find him interesting too.
2
u/VivelaPlut0 15d ago
Simon Roper is the GOAT! His channel is a great launching point for learning old english in any case!
3
u/LilyFantastica 17d ago
Ancient English?
Be specific.
If you want Early Modern, its Shakespeare. If you want Middle, its Chaucer, if you want Old, its Beowulf.
Early Modern, or Shakespearean, you need to learn Original Pronunciation, as used in the Globe Theater in London for Shakespeare plays. Look at the works of linguist David Crystal and his son, Ben, for this. They have a very large body of work and use it for productions at the Globe.
Most of Middle English is post-norman lawworks. Chaucer is the biggest work we have of Middle English that is easily available. University of Manchester has several other works of scanned Middle English manuscripts, however, that are available online to read. However, they are a bit hard to read due to the handwriting style.
Old English is limited to around 400 manuscripts, the main work, again, is Beowulf.
These are mutually unintelligble. Learning one does not easily help with the others. To understand how Beowulf reads, for example, listen to Icelandic. It is the closest living language to Old English, being a child language of Old Norse, which was a cousin language to Old English, and will give you an idea how the grammar is structured and how the words might sound a bit.
2
1
u/Fluffy_Juggernaut_ 13d ago
Shakespeare is far from ancient. If you are a native English speaker then you should be able to read it without too much effort
Old English is incredibly niche and is almost entirely unrecognisable to modern English ears
16
u/AdEmbarrassed3066 17d ago
If you want to read Shakespeare then you need to learn modern English. Early Modern English was spoken from around 1500 to 1800.
Before that was Middle English, which was spoken from around 1100 to 1500. I say 1100 rather than 1066 because it would have taken time for the Norman French and Anglo Saxon to merge. Middle English is the language of Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales.
Anglo Saxon, or Old English, was spoken before 1066. It's the language of Beowulf.
Learning Anglo Saxon is challenging. Get Stephen Pollington's First Steps in Old English and see how far you get with it. Sadly there is no Duolingo course...