Daniel Paul O'Donnell

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English 3450a: Introductory Old English (Fall 2007)

About this course

This course introduces students to Old English, the main ancestor of Present Day English and the language of daily life in England during the Anglo-Saxon period (approximately CE 449 to 1200).

Learning goals

Our principal task will be to learn the language. Old English is an ancestor to the language we currently speak and the source of much of our core vocabulary. But its grammar is quite different from that of Present Day English and Old English as a result must be learned as a foreign language. In the course of the year we will study and practice Old English (and Modern English) Grammar, Phonology (the study of the sounds of the language), and script (the way it is written). Most of our time, however, will be spent translating selected prose texts from Old to Present Day English.

By the end of the course, students should be able to

1. translate Old English prose comfortably with the aid of a dictionary
2. read Old English texts aloud
3. understand basic aspects of Old English grammar and (when relevant) Modern English.
4. transcribe short passages from facsimiles of Old English manuscripts.

Although it will not be the main focus of the course, students will also be expected to have some knowledge of the history of the period and the scope and place of vernacular literature in Anglo-Saxon culture.

This course is suitable for students who have an intrinsic interest in the language, literature, or history of Anglo-Saxon England, or who wish to know more about the earliest stage of the English language and its earliest literary monuments. The course is also suitable preparation for students with more specific advanced interests in early British history, archaeology, literature, or philology.

Texts

• Blair, John. 2000. The Anglo-Saxon Age. Oxford: OUP. (Required).
• Mitchell, Bruce, and Fred C. Robinson. 2007. A Guide to Old English. Seventh Edition. Cambridge: Blackwell. (Required).

Evaluation

General policies

The following policies will be followed in all my classes unless otherwise announced. You are expected to be familiar with these policies and any other documents cited here. Failure to conform to these policies may result in your grade being lowered.

Grade scale

The University of Lethbridge keeps track of student performance using a letter and grade point system (See section 4 of the University Calendar). Instructors assign students a letter grade at the end of each course (the University does not issue or keep track of mid-term grades). These letter grades are converted to a numerical value (a Grade Point) for assessing overall academic performance (a Grade Point Average or GPA). The University does not record percentage-type grades and does not have a fixed scale for conversion from percentage scores to letter grades and grade points. Each instructor is responsible for determining their own methodology for determining students’ final letter grade.

In my classes, I use the following letter-grade to percentage correspondences:

How your grade is determined depends on the type of work being assessed. Tests of specific skills or knowledge (such as identification questions in literature classes, or fact-oriented tests in my grammar and language classes) are usually assigned a numeric score which is easily converted to a percentage. Essays, presentations, and other performance-oriented tests are usually graded by letter. I convert letter grades to percentages by taking the median value in each grade-range, and rounding up to the nearest whole percent. The only exceptions are A+ (which is converted to 100%), and F (which is converted to an arbitrary percentage between 0% and 49% based on my estimation of the work’s quality). These scores can be found in the conventional value row of the above table.

In marking work I try to keep the University’s official description of these grades in mind (a description can be found in the University Calendar, Part IV.3.a). If you get an A it means your work is excellent; a B means your work is good; a C means it is satisfactory; a D that it is poor; and an F that it is failing to meet University-level standards.

Class schedule

The following schedule is intended to help you plan your work for this course.

 

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