ENGL 3110 - Old English

(crosslisted) MEDVL 3110
(ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Fall. 4 credits. Student option grading.

This course counts toward the pre-1800 requirement for English majors. Co-meets with ENGL 6110/MEDVL 6110.

A. Galloway.

English has a recorded history longer and more variable than any other language, including poetry and prose as skillful as writings in any period. While learning the language (especially in the first half of the course) we will investigate writings that exploit the language’s powers and complexities from the earliest pieces into “early Middle English,” when the language and its literary traditions disintegrated and began being reinvented at the Norman Conquest. We will also sample (in translation) Latin, Old Saxon, and Old Norse materials that fed the multilingual and multicultural world in which early English developed.