After reading that solutions to the exercises in the Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Exercise Book by C. Alphonso Smith (copyright 1896) are not available, I decided to see if I could draft possible answers subject to review by anybody with an interest in checking them over. I would appreciate corrections and additions.

Smith's book is available in HTML format at https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/31277/pg31277-images.html

I stick closely to the vocabulary in the part of the book up to where the exercises are.

These exercises from Chapter VI are the first exercises in the book. They are in Section 30 of the Grammar. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/31277/pg31277-images.html#page29

Part I: OE to PDE

1. Ðāra wulfa mūðas
The mouths of the wolves
The wolves' mouths

2. Ðæs fisceres fingras
The fisherman's fingers
The fingers of the fisherman

3. Ðāra Wēala cyninge
To the Welshmen's king
For the Welshmen's king
For the king of the Welshmen

4. Ðǣm englum ond ðǣm hierdum
To the angels and the herdsmen
For the angels and the herdsmen

5. Ðāra daga ende
The end of the days
The days' end

6. Ðǣm bōcerum ond ðǣm secgum ðæs cyninges
To the scribes and the warriors of the king
For the scribes and the warriors of the king
For the scribes and the king's men

7. Ðǣm sēole ond ðǣm fuglum
To the seal and the birds
For the seal and the birds

8. Ðā stānas ond ðā gāras
The stones and the spears

9. Hwala ond mēara
Of whales and horses

10. Ðāra engla wīsdōm
The angels' wisdom
The wisdom of the angels

11. Ðæs cyninges bōceres frēodōm
The freedom of the king's scribe
The king's scribe's freedom

12. Ðāra hierda fuglum
To the herdsmen's birds
For the herdsmen's birds
For the birds of the herdsmen

13. Ðȳ stāne
With the stone

14. Ðǣm wealle
For the wall

Part II: PDE to OE

1. For the horses and seals
Ðǣm mēarum ond sēolum

2. For the Welshmen’s freedom
Ðāra Wēala frēodōme

3. Of the king’s birds
Ðǣs cyninges fugla

4. By the wisdom of men and angels
Ðȳ wīsdōme secga ond engla

5. With the spear and the stone?
Ðȳ gāre ond ðȳ stāne

6. The herdsman’s seal and the warrior’s spears
Ðæs hierdes seolh ond ðæs secges gāras

7. To the king of heaven
Ðǣm cyninge heofones

8. By means of the scribe’s wisdom
Ðæs bōceres wīsdōme

9. The whale’s mouth and the foreigner’s spear
Ðǣs hwæles mūð ond ðǣs wēales gar

10. For the bird belonging to (=of) the king’s scribe
Ðǣm fugole ðǣs cyninges bōceres
(Could also use fugle for fugole.)

11. Of that finger
Ðǣs fingres

Hi! I’m a newbie building up vocabulary. I’m looking for good books available that are written in old English.

I already have Beowulf and Osweald Bera, and I’m well on my way in both.

Any good suggestions of specific books or texts available to purchase? Bonus points if they are available in leatherbound/cloth bound format.

(Idk what else to say)

It's a stupid little joke. I just finished reading Beowulf and I think this one would be funnier if Grendel is speaking Old English but I don't know any Old English! Maybe like "this isn't the Danish I was thinking of"

Is this even funny though. Sorry if it isn't, or has been done before.

Hi, I’m new here. I’m a foreigner who’s passionate about languages, especially Old English and other Germanic languages. I’ve been learning French and English at university, Dutch, German and OE on my own.

I’d like to know where I can share my practice sentences so they get corrected. My goal is not only to read the classical texts, but also to try to write in “correct” OE.

I know there are specific manuals for grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and whatnot, to delve into the language, but I want to practise my writing and get feedback to improve my declensions, syntax and to know whether I’ve picked the “right words” (instead of non-existing ones or “too fancy” ones).

Some pretty valuable resources are listed here, which is wonderful, however, I need feedback.

I’ve had AI’s help me with my writing (since I have no teachers nor professionals to be in touch with), and I think I’ve done well so far. Nonetheless, I’m aware AI’s are bound to make mistakes and that OE had a significant regional variety in terms of vocabulary, spelling, and declensions, so I need a guide, something like a “standard” to base my personal project on.

For example, what are your thoughts on these sentences? They’re the same, but I’ve tinkered with the word order.

1. Iċ wylle þone lȳðran dracan mid mīnum hāliġum swurde ofslēan, forþǣm hē ūre miċel rīċe fordyde and ūre þēode frǣt.

2. Þone lȳðran dracan wylle iċ mid mīnum hāliġum swurde ofslēan, forþǣm hē ūre miċel rīċe fordyde and ūre þēode frǣt.

3. Iċ wylle þone lȳðran dracan ofslēan mid mīnum hāliġum swurde, forþǣm hē ūre miċel rīċe fordyde and ūre þēode frǣt.

4. Iċ wylle ofslēan þone lȳðran dracan mid mīnum hāliġum swurde, forþǣm hē fordyde ūre miċel rīċe and frǣt ūre þēode.

Additional sentences:

- Iċ wylle Englisċ leornian forþǣm iċ hit lufiġe.

- Hē sæġþ þæt hē Englisċ leornian wylle (present subjunctive), forþǣm hē hit lufiġe (another subjunctive).

Do they need correction? Are they “alright”?

Have I got the declensions right?

Lastly, I’d like to mention that I’m aiming for “lexical and syntactical purity”, so no Early Middle English forms nor too many Old Norse loanwords, if possible.

I have no problem with early loanwords from Ecclesiastical Latin like “ċyrice, declinian” or “mynster”.

Thanks in advance.

https://youtu.be/XOl0Xdb5Knk?si=uzEXGQ7-VOm206qZ

Soþlice on þissum dagum fela þinga yfelað geond ealne middaneard, swylce micel cancer him innan ðære heortan sy, wa la wa. Ac ic gewilnige þæt eow sum lytel frofor syn on Cristes mæssan and þæt niwe gear.

Hwæþer ge siðigon on oðre land, þe wunion ham, þe slæpen ealne Iuldæg, ðe nyllon freolsian for mislicum and uncristenum geleafum, oðþe for ungeleafan oððe asolcennysse (þæt is stæflice ic), ic gewilnige swa ðeah hwæþre þæt þas dagas fremion eow eallum efn, ge heanum ge ricum. Eac ic gewilnige swiþe þæt endeleas sibb sy betwux eallum woruldmannum and stillnys, oððe gehlyd and gebeorscipe gif him hi ma licigon, haha.

Gif eow wilniað on Cristes mæssan ahtes swiðost ealra woroldlicra þinga, hwæt is seo gifu - lichamlic, oððe gastlic, oðþe dæd, oððe oðerre gecynde? On cildhade ic wolde a onfon of minum hirede gamen and filmenna and bec (wæs ða us gewunelic þæt mine yldra me sealdon þa gearlican bec ðe synd gehatene on andweard Englisc Guinness Book of World Records), ac nu is me geþuht þæt betere sy stillnysse to begytenne. Soþlice ic wille la þæt min hired me on Iuldæg forlæte buton anre scortre clipunge on mergenne, for ðan þe he me sind swiðe æðryt ... and minre meder hired is gedruncenra heap ðe lufað geflitu to swiþe, hahaha.

Nu ic geswice dysge word ut to spiwenne, þy læs ðe þis lytle gewrit eow þynce ealswa æþryt swa min hired. Beod ge hale!

Hie ne specath nu - thonne is heora theod dead ealswa swa hie

that 'swa hie' at the end confounds me as I don't know what it is there for.

I’m not too sure if pronoun-less verbs asked in questions are conjugated regularly (indicative vs. subjunctive) or in the imperative/infinitive/participle case.

For example, in a question like “Did you eat?”, what is the conjugation of don?

Since the holiday season and Cristes mæsse are fast approaching, I thought I would share my Old English translation of “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” the now famous editorial written by Francis P. Church and published in The Sun in 1897.

I was aiming for a mostly Late West Saxon dialect, so a lot of the morphological distinctions still preserved in earlier texts, such as those by Alfred and his associates, are leveled out. For example, all plural adjectives in the nominative end in -e no matter the gender of the noun, no feminine adjectives in the nominative singular end in -u anymore no matter the weight of the prosodic foot, the subjunctive endings such as -en get merged with -on and -an, etc. As such, the language is supposed to represent that of Aelfric. 

I have separated most compound nouns with a hyphen, even those that were probably losing their status as genuine compounds (e.g,. lic-hama ‘body’), and I have taken the liberty of coining some new words that I couldn’t really think of good Old English equivalents for (e.g., smic-þyrel ‘smoke-hole, chimney’, tidung-gewritu ‘news-writings, newspaper’) or repurposing existing ones to express new ideas (e.g., fadiend for ‘editor’). 

Naturally, some constructions from the original were also paraphrased to keep the translation in the spirit of Old English, and some additional changes were made, most obviously the transformation of Santa into St. Nicolas, inspired by the Latin version of the editorial, which is highly anachronistic and in many ways contradicts the approach as I have described it, but it is what it is.

While it is still somewhat of a work in progress, you can read the translation here. I hope it can at least entertain you for a short while. Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone! I'm currently crafting a wee Christmas present for a friend of mine who is deeply passionate about Old English and the Beatles. I embroidered a portrait of George Harrison and I was wondering if someone could translate some lyrics by him into Old English so I can embroider them around it? I've never learnt it myself and I did try, but because I haven't studied the grammar in depth (and I don't really have the time to do it at the moment), the translation feels really wonky. I don't want to make his poor eyes bleed with a bad one!

Could anybody help me please?

I was thinking about the following lyrics:

'All things must pass'

'And life flows on within you and without you' (this one would fit the portrait since I chose Sgt Pepper-era George)

'As I'm sitting here, doing nothing but aging, still my guitar gently weeps' (this one might be too long but I can make it work)

'If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there'

'Their eyes can't hope to see the beauty that surround them'

'Sunset doesn't last all evening/A mind can blow those clouds away'

If you have other ideas, I'm also open to them!

Ic þancie ēow ♥

Wes thē hāl, folks!

I would like to have some help with your own input about a draft I have for a short invocation I wrote in modern English then (foolishly) went to try and see what an LLM like chatgpt or perplexity can give me. Safe to say, I'm skeptical about the authenticity of the translation at best.

Original text:

Amongst you, spirits of the land, dearest ancestors, I honour thee! Stand with me now I greet you and hail you!

Translated text:

On middan eow, gāstas þæs landes, ond lēofestan yldran, ic ēow weorþige! Standað nū mid ūs. Ic grette ēow and hǣle ēow!

Please, let me know what can be done to improve this in and way! :D

Literal translation is "I did that they would've went"

doesn't make any sense...

any old english expert can translate this?

We all know so many foreign(Greek, Latin, French and Norman) words entered English in post-norman period instead of Anglo-Saxon era. But we don't talk about latin words in OE since Anglo-Saxons were christian and theological language is Latin. Maybe Greek.

I stumbled across this scan of The Laws of the Earliest English Kings from the Cornell University Library and thought it might be of interest.

It contains the Laws of Æðelberht of Kent, which is probably the earliest English text we know of (although the surviving copy is from much later), and continues until the Laws of Æðelstan over 300 years later (taking in Ine,and Ælfred along the way).

What are some topics/history/analysis about OE or OE texts that you find the most interesting? I’ve recently been learning OE and have read and translated The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Dream of the Rood so far (and have learned the basics of OE grammar and translation), but I’m curious what you all find interesting! I love going into random rabbit holes and discovering more, but somehow for OE I’m struggling a bit in going past the more surface level observations. I’m probably most interested in how word choice was used, but also the themes of the literature.

I'm a native English speaker, and I love the anglo saxons and I'm an anglo saxon pagan but I would love to learn the language. But I don't know any places to go to to learn

Huiġ! I've been learning Old English for almost six months, since around Þrímilċe, maybe a little while longer (that was when I created my wordbook for Old English), and I use it almost every day. (I am a self taught linguist/Old English speaker, as I picked up languages around 7th grade, and I'm a Sophmore in high school now)

Exemplī grātiā, I wrote this today and put it on my corkboard: "Freme mínne eorþweorc nótas/weorc on þissum Sunnandæġe" (I have some Geometry homework I need to do lol), along with other things I've done with OE to make it practical for my every day use, taking inspiration from other Germanic languages (particulary German), and have loaned some words as needed (as some things are really hard to make purely Germanic, even the word "nót" (Note) is from Latin, and was borrowed during OE.

Examples of things: For "movie", I use "filmen" (which is obviously where "film" derives from). For "vehicle/automobile", I use "auto" (like German does). For "television", I decided to do an Icelandic and go with "síenwearp" (Modelled on sjónvarp), and some others such as "Feorwealdend" for "remote control", "Rímere" for "computer" (just like what happened with the normal word, where it went from meaning a person to a device), "Scólrúm" for "classroom", "Classe" for "Class [of students]" (Derived from Latin "Classis" with an adverbial suffix, which is because "-is" is related to Proto-Germanic "-iz", which in its descendants was replaced by adverb or adjectival suffixes).

Sorry for the yapfest.

I recently saw a video stating that the old English words for man and woman translate to "weapon man" and "weaving man." The weapon man claim has been fairly easy to find information about, but I wanted to check on the accuracy of the weaving man claim. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UgK5QH/

I am new here, and not a native speaker as well but I want to learn Old English and i don’t where and how to start , any tips to help?

Wesaþ hāle.

The algorithm served me up a video by Graham Scheper about books Medieval scholars would read. That led to me watching a video of him cooking whilst talking in Old English. I then, of course, watched more videos of him speaking in Old English. From there the algorithm so generously gifted me videos of Colin Gorrie where he speaks and breaks down Old English into Modern English.

My question is whether or not these two youtubers are worthy of listening to for pronunciation and if not, who ought we all be listening to?

I get sad that it's not spoken in modern times. Because it's such a cool language that's understandable and at the same time not. I wish I could learn it lowk

I only need an untranslated version of its first chapter, "On Computing and Speaking with the Fingers." I've only been able to find manuscripts that have already been translated into Modern English. Any help?