Useful Web Links on Old and Middle English

Useful Web Links on Old and Middle English

Old English Aerobics

This is a highly recommendable webpage by Peter S. Baker accompanying his Introduction to Old English (20123). On the page you find everything you need to familiarise yourself with Old English in a very entertaining and effective way:

• an extensive Anthology of Old English texts with selectable annotations on words, clauses, idioms, further notes and audio files
• a Glossary with c32000 instances of 4600 words featuring definitions, paradigms and cross-links to the Anthology texts
• a Workout Room with more than 50 interactive exercises which are simply excellent to learn Old English

You need to request a login to access all of the content – only some sample texts/exercises and the Glossary are open access. However, registering is free of cost and very easily done here.

The Electronic Introduction to Old English

This resource is also corresponding to Peter S. Baker’s Introduction to Old English (20123) and contains the complete content of the printed book! Chapter 13, for example, provides a condensed and easy-to-understand introduction to Old English meter with many concrete examples.

Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary

This is the online version of Bosworth & Toller’s (1898 & 1921) An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. As long as the Dictionary of Old English is unfinished, the Bosworth & Toller is still the largest complete dictionary of the Old English language available. The handling of the search tool is very straightforward and quite reliable despite the typical “medievalist’s problem” of non-fixed orthography. For each entry at least one quotation is provided to show the word’s use in context.

Dictionary of Old English (DOE)

The DOE aims at supplementing the Middle English Dictionary (MED) and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in covering the period from 600 to 1150. It is still work in progress and until now the letters A to G have been finished and are available online. As for the OED, you need a licensed account to use the dictionary, which might be provided by your university library, for example.

Middle English Compendium

This is one of the most extensive collections of material on Middle English on the internet. It is designed to link various online resources in order to facilitate access and is available for everyone to use without any cost or need to register. The Compendium consists of:

• the HyperBibliography, which “offers the most comprehensive single list of M[iddle] E[nglish] materials at present available in electronic form, and is searchable in multiple ways”
• the Middle English Dictionary, with 15000 pages offering a “comprehensive analysis of lexicon and usage for the period 1100-1500”
• the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, with almost 150 searchable Middle English full-texts
• links to further related resources

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