Introduction to Old English

Reviews / Votes

"Enhanced with new anthology readings, common spellingvariants, phonetic symbols and terms, a glossary, references, and acomprehensive index, "Introduction To Old English" is an idealstudent textbook and highly recommended addition to academiclibrary instructional reference collections." (Midwest Book Review, 1 May 2012) "Excellent introduction designed to provide readingknowledge ... He [Baker] constructs the book to encourage beginningstudents to start translating almost immediately" (The MedievalReview, June 2008) "The fruit of years of sensitive, thoughtful andstudent-responsive teaching. [...] this work is a huge step forwardin imaginative course design. It is accessible in manner andgenuinely tries to address the needs of the modern student andteacher, taking them through a course step by step. [...] by farthe best attempt yet to introduce Old English, and Ienthusiastically recommend it to members." (TOEBINewsletter) "Peter Baker's excellent new book, a combined grammar andreader, deserves to find a central place in the university teachingof Old English. It is unabashedly designed to be accessible toabsolute beginners, but students who progress attentively throughthe whole book will in fact find themselves in command of a greatdeal of what makes Old English language and literature tick. [...]These chapters [on 'Metre', 'Poetic Style', 'The Grammar ofPoetry', and 'Reading Old English Manuscripts'] constitute the realnovelty of the book in their lucid summation of some essentialtruths that have rarely if ever been to clearly set out forbeginners; the sections on poetry in particular deserve to be readby all students beginning the translation of Old English for thefirst time." (Notes and Queries) "The new edition is a solid tool that both an independentstudent and a classroom full of students will find useful. Thebook's approach is balanced. It includes just the right amount ofexplanatory text ... while also offering ... grammar tools andexercises. The selection of readings is varied and exemplary. Muchthought was put into the choice, quantity, and order of the othertexts in the anthology. I would certainly recommend this book foran introductory course in Old English.... Baker's new edition is apleasure to read and would be a pleasure to use in the classroom."(Comitatus)"In its references to web-sites and computer-links, AnIntroduction to Old English is very much a book of thetwenty-first century; and many of its novel features - for examplethe chapter on the grammar of poetry, or the appendix on commonspelling variants - will be extraordinarily helpful to teachers andstudents alike." --Michael Lapidge, University of Notre Dame "Baker's Introduction is the kind of book that studentsof Old English - and their teachers - have been waiting for for along time." --Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast "This is a truly outstanding textbook for today's student of OldEnglish. Written in lucid and friendly prose, Baker brings thelanguage to life in a manner that will inspire students." --Elaine Treharne, University of Leicester "Peter Baker's Introduction to Old English offers aninnovative combination of the traditional and the cutting edge.Beginning with the basics of the language, the chapters proceedthrough intelligently paced levels so that by the end the user isreading the most sophisticated literature in Old English." --Daniel G. Donoghue, Harvard University