Learn to read Old English
Old English is the language of England from about 450 to 1150. It is the ancestor of what you are reading now, and it looks stranger than it is.
Start reading Old English
Free, no account. Your first line takes about three minutes.
What Old English is like
Many of its everyday words are still ours in disguise: cyning is king, wīf is wife, hūs is house. What has changed most is the grammar. Old English marks a word's job with its ending, much as Latin and German do, so word order is freer than you are used to.
Almost everything we have was copied by hand in monasteries. That includes one of the great poems of medieval Europe, a chronicle that records the first Viking raids, and a handful of short laments unlike anything else from the period.
How Urling teaches it
- You start with a real line from a real text, in your first few minutes.
- Each lesson teaches the words that unlock more of a text you want to read.
- Short exercises rebuild real sentences, and words you miss come back later.
- Grammar comes as short notes when you meet it, not as a wall of tables first.
Famous texts to start with
- The opening of Beowulf in Old EnglishThe first 11 lines of Beowulf in the original Old English, with an English translation, word-by-word glosses and notes for beginners.
- Cædmon's Hymn in Old EnglishCædmon's Hymn, the earliest English poem by a named poet, in Old English with an English translation and word-by-word glosses.
- The opening of The Wanderer in Old EnglishThe first lines of The Wanderer in Old English, with an English translation, glosses and notes on wyrd and exile.
- The Viking raid on Lindisfarne in the Anglo-Saxon ChronicleThe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's entry for 793 in Old English, with translation: fiery dragons, famine and the Viking raid on Lindisfarne.
- Wulf and Eadwacer in Old EnglishThe complete Old English poem Wulf and Eadwacer with an English translation, word-by-word glosses and notes on its mysteries.
- Grendel comes to Heorot, in Old EnglishBeowulf lines 710-727, Grendel's walk to the hall, in the original Old English with an English translation, word-by-word glosses and notes.
- The ending of Beowulf in Old EnglishThe final lines of Beowulf, the funeral lament for the king, in the original Old English with an English translation, word-by-word glosses and notes.
- Bede's sparrow in the hall, in Old EnglishThe famous image of life as a sparrow flying through a winter hall, from the Old English Bede, with an English translation, word-by-word glosses and notes.
New to the grammar? Read the short guide to Old English grammar.
The letters
Two letters are gone from modern English, þ and ð, and both are simply th. The marks over vowels show length and are added by modern editors.
| þ | th, as in thin or this |
| ð | th, as in thin or this |
| æ | a, as in cat |
| ǣ | a as in cat, held longer |
| ā | a, as in father |
| ē | ay, as in say |
| ī | ee, as in see |
| ō | o, as in go |
| ū | oo, as in moon |
| ȳ | ee with rounded lips |
| ġ | y, as in yes |
| ċ | ch, as in church |
| y | i with rounded lips |
| sc | sh, as in ship |
| cg | dge, as in bridge |
Also in the course
The course has 70 texts in all, including:
- The Battle of Maldon: Byrhtwold speaks
- The Lord's Prayer
- King Cnut's proclamation to the English (1020)
- Everyday Old English conversation in Ælfric's Colloquy
- Visionary opening of The Dream of the Rood
- Prodigal Son in the West Saxon Gospels
- Opening of The Battle of Brunanburh
- Pursuit of the enemy after Brunanburh
- First part of Deor
- Middle of Deor
- End of Deor
- Wanderer's first complaint
Start reading Old English
Free, no account. Your first line takes about three minutes.