Old and Middle English through Manuscripts

Elly van Gelderen (Arizona State University)

This course takes manuscript images from Old and Middle English and examines their linguistic characteristics line by line using traditional grammatical terminology, such as case, agreement, auxiliaries, finite verb, etc. Online and facsimile versions make the reader aware of the spelling and punctuation conventions, the frequent lack of a distinction between main and subordinate sentences, the contractions, and the abbreviations. The texts/authors examined are Orosius, Wulfstan, Lindisfarne and Rushworth glosses, West Saxon Bible, Wife’s Lament, Wanderer, Peterborough Chronicle, Katerine, Owl & Nightingale, Bestiary, Richard Rolle’s Psalter, Cleanness, Astrolabe, and Margery of Kempe.