To the non-expert, Old English very much comes across like a foreign language: both the structure and the vocabulary of the language are sufficiently different from those of modern English to make text look entirely unfamiliar. All of Old English poetry, however, exists in easily accessible translations which succeed in giving a flavour of the original poetic style and quality. And for those who would like to have a go at learning Old English, a number of teach-yourself aids are listed below which can provide access to Old English poetry in the original relatively quickly. For many students of Old English, the attraction of this poetry lies precisely in the fact that meaning has to be teased out and discovered slowly, step-by-step. Lovers of crossword puzzles and brain-teasers take note!

I am an Anglo-Saxonist and Lecturer in Mediaeval English Literature at the University of St Andrews. My general interests lie in Old English Language and Literature, Anglo-Latin and Old Norse, and I have been particularly interested in tracing foreign influences (Continental, Scandinavian, Celtic) on Old English literature.

Old English Poetry

Editions

Several reliable editions exist. One of the most widely used is the series of editions collected in The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, ed. G. P. Krapp and E. V. K. Dobbie, 6 vols. (New York, 1931-42), conventionally abbreviated as ASPR. A transcript of this edition (with some errors) is also available electronically, see the link below. A complete list of Old English poems can be found in B. Mitchell, C. Ball and A. Cameron, ‘Short Titles of Old English Texts’, Anglo-Saxon England 4 (1975), 207-21, at 213-15, which also provides further editorial details and standardized short titles. M. Lapidge and others, ed., The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1999) has details of ASPR texts and more recent, alternative editions.

Electronic version of ASPR edition of Old English
poetry - http://www.theworld.com/obi/Anglo-Saxon/aspr/contents.html

Translations

Old English poetry has been translated numerous times. The more widely known poems are readily available in, for instance, S. A. J. Bradley, trans., Anglo-Saxon Poetry (London, 1982), R. Hamer, trans., A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse (London, 1970), or M. Alexander, trans., The Earliest English Poems, 3rd edn (Harmondsworth, 1992). All three are in print.

Manuscripts and Facsimiles

For the major four codices in which Old English poetry is transmitted, see M. Lapidge and others, ed., The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1999), s. vv. ‘Beowulf Manuscript’, ‘Exeter Book’, ‘Junius Manuscript’, ‘Vercelli Book’. Two series are particularly important: Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1951-), at present with 27 volumes, and Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile (Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1994-)
Electronic tools are becoming increasingly important for the study of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.

A digitisation of the Beowulf-manuscript on CD-ROM (the Electronic Beowulf)
http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=bodleian&manuscript=msjunius11

Images from the Junius Manuscript
http://campus.belmont.edu/honors/ASImages/ASMss.htm

Recordings

http://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/resource/OEword.htm
Richard Dance reading part of The Battle of Maldon.

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/oe/oe-audio.html
Cathy Ball’s website with further examples of recordings of Old English poetry

Language Learning

One of the most popular teach-yourself guides is B. Mitchell and F. C. Robinson, A Guide to Old English, 6th edn (Oxford, 2001) which also includes a convenient selection of Old English poetry. Old English language teaching is also available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/OEA/index.html
Peter Baker’s Old English Aerobics, an on-line language course keyed to Peter S. Baker, Introduction to Old English (Oxford, 2003).

Electronic Tools

http://www.doe.utoronto.ca.
Undoubtedly the most important existing research tool: the searchable electronic corpus of Old English (the so-called Toronto Corpus) compiled by the Dictionary of Old English project, accessible by subscription. The dictionary which is currently produced by this project is still in progress; letters A-F are now available on CD-ROM.
http://fontes.english.ox.ac.uk
The Fontes Anglo-Saxonici project, a register of written sources used by Anglo-Saxon authors; lists the sources of several Old English poems in detail.

A database of all Old English poetic formulas (The so-called Anglo-Saxon Formulary) is currently being compiled by Prof. A. Orchard at the University of Toronto. For a survey of electronic tools in Old English and their use in general, see also P. S. Baker, ‘Old English and Computing: A Guided Tour’, Reading Old English Texts, ed. K. O’Brien O’Keeffe (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 192-215.

Other Sites

http://www.isas.us
The International Society of Anglo-Saxonists (ISAS), for events, guidance etc.

http://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/
The Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge (includes list of useful links)

http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/sdk13/asindex.html#links
Homepage of Prof. S. D. Keynes; covers all aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture.


