ENG 4932 - Spring 2026 - Sprenkle
Spring
2026
ENG 4932-0001
Studies in English: Introduction to Old English
Abigail Sprenkle
| Hwæt! This class introduces students to the wyrd world of what we still popularly term “Old English,” a collection of English dialects dating from approximately 600-1100 CE. This beginner course offers both structured language learning aimed at developing a certain level of reading proficiency and opportunities to explore key themes and ideas of pre-Norman Conquest literary culture. We will translate and analyze samples of poetry (including short selections of the heroic poem Beowulf), riddles, sermons, philosophical texts, historical chronicles, law codes, and educational materials, considering them as literature as well as historical evidence of life and politics in early medieval Britain. We will also wrestle with some of the issues of translation across time and space, from languages that have no living native speakers. We will explore questions of bias, identity, and power in translation and the way we organize and present grammars. Students can also expect to try out some newer methods of learning “dead” languages (terminology we will question), such as composition and performance. Assignments will offer opportunities for translation and analysis of the original medieval texts. |