Undergraduate Course: Reading Old English (LASC10049)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course focuses on the acquisition of the skills necessary to work with Old English text, both in edited and in unedited form. It provides students with an opportunity to acquire a reading knowledge of Old English, together with a command of central aspects of its grammar. In addition, they will learn to transcribe passages from facsimiles of Old English manuscripts, and they will prepare a 'student edition' of one such short passage. |
| Course description |
The course will start by concentrating on the rapid acquisition of essential basic grammar, consolidated through exercises, and on the translation of short passages of simple Old English prose. Once the basics are in place, the level of difficulty and length of the passages will increase. Less central aspects of the grammar will be dealt with gradually, over the course of the semester. At this stage, we will also begin with work on transcribing and analysing Old English from facsimiles of manuscripts, which will alternate with the translation work using printed texts.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have completed at least 3 Linguistics/Language Sciences courses at grade B or above . We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 27,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Revision Session Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
166 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
60 %,
Coursework
40 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
There are two pieces of assessment for this course:
(1) An assignment providing 40% of the final mark
(2) A two-hour written examination providing 60% of the final mark.
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
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| Main Exam Diet S1 (December) | Reading Old English exam | 2:120 | |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
* read and translate unseen West Saxon prose with the aid of a glossary or dictionary
* analyse unseen Old English in terms of morphological and syntactic properties
* transcribe Old English from facsimiles of manuscripts
* make a student edition of part of a facsimile of an Old English manuscript
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Reading List
Although there are copies of the Old English dictionary we'll be using in the second half of the course available in the library and an older but useable out-of-copyright edition of it is available online, students taking this course may find it convenient to have their own copy of this dictionary:
Clark Hall, John R. (1960) A concise Anglo-Saxon dictionary, 4th edn [with a supplement by Herbert D. Meritt]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. [1984 reprint (Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching), University of Toronto Press, Toronto.]
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
Teaching Contact Time: 9 weeks out of 11 at 3 hours/week = 27 hours |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Linda Van Bergen
Tel: (0131 6)51 1998
Email: l.vanbergen@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Susan Hermiston
Tel: (0131 6)50 3440
Email: Susan.Hermiston@ed.ac.uk |
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