Introductory Reading

Anglo-Saxon England [provides an annual bibliography of all published research on Old English poetry; sub-headings ‘Beowulf’ and ‘Other poems’]
Orchard, A., ‘Oral Tradition’, Reading Old English Texts, ed. K. O’Brien O’Keeffe (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 101-23 [introductory article on poetic technique]
Calder, D. G., R. E. Bjork, P. K. Ford, D. F. Melia, trans., Sources and Analogues of Old English Poetry: The Major Germanic and Celtic Texts in Translation (Cambridge, 1983)
Allen, M. J. B., D. G. Calder, trans, Sources and Analogues of Old English Poetry: The Major Latin Texts in Translation (Cambridge, 1976)
Garmonsway, G. N., J. Simpson, H. E. Davidson, trans., Beowulf and its Analogues (London, 1968)
Scragg, D. G., ‘The Nature of Old English Verse’, The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature, ed. M. Godden and M. Lapidge (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 55-70 [general introduction]
Lapidge, M. and others, ed., The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1999), s. v. ‘Poetic Technique, OE’
Orchard, A., A Critical Companion to Beowulf (Cambridge, 2003) [essential handbook for non-beginners]
Bjork, R. E., J. D. Niles, ed., A Beowulf Handbook (Exeter, 1997) [useful introductions on all the major topics]

Editions and Manuscripts

A complete list of Anglo-Latin poetic (and prose) texts is currently being compiled, based on a draft list for the project Fontes Anglo-Saxonici. Many Anglo-Latin texts, including some poetic ones, remain unedited. For editions and manuscripts of authored Anglo-Latin poetry and some secondary literature, see R. Sharpe, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540, Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 1 (Turnhout, 1997) and its electronic update (details below). See also D. Schaller and E. Könsgen, Initia Carminum Latinorum saeculo undecimo antiquiorum (Göttingen, 1977) or M. Lapidge, Anglo-Latin Literature 600-899 (London, 1996) and Anglo-Latin Literature 900-1066 (London, 1993) and the editions cited there. A great deal of medieval Latin poetry is also available in online editions and searchable corpora; see, for instance, the Acta Sanctorum database for saints’ lives, or the Patrologia Latina database (both accessible by subscription, details below). The Centre de Traitement Electronique des Documents, located at the Université Catholique de Louvain, has produced The Cetedoc Library of Christian Latin Texts, a CD-ROM database of patristic texts which also includes some Anglo-Latin poetry.

Translations

Much Anglo-Latin poetry remains untranslated. A notable exception is Aldhelm’s poetic ouevre (including his De uirginitate), translated in J. L. Rosier and M. Lapidge with N. Wright, trans., Aldhelm: The Poetic Works (Cambridge, 1985).

Introductory Reading

Anglo-Saxon England [provides an annual bibliography of all published research on Anglo-Latin poetry; sub-heading ‘Anglo-Latin, Liturgy and other Latin Ecclesiastical Texts’]
Campbell, A., ‘Some Linguistic Features of Early Anglo-Latin Verse and its Use of Classical Models’, Transactions of the Philological Society (1953), 1-20
Lapidge, M., Anglo-Latin Literature 600-899 (London, 1996)
Lapidge, M., Anglo-Latin Literature 900-1066 (London, 1993)
Lapidge, M. and others, ed., The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1999), s. v. ‘Poetic Technique, Latin’
Orchard, A., ‘After Aldhelm: The Teaching and Transmission of the Anglo-Latin Hexameter’, Journal of Medieval Latin 2 (1992), 96-133
Orchard, A., The Poetic Art of Aldhelm, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 8 (Cambridge, 1994)
Fontes Anglo-Saxonici, [lists the literary sources of some Anglo-Latin poetry].

Links

http://acta.chadwyck.co.uk/
Acta Sanctorum database for saints’ lives (accessible by subscription)

http://pld.chadwyck.co.uk/
Patrologia Latina database (accessible by subscription)

http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/sharpe/index.htm#update
Electronic update of Prof. R. Sharpe’s Handlist of Latin Writers

Old Norse Poetry

For skaldic praise-poetry composed in England, see M. Townend, ‘Pre-Cnut Praise Poetry in Viking Age England’, Review of English Studies ns 51 (2000), 349-70, and ‘Contextualizing the Knútsdrápur: Skaldic Praise-Poetry at the Court of Cnut’, Anglo-Saxon England 30 (2001), 145-79. See also P. Pulsiano, ed., Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, Garland Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages 1 (New York, 1993), s.vv. ‘Ótarr svarti’, ‘Sighvatr ?ór?arson’, ‘England, Norse in’.