ENGL 3110 - Old English

(crosslisted) MEDVL 3110
(HB) (LA-AS, ALC-AS)

Fall. 4 credits. Student option grading.

May be used as one of the three pre-1800 courses required of English majors. Co-meets with ENGL 6110/MEDVL 6110.

S. Zacher.

In this course, we will read and discuss some of the earliest surviving English poetry and prose. Attention will be paid to (1) learning to read the language in which this literature is written, (2) evaluating the poetry as poetry: its form, structure, style, and varieties of meaning, and (3) seeing what can be learned about the culture of Anglo-Saxon England and about the early Germanic world in general, from an examination of the Old English literary records. We will begin by reading some easy prose and will go on to consider some more challenging heroic, elegiac, and devotional poetry, including an excerpt from the masterpiece Beowulf. The course may also be used as preparation for the sequence ENGL 3120/ENGL 6120. The class counts toward the pre-1800 requirement for English majors.