Customer Reviews

Introduction to Old English

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Professor Baker's relatively new book is the best one-volume start for someone learning Old English outside of a classroom setting. It is significantly better for this purpose than Mitchell's book, although Baker does not convey quite the same sense of enthusiasm that Mitchell does.

In addition to the expected format for a book such as this, which consists of grammar-oriented instruction, graded readings, and a glossary, there are excellent chapters on metrics, manuscript reading, and a fine bibliography and set of recommended readings. He even provides a chapter for the reader who might be deficient in common grammatical terms.

The highlight of the book, though, are the links to the online exercises, which provide a much more convenient method of practice. Focused practice is essential when learning a language, and the online exercises are much better than the usual handful of perfunctory exercises provided in graded grammars. In many such books, answers to the exercises aren't even provided.

In summary, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn to read and appreciate Old English on their own.

As a learning tool, Peter S. Baker's Introduction to Old English succeeds marvellously in that it is concise and clear without erring on the side of oversimplification. The ordering of chapters is intuitive and the key concepts are easily accreted along the way; in comparatively little time readers will acquire a wealth of knowledge, and in its practicality the book is sure not to intimidate the uninitiated.

The basic review of English grammar is both thorough and efficient without being overly pedantic. Unfortunately, more and more students of English are finding themselves ill-equipped and poorly acquainted with the basics of grammar. Baker's review will familiarize them with the grammatical essentials while simultaneously providing a useful review to those more accustomed to them. There is sufficient treatment of the main topics in the text without any superfluous explication that might confuse the introductory reader. Baker's plain English explanations are unambiguous and, where possible, he offers Modern English correlates and analogues that effectively frame the linguistic topic being discussed.

The chapters on the style and grammar of poetry are essential resources. Poetry makes up such a significant part of the extant Anglo-Saxon literature that it would be a failure on the part of the author to leave the student stranded in the intricacies of the form. Taking the chapter on reading manuscripts into consideration, as well as the appendices, Baker helps the student build a truly solid foundation upon which to base further study. The glossary, for example, allows students who are as yet unfamiliar Anglo-Saxon word forms to easily find what they are looking for, and will furnish them with the skills they need to approach more ambitious dictionaries.

The companion web site provides a variety of resources for the student. The Old English "Magic Sheet" is a tool that students will find invaluable in their initial approach to Anglo-Saxon Literature. As the student refers to it repeatedly in his or her reading, he or she will quickly become more familiar with the forms and may soon be weaned off of it. In each chapter there are references to relevant "Old English Aerobics" exercises online, which can assist students in need of some basic practice with the material. The ability to look up a word, part of speech, or clause with the click of a button is a testament to the work that was put into developing the resource. While I must applaud the author's forward thinking and effective use of the technology, getting online may yet provide challenges at times for certain students, and the exercises themselves can prove somewhat short and elementary. A simple solution to these minor problems might be to include self tutorial exercises in a new edition, or to publish a companion workbook at some point in the future. To my knowledge, no such resource exists in Old English, and it must be said that there is simply no substitute for routine practice when learning a new language.

These minor concerns are truly subordinate to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Though the book itself may not be a substitute for practice, passages appropriate for initiates to tackle and translate are included in the anthology, and students will find themselves far better equipped to approach Old English after having covered the main topics. It was with great pleasure that I found my own abilities dramatically improved after simply having covered the sixteen initial chapters. Introduction to Old English proves to be not only an exceedingly effective primer with regard to Anglo-Saxon literature, but an invaluable reference to accompany further readings and studies within the context of the language. Every student of Old English should sleep with a copy of this book under their pillow.

I recently bought this book and found it to be very easy to read, rather than just have lists of grammatical tables like some books I have seen. The author recommends helpful websites throughout the book and makes use of 200 short passages that can be read as you go. All grammar is covered in the beginning chapters, and the following ones are devoted to metre, poetic style, grammar of poetry, how to read old english manuscripts, spelling variants, phonetics, and then an anthology of texts. The glossary is full of translations of every word used in the texts. I think this book is excellent for the beginner who wants to gain a sound overview of the language.

Dr. Baker's "Introduction to Old English" is probably the best book for a person to use who has no previous experience with either Old English or traditional linguistics. I used this book as an undergraduate taking a graduate Old English course and found it most enjoyable and useful. Each chapter is quite easy to follow, and usually contain at least one "mini-text" which are short texts in Old English that you can read along the way. This method is especially useful; by the time you begin with the anthology of literature located in the back of the book, you've already read some simplier passages of Old English.

The book is worth its retail price simply for its collection of literature. Included here are the "The Wife's Lament", "The Wanderer", "Wulf and Eadwacer" and excerpts from "Judith" and "Beowulf". This book is even helpful for someone who has no previous study in the history of the English language, although those who do will find this book superbly accesible.

Baker's text is pretty decent, but there are some problems. In the chapter on verbs, the first strong and weak verb endings paradigm is labeled incorrectly--strong verbs are labeled as weak and vice-versa. This is a horrible blunder. There are other errors as well, but this is the worst one I think.
Furthermore, Baker compresses weeks and weeks of learning into a few chapters, which is irritating. The chapters are listed something like, "Nouns," "Verbs," "Adjectives," etc. For an inflected language, this means tons of info crammed into single chapters. Not the way I like to learn.
The choice of texts in the reader is good, and the mini-text translation exercises are an interesting accoutrement, but the lack of intermittent vocabulary is disappointing. If you have studied Wheelock's Latin Grammar or Bright's Old English Grammar, you know what I mean.

I bought a copy of Baker's Introduction to Old English while taking a graduate course in order to supplement the other texts used. I found this to be a fantastic resource for the solo learner. The explanations were precise yet easy to understand and the exercises helped to illuminate the grammar points. I really enjoyed the online exercises, standard these days in foreign language courses, which quickly allowed me to grasp concepts. All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Old English.

Introduction to Old English, is, overall, very well laid out. It is easy to understand and presents new material in an ordered way. My one problem, however, is with the practice sentences and texts. They require a much higher knowledge of Old English that could be expected at the very beginning levels. Besides that, there are no major problems, and it should be an otherwise good experience.

After learning a semester of Old English, I think I'm done. At the graduate level, there just isn't enough time. This text was our major source for most of the semester. It wasn't a bad source. I liked the progression from chapter to chapter. I'm just glad it's done.

Probably the most useful aspect of this book is the way Baker creates the paradigms. While they may be hard to decipher at first, they proved to be the most effective way to learn the basics. Our class was stuck for about a month because we couldn't read even the basic words. However, after we learned the pronouns and verbs, the reading became easier, making learning much more enjoyable. The glossary at the end was also helpful.

One of the drawbacks of the book, however, is the ambiguous explanations of some of the words. I thought Baker would ease us into things. The book starts quickly and doesn't let up. No slacking in our class.

I would recommend using the website that Baker has created to help with the reading and as a second glossary. His work on the U of Virginia website is outstanding. A+ just for that.

I like this "introduction" though perhaps it isn't for everyone. The book is basically a quick (and intensive) crash course into Old English grammar followed by an anthology of texts to translate. The crash course is very fast and intensive, and may put some readers off. Nonetheless I found it helpful, since I have a very basic grounding in the grammar to start with.

The anthology is where this book really shines. It starts off with Genesis 3 in Old English which allows the student to get somewhat familiar with Old English grammar and ideoms before going further. Then come a few of Aelfric's pieces (Life of At. Aethelthryth, Aelfric on Job, etc). After that, we get into a wide range of material, from The Wanderer to a translation of Boethius into Old English. This work will challenge students but hopefully without being overwhelming.

There is one flaw I noticed in the texts. In the Life of St Athelthryth, the first line is in Latin. Unlike the editor's practice with later texts, he does not flag this and offer a translation for the student's benefit. So it's nice to know that before wondering what VIII KALENDES IULII NATALE SANCTUS etc. means.

Finally comes a series of textual notes and the glossary which is reasonably complete in terms of understanding this text.

On the whole I found this to be the most helpful grammar and reader I've had so far. One of the things I really liked about this book is that it seemed more usage-centered instead of theory-centered (i.e. the question is how bean and wesan were used, not what they etymologically mean, as well as matters of how constrained word order really was in Old English despite what one is typically taught).

I had bought a used copy of the first edition for a class, which said "like new" when I bought it but came to me with heavy black writing (someone's notes) all over the margins and text. So when a little extra money came my way, I decided I wanted to get a cleaner copy of the book, and since the 2nd edition was available, I sprang for that instead of a duplicate of the first edition.

This has some new texts, as well as pretty thorough corrections to the glossary errors present in the first edition. The book is an excellent primer in Old English, and I would recommend it to anyone embarking on a study of the language.