Chaucer Translator Book

Kindled for free. I was reading this book to try and get some passive Old English vocabulary, after finishing all the grammar exercises by C. Smith () - Those grammar exercises are excellent by the way, they are almost unique for learning old english from scratch.

Since I was trying to pick up vocabularly passively I did not stop to look up words in dictionaries, so it was really useful that lots of the stories were biblical and ones which everyone knows, together with a few which I had never read before (much harder to understand) and some classics of Old English literature.

Its difficult to judge if the book has helped at all, since any learning I might have done is passive, but it was not too bad to read. I didn't feel there was any curve whatsoever -the texts were quite hard to read from the beginning, which made it more difficult. However, I did get through the book, although there were lots of stories I understood only small segments of. I'd say give it a try, especially since it is in the public domain and can be downloaded to an ebook reader for free!

My favourite parts:

{Extracts from Life of King Edmund which I'd read before}
Hīe ēodon þā sēċende and simle clipiende, swā swā hit ġe•wunelic is þǣm þe on wuda gāþ oft, 'hwǣr eart þū nū, ġe•fēra?' And him 130 andwyrde þæt hēafod, 'hēr, hēr, hēr;' and swā ġe•lōme clipode andswariende him eallum, swā oft swā hiera ǣniġ clipode, oþ þæt hīe ealle be•cōmon þurh þā clipunge him tō.
...
Þā læġ se grǣga wulf þe be•wiste þæt hēafod, and mid his twǣm fōtum hæfde þæt hēafod be•clypped, grǣdiġ and hungriġ, 135 and for Gode ne dorste þæs hēafdes on•byrġan, ac hēold hit wiþ dēor. Þā wurdon hīe of•wundrode þæs wulfes hierd-rǣdenne, and þæt hāliġe hēafod hām fęredon mid him, þanciende þǣm Ælmihtigan ealra his wundra.

{fun to see Gaza called part of phillistea lande!}
Æfter þissum hē fērde tō Philistēa lande, intō ānre byriġ 35 on hiera onwealde, Gaza ġe•hāten.

{description of britain}
Breten īeġ-land is eahta hund mīla lang, and twā hund mīla brād; and hēr sind on þǣm īeġlande fīf ġe·þēodu: Ęnġlisc, Brettisc, Scyttisc, Pihtisc, and Bōc-læden. Ǣrest wǣron būend þisses landes Brettas. Þā cōmon 5 of Armenia, and ġe·sǣton sūþan-wearde Bretene ǣrest.