Welcome to SPACE, our adult continuing education program which offers interactive monthly courses for personal enrichment! Learn more here.
New Each Time
Days and Times
Meeting Mondays & Wednesdays at 10:00 PM Eastern for eight 1-hour sessions on March 2, 4, 9, 11, 16, 18, (skip 23), 25, 30
Ready to continue reading Old English texts but looking for a lighter pace and additional linguistic support? This series of Intermediate Old English Readings provides a guided pathway into the same rich body of prose and poetry explored in the Advanced Old English Series, while offering a more gradual reading pace and expanded instructional support.
Each module focuses on a selected Old English work drawn from a range of genres, including biblical retellings, allegorical poetry, homiletic prose, and other representative texts from the Old English canon. Modules are designed as stand-alone readings, allowing students to join in any month. Throughout each module, Dr. Isaac Schendel works with participants to build reading fluency, reinforce grammar and vocabulary, and explore the literary, historical, and cultural context of each text.
This series is intended for students who have completed a beginning Old English sequence or who possess equivalent familiarity with core grammar and foundational vocabulary. Students should be prepared to work through authentic Old English texts with guidance, dictionary support, and collaborative discussion, but full comfort with advanced poetic conventions or complex syntax is not required.
Required texts vary by module. Please consult the specific monthly module listing for text and edition information.
Each module focuses on a selected Old English work drawn from a range of genres, including biblical retellings, allegorical poetry, homiletic prose, and other representative texts from the Old English canon. Modules are designed as stand-alone readings, allowing students to join in any month. Throughout each module, Dr. Isaac Schendel works with participants to build reading fluency, reinforce grammar and vocabulary, and explore the literary, historical, and cultural context of each text.
This series is intended for students who have completed a beginning Old English sequence or who possess equivalent familiarity with core grammar and foundational vocabulary. Students should be prepared to work through authentic Old English texts with guidance, dictionary support, and collaborative discussion, but full comfort with advanced poetic conventions or complex syntax is not required.
Required texts vary by module. Please consult the specific monthly module listing for text and edition information.
Note: All sessions will be live recorded and shared with all enrolled students afterward for review and to allow those who cannot attend live to still participate in the class.
Required Texts
The Old English poem Judith, which is preserved in the Beowulf manuscript, is a short epic of around 349 lines and retells the story of the titular protagonist from the biblical (Deuterocanonical or Apocryphal) Book of Judith. Although it is based on the Vulgate text, the poem’s vocabulary and structure recast the story in Germanic terms: the antagonist, the Assyrian general Holofernes, is described as a brutish monster, and the Old English Judith emerges as a heroine, literally an ides (a supernatural woman; the exact meaning of the word is debated!). Join us for a month of reading and discussion of the poem, its background, and its significance in the Old English canon.
Required Text: Don’t worry too much about the exact edition—there are several out there, and any with the Old English text is fine. The instructor uses the following edition: Griffith, Mark. Judith. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1997/2001. ISBN: 0 85989 568 8.
| Sessions Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Signum Time US/Eastern |
Note |
| 1 |
Mon, Mar 2 10:00 PM |
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| 2 |
Wed, Mar 4 10:00 PM |
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| 3 |
Mon, Mar 9 10:00 PM |
U.S. Daylight saving time may change your meeting, please check |
| 4 |
Wed, Mar 11 10:00 PM |
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| 5 |
Mon, Mar 16 10:00 PM |
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| 6 |
Wed, Mar 18 10:00 PM |
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| 7 |
Wed, Mar 25 10:00 PM |
note: skipped the 23d! |
| 8 |
Mon, Mar 30 10:00 PM |
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