June 2022 Modules

(Note: This module can be joined in any month.)

Vǫlsunga saga (“The Saga of the Vǫlsungs”) is a medieval Icelandic retelling of one of the best-known legendary cycles of the pre-modern Germanic-speaking world – stories that influenced the operas of Richard Wagner, the fantasies of J. R. R. Tolkien, and many other modern creative artists. In this module, we will continue to translate the Vǫlsunga saga and discuss both the language and how the saga’s version of the legends relate to other versions known from the medieval world.

The Beginning Scottish Gaelic series consists of three intoructory modules, introducing language and grammar in line with European fluency standard A1. Covering basic conversation, vocabulary building, introducing case structure, irregular verbs, and prepositional pronouns, this module will be using the A1 Inntrigeadh resources from SpeakGaelic.scot.

Module 1 Class Delivery
Class 1 and 2 will cover Topic 1: New Friends
Class 3 and 4 will cover Topic 2: Places
Class 5 and 6 will cover Topic 3: Weather
Class 7 and 8 will cover Topic 4: Family

Module 2 Class Delivery
Class 1 and 2 will cover Topic 5: Home
Class 3 and 4 will cover Topic 6: Time
Class 5 and 6 will cover Topic 7: Work
Class 7 and 8 will cover Topic 8: Time Off

Module 3 Class Delivery
Class 1 and 2 will cover Topic 9: Food & Drink
Class 3 and 4 will cover Topic 10: Shopping
Class 5 and 6 will cover Topic 11: Day-to-day
Class 7 and 8 will cover Topic 12: Describing People

After the 3-module opening series, students wishing to continue learning Scottish Gaelic can proceed to Gaelic Foundations 1.

The Hieroglyphics series will present students with a basic understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs, grammar, and knowledge about how to proceed with further study. In this sequence of courses we will discuss how to translate steles that you are likely to encounter in museums, as well as their cultural significance. As student progress, the class will tackle more complex translation. Each one-month module builds on the previous one, so students ready to learn Hieroglyphics will communicate with our Director and Professor Gaffney to make the right placement for everyone.

This module offers a series of Latin readings that review material covered in many traditional Latin I courses (including Signum's own Latin I graduate course and the first five Latin in a Year SPACE modules). Students will read selections from selected textbooks and Latin readers and attempt two short literary passages. All readings will be provided, though access to a Latin grammar book and a basic Latin dictionary may be beneficial.

Latin grammar assumed:
- Understanding of stems, endings, cases, agreement, and parts of speech
- Knowledge of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th declension endings for nouns and adjectives
- Knowledge of regular Latin verb conjugations in all indicative tenses (present, imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect, future perfect), both active and passive, and the imperative forms
- Ability to recognize conjugations of of “sum” and “possum”
- Familiarity with ego, tu, is, hic, ille, iste, idem, qui, and reflexives
- Awareness of Latin numerals
- Acquaintance with ablatives of means, accompaniment, manner, time, agent, separation, and place from which, as well as genitive of the whole and use of genitive and ablative with cardinal numerals

Ready to begin learning Old English? This series of modules introduces students to the vocabulary and structure of the earliest recorded form of the English language. One year of modules prepares the student to read texts from over a thousand years ago! Each one-month module builds on the previous one, so students ready to learn Old English will communicate with our Director and Professor Swain to make the right placement for everyone.

Ready to begin learning Old English? This series of modules introduces students to the vocabulary and structure of the earliest recorded form of the English language. One year of modules prepares the student to read texts from over a thousand years ago! Each one-month module builds on the previous one, so students ready to learn Old English will communicate with our Director and Professor Swain to make the right placement for everyone.

This module will study various writing systems invented or adapted by Tolkien. We will primarily look at the Tengwar and the Angerthas (Cirth) described in The Lord of the Rings but we will also touch on other systems such as the Hobbit runes and other runic variants as well as the Goblin Alphabet from Letters from Father Christmas. Along the way we will introduce some basic phonetics and place Tolkien’s inventions in the context of the writing systems of the primary world.