Reading Old English: a Primer and First Reader (review)

Robert Hasenfratz and Thomas Jambeck explain that their Reading Old English textbook aims to teach students in both undergraduate courses and postgraduate seminars the earliest written form of the English language in six to seven weeks (p. xix). Although this time-frame is probably over-optimistic for most students, the authors have made their work easy to use for students by writing in a clear and simple style and including a very useful 58 page glossary. The work includes practice sentences in each of the eleven chapters, as well as some longer translation exercises with vocabularies provided. There are also 78 pages of additional readings, which includes the twelve-page 'A Quick Guide to Old English Poetry' before students tackle 'The Wife's Lament'.

However, unlike older texts such as the Old English edition of the Teach Yourself Books (Leslie Blakeley, 1964), a major drawback for those trying to learn alone is that the answers to these exercises are not provided, making it difficult for the student to correct their work. What was once one of the assets of Hasenfratz and Jambeck's work, a dedicated Web site (www.readingoldenglish. com) featuring links and additional resources for today's Internet-savvy student, is now a major disappointment. The site no longer exists and although my browser then provided a link to the English Department at the University of Connecticut, I was unable to locate anything supporting the text. This is quite a serious problem, as apparently the Web site included corrections to mistakes found within the current edition, which now leaves anyone using the book as a course text in the position of having to be alert to errors. For those using the book alone the consequences are more dire, since any textual errors are likely to go unnoticed. A final possible disadvantage of the book for students is its sheer bulk and size. At 20x20.5x3 cm and weighing about one kilo, this is not a book that a student is likely to want to carry from class to home on a regular basis.

The aims of the authors are admirable, and Reading Old English has many good features. But the current edition is not as 'student-friendly' as it could be, and the apparent loss of the accompanying Web site is a disadvantage. It is to be hoped that a second edition may follow addressing these issues.