A First Book in Old English: Grammar, Reader, Notes, and Vocabulary (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A First Book in Old English: Grammar, Reader, Notes, and Vocabulary The selections have been made with reference to giving a fairly just, though necessarily incomplete, view of the surroundings, occupations, problems, ideals, and senti ments of our English ancestors. The earlier pieces of both prose and poetry are short; the longer ones that follow either have more sustained interest, or are sup ported by their reference to preceding ones; but they, too, fall 'into natural subdivisions, partially indicated in the printing, so that they may be read as successions of short extracts. It may be objected that Latin and Greek have been too freely used for illustration. The reply to such an objection is twofold: that the book is likely to fall into the hands of some who possess at least an elemen tary acquaintance with one or both of these languages, and that to these the disclosure of the relations involved in a comparison with the ancient tongues will materially increase their pleasure and their gain; and, secondly, that the book may be intelligently read, from cover to cover, without the slightest knowledge of either Greek or Latin. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.