Nū ġē lā! A Pictorial Invitation to Old English

The idea of this book is to teach some Old English (OE) with the help of a selection of sentences taken from Ælfric's Grammar. These sentences are his own translations of Latin example sentences he uses to explain Latin grammar. So all example sentences in my book are not made-up OE sentences, they all are original OE sentences used by the best known and most prolific prose writer of the Old English period. They contain fundamental characteristics of Old English grammar and basic OE words. Each sentence is combined with a photograph.

And these sentences can be embedded even today in the same everyday speech situations. Sentences from different parts in his book that refer to the same subject matter have been taken out of their original place in the book and have been grouped together.

Besides sentences that refer to teaching and learning, we also have sentences that refer to love and tenderness, drinking and eating, praise and criticism, searching and finding a book, identifiying a person, outer appearance and localization in space. By grouping the sentences together in this way and combining them with photographs, it was possible to describe everyday situations or even to tell a little story.

This method of combining text and image wants to make these sentences more memorable and OE grammar also a little more entertaining. This book does not want to be a complete and comprehensive introduction to Old English. For beginners it might be an exercise book giving some important insights into the grammar of Old English and teaching some basic words. For persons with a deeper knowledge of the language it might be an enjoyable way of looking on well known features of OE in a new and unfamiliar context